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Interesting that GraphQL popped up on the front page today. Spent a good portion yesterday digging through docs and tutorials about getting it setup in place of REST for my new project. Do the client side benefits REALLY outweigh the added complexity on the server side, particularly for light/minimal API calls? REST is certainly easier to whip up on the server side, and it's not like it adds a ton of overhead on the client side.

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For super small applications, where you have 5-10 endpoints, you can say that GraphQL is an overkill. But imagine having 100s of REST endpoints and the client making numerous round trips to the server fetching loads of unnecessary data; GraphQL certainly wins in this case as you can fetch everything and exactly everything in a single API call.

[Edit] Also, the GraphQL spec being defined, and the way it is defined, reduces unnecessary documentation, unnecessary decision-making, and unnecessary communication between teams.

When the alternative is making multiple calls to gather all the data you need, then yes the benefits outweigh the added complexity. But not for minimal API calls.

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