Hot Chocolate vs Strawberry GraphQL
Hot Chocolate
chillicream.com
Strawberry GraphQL
strawberry.rocksSide by side
| Figure | Hot Chocolate | Strawberry GraphQL |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · GraphQL Tools | 8.1 (#6) | 7.1 (#21) |
| Authentication and authorization | The security guide includes authentication and authorization, and says trusted documents can limit private APIs to operations registered with the server. | The guide says authentication is handled by the web framework and authorization in Strawberry uses Permissions classes. |
| Data loading | Hot Chocolate provides DataLoader and batch resolver options for fetching data efficiently. | Built-in dataloader support batches multiple queries into one. |
| Federation | 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. | It supports creating a federated GraphQL schema. |
| License | The product page says Hot Chocolate is MIT licensed and may be used, modified, and distributed in commercial or private projects. | The repository states that Strawberry is licensed under the MIT license. |
| Support | ChilliCream lists community support as free and paid support plans starting at $450 per month for Startup, with two critical incidents included. | The project is open source and maintained by a small developer team; enterprise support is available through Farbun. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
Strawberry GraphQL
Strawberry GraphQL is a free, open-source Python library for creating GraphQL APIs. It uses Python type hints to define schemas and support a developer-oriented workflow. Async/await allows resolvers to run without blocking, while schema and field extensions provide places for custom logic. Generics support reusable types, and federated GraphQL schemas are supported. Built-in dataloaders can batch multiple queries into one. Documentation lists integrations for Django, Channels, FastAPI, Flask, Quart, Sanic, Chalice, Starlette, Litestar and AIOHTTP, while noting that the integration table may not be current. Installation uses pip and requires Python 3.10 or later. Strawberry is MIT licensed and intended for self-hosted deployment. Authentication is handled by the web framework; authorization uses Permissions classes. API explorer, client code generation and operation testing are listed. Enterprise support is available through Farbun.