Both REST and GraphQL Are Powerful. The Right Choice Depends on Your Needs.
REST has been the dominant API architecture for over a decade, but GraphQL — developed by Meta in 2015 and open-sourced in 2018 — has gained significant adoption. According to the 2025 State of APIs report by Postman, 35% of developers now use GraphQL alongside REST, and 15% use GraphQL as their primary API technology.
At x13apps, we use both REST and GraphQL depending on project requirements. Here is an honest comparison to help you decide which approach fits your project.
How REST APIs Work
REST (Representational State Transfer) treats data as resources identified by URLs. Each resource has predefined endpoints (`/users`, `/users/123`, `/posts`) and uses standard HTTP methods (GET to read, POST to create, PUT to update, DELETE to remove). A client must know the endpoint structure and typically receives all data for that resource, whether needed or not.
REST is simple, cacheable, and well-understood. Virtually every programming language and platform has mature REST libraries. REST works well for resource-oriented APIs, standard CRUD operations, and scenarios where caching is important. Its simplicity makes it the best choice for public APIs that need to be accessible to a broad range of developers.
How GraphQL Works
GraphQL uses a single endpoint and lets the client specify exactly what data it needs. Instead of multiple REST endpoints, there is one GraphQL endpoint. The client sends a query describing the data structure it wants, and the server returns only that data. A single GraphQL query can fetch data from multiple resources in one request — replacing multiple REST round trips.
GraphQL excels when clients need flexible data from multiple sources, when over-fetching (getting too much data) or under-fetching (getting too little, requiring additional requests) are problems, and when the same API serves multiple client types (web, mobile, third-party) with different data needs. GraphQL also provides strong typing — the schema defines exactly what data is available.
When to Choose REST
Choose REST for simple CRUD APIs, public APIs serving many consumers, file upload/download operations, applications where caching is critical (REST leverages HTTP caching natively), and projects where the team has limited GraphQL experience. REST's simplicity, maturity, and universal support make it the safe default for most projects.
When to Choose GraphQL
Choose GraphQL for complex applications with interconnected data, applications serving multiple client types with different data needs, real-time features (GraphQL subscriptions), mobile applications where minimizing data transfer matters, and projects where frontend teams need flexibility to evolve independently from backend teams. GraphQL increases API complexity but provides significant benefits in the right scenarios. At x13apps, we help clients choose the right API architecture and implement it effectively. For more on web development technologies, read our CMS selection guide.