# GraphQL 52 Hacker News commenters recommended GraphQL and 37 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for letting clients request exactly the nested data they need in one call, with typed schemas and generated clients. Critics often say it adds complexity and is overused where simpler APIs would do. ## Why people recommend it - Combines related data in one query (6 comments): "it's useful for solving a couple of problems that large organizations at scale have like over-fetching and a single network call rather than multiple REST calls" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805934)) "you ask for specific nested structure of the data, which can span many joins across different related collections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040259)) "GQL gives that to me in one query, and the fundamental properties of what makes GQL GQL are what enables that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268726)) - Fetches only the fields requested (5 comments): "it's useful for solving a couple of problems that large organizations at scale have like over-fetching and a single network call rather than multiple REST calls" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805934)) "The agent only receives the minimal amount of data as per the graphql query saving valuable tokens." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46039179)) "select all fields except for a base64 picture of that user, so that the request is more performant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920455)) - Eases API evolution and composition (4 comments): "what GraphQL solves as main problem, which I haven't got good alternative for is API composition and evolution" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268672)) "GraphQL has allowed us to not feel bad about adding extra properties and object to the response" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267900)) "the way it has scaled over time -- across backend and frontend -- has worked amazingly well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265092)) - Typed schema and generated clients (3 comments): "where you can have the server and client agree on what to ask for and what you'll get, be compiled away is so nice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266060)) "Easy to grok, easy to build types for various languages and keep everything in sync." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45971850)) "Automatic type a client generation that is extremely mature." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46113938)) ## What people warn about - Adds complexity and slows building (4 comments): "We are paying that same complexity tax you described, but without the benefit of needing to support thousands of unknown 3rd-party developers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46265261)) "Something that would be a handful of lines of code in a different stack ends up being hundreds in this one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48620359)) "suddenly you need a whole team of devs knowing all kinds of unecessary abstractions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096388)) - Overused where benefits are small (2 comments): "that benefit is not unique to graphql, so by itself, that is not a compelling reason to choose graphql" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267758)) "shove GraphQL into application stacks and environments where you gain very little benefit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47923590)) - Replacing REST made things worse (2 comments): "Why they needed to replace the good old REST interface, which was working perfectly, I will never understand." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46113237)) "it's practically easier and better to ask teams to rebuild their APIs in REST than update the graphql" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46268133)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [PRQL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prql.md): 15 recommend - [Prela](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prela.md): 5 recommend - [PRQL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prequel.md): 5 recommend - [JSONata](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jsonata.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GraphQL", https://hackerapproved.com/p/graphql/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).