GraphQL Hive vs Hot Chocolate
GraphQL Hive
the-guild.dev
Hot Chocolate
chillicream.comSide by side
| Figure | GraphQL Hive | Hot Chocolate |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · GraphQL Tools | 8.3 (#4) | 8.1 (#6) |
| Federation | Hive supports Apollo Federation v1 and v2, and the product page says it scores 100% in the Federation audit. | A Hot Chocolate server can act as a Fusion subgraph, allowing services to be composed behind a gateway as teams need independent ownership and deployment. |
| Headquarters | Rosh Haayin, Israel | Wilmington, Delaware, United States |
| Intended users | The Hobby plan is described as being for personal or small projects, while Pro is described as being for scaling APIs and teams. | The documentation describes trusted documents as suited to private APIs serving known clients, including an organization's own web or mobile applications. |
| Observability | Hive provides API usage and performance insights, including metrics for identifying slow GraphQL operations. | The built-in OpenTelemetry integration emits GraphQL request, resolver, and DataLoader spans. |
| Security | Hive Gateway lists JWT authentication, role-based access control, persisted documents, rate limiting, and protections such as CORS and CSRF prevention. | Hot Chocolate integrates with ASP.NET Core authentication and supports JWT, cookies, and other authentication schemes. |
| Support | Hobby and Pro include GitHub issues and chat support; Enterprise includes a dedicated Slack channel, onboarding, 24/7 support, and a tailored SLA. | ChilliCream lists community support as free and paid support plans starting at $450 per month for Startup, with two critical incidents included. |
Plans
In their own words
GraphQL Hive
GraphQL Hive has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Hot Chocolate
Hot Chocolate is an open-source GraphQL server for.NET that runs on ASP.NET Core and builds a GraphQL schema from C# types and resolvers. Developers can define typed schemas through implementation-first or code-first methods. It supports GraphQL over HTTP and WebSocket, plus Server-Sent Events for streaming responses. Documentation describes schema downloads, a Nitro GraphQL IDE endpoint, and a command-line interface for schema export. Data integrations include Entity Framework, MongoDB, and Marten; DataLoaders and batch resolvers help batch and cache related requests. OpenTelemetry instrumentation covers server, execution, and DataLoader activity. Security guidance recommends query cost analysis, pagination and execution-depth limits, and timeouts for public APIs; trusted documents can restrict private APIs to registered operations. Servers can act as Fusion subgraphs. Hot Chocolate implements the GraphQL 2025 specification and GraphQL over HTTP, and supports spec-compliant clients including Strawberry Shake, Relay, and Apollo Client. It is MIT licensed for commercial or private use. Community support is free; paid Startup support starts at $450 per month and includes two critical incidents.