Are there any disadvantages to GraphQL? [closed]

Answer 1

It's really great to have a single endpoint and expose all the data. I find below points to be considered for GraphQL:

1. Implementation of File Download / Upload gets tricky (converting to string might not be a best option for large files)
2. A lot of boilerplate and schema code at both frontend and backend.
3. Follow and support pagination provided in the GraphQL specification.
4. Allow custom order and prioritizing logic for ordering of fields. Example if we fetch users data and associated groups and roles. A user can multi sort the data based on username, group name or role name.
5. Authentication and Authorization would be dependent on the backend framework.
6. Ensure the backend optimization and Database support to fire single query for each graphql command might get tricky.

Also, one should consider the Pros after its implementation :

1. Very flexible to support new items and update existing behaviour.

2. Easy to add conditions using arguments and custom ordering once implemented

3. Use a lot of custom filters and get rid of all the actions that needs to be created example a user can have id, name, etc as arguments and perform the filtering. Additionally the filters can be applied on the groups in the users as well.

4. Ease of testing API by creating files containing all the GraphQL queries and mutations.
5. Mutations are straightforward and easy to implement once understood the concept.
6. Powerful way to fetch multiple depths of data.
7. Support of Voyager and GraphiQL UI or Playground makes it easy to view and use.
8. Ease of documentation while defining the schema with valid description methods.