GraphQL VS Requestly

Compare GraphQL VS Requestly and see what are their differences

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GraphQL

GraphQL is a data query language and runtime to request and deliver data to mobile and web apps.

Requestly

A Powerful API Mocking and Testing Tool

Landing page //
2023-08-01

Requestly //
2025-02-12
Rest Client //
2025-02-12
HTTP Interceptor //
2025-02-12
API Mocking //
2025-02-12
Requestly //
2025-02-12

Requestly is a modern and powerful companion for API Development and Testing. It is an open-source tool purpose-built to speed up and simplify API development workflow for developers and QAs. It is a combination of API Client and HTTP Interceptor that helps create and share API Contracts, testing APIs, and easily mock and integrate them into web and mobile apps.

GraphQL

Website: graphql.org
Pricing URL: -
$ Details
Platforms: -
Release Date: -

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Requestly

Website: requestly.com
Pricing URL: Official Requestly Pricing
$ Details: freemium
Platforms: Google Chrome Firefox Edge Safari Brave Opera Vivaldi Android Windows Linux Mac OSX MacOS
Release Date: 2021 January
Startup details
Country: United States
State: California
City: San Francisco
Founder(s): Sachin Jain, Sagar Soni, Sahil Gupta
Employees: 20 - 49

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GraphQL features and specs

Efficient Data Retrieval
GraphQL allows clients to request only the data they need, reducing the amount of data transferred over the network and improving performance.
Strongly Typed Schema
GraphQL uses a strongly typed schema to define the capabilities of an API, providing clear and explicit API contracts and enabling better tooling support.
Single Endpoint
GraphQL operates through a single endpoint, unlike REST APIs which require multiple endpoints. This simplifies the server architecture and makes it easier to manage.
Introspection
GraphQL allows clients to query the schema for details about the available types and operations, which facilitates the development of powerful developer tools and IDE integrations.
Declarative Data Fetching
Clients can specify the shape of the response data declaratively, which enhances flexibility and ensures that the client and server logic are decoupled.
Versionless
Because clients specify exactly what data they need, there is no need to create different versions of an API when making changes. This helps in maintaining backward compatibility.
Increased Responsiveness
GraphQL can batch multiple requests into a single query, reducing the latency and improving the responsiveness of applications.

Possible disadvantages of GraphQL

Complexity
The setup and maintenance of a GraphQL server can be complex. Developers need to define the schema precisely and handle resolvers, which can be more complicated than designing REST endpoints.
Over-fetching Risk
Though designed to mitigate over-fetching, poorly designed GraphQL queries can lead to the server needing to fetch more data than necessary, causing performance issues.
Caching Challenges
Caching in GraphQL is more challenging than in REST, since different queries can change the shape and size of the response data, making traditional caching mechanisms less effective.
Learning Curve
GraphQL has a steeper learning curve compared to RESTful APIs because it introduces new concepts such as schemas, types, and resolvers which developers need to understand thoroughly.
Complex Rate Limiting
Implementing rate limiting is more complex with GraphQL than with REST. Since a single query can potentially request a large amount of data, simple per-endpoint rate limiting strategies are not effective.
Security Risks
GraphQL's flexibility can introduce security risks. For example, improperly managed schemas could expose sensitive information, and complex queries can lead to denial-of-service attacks.
Overhead on Small Applications
For smaller applications with simpler use cases, the overhead introduced by setting up and maintaining a GraphQL server may not be justified compared to a straightforward REST API.

Requestly features and specs

Redirect URL
Block Network Requests
Modify Request & Response Header
Modify Response
Supercharge Selenium
Session Replay
Modify Query Params
Team Workspace
API Client
API Mocks
GraphQL Support
Zero Setup
Auto Capture Sessions
Network Logs
Console Logs

Analysis of Requestly

Overall verdict

Requestly is generally regarded as a good tool due to its comprehensive functionalities and ease of use. Its ability to seamlessly manage network requests makes it suitable for both beginners and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

Requestly is widely considered a valuable tool because it offers robust and flexible features for intercepting and modifying network requests. Developers and QA testers appreciate it for its ability to simulate and debug API calls efficiently. It is particularly useful for testing changes without altering the codebase and for working with web applications in development and production environments.

Recommended for

Developers looking to debug and test API endpoints.
Quality Assurance (QA) teams that require reliable testing tools for web applications.
Technical professionals who manage network traffic and need to modify or redirect requests effortlessly.
Anyone involved in web development who needs to simulate network conditions or test application behavior under different scenarios.

GraphQL videos

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REST vs. GraphQL: Critical Look

Requestly videos

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Session Replays by Requestly

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GraphQL and Requestly)

GraphQL

Requestly

Developer Tools

64 64%

Developer Tools

36% 36

JavaScript Framework

100 100%

JavaScript Framework

0% 0

Testing

0 0%

Testing

100% 100

Javascript UI Libraries

100 100%

Javascript UI Libraries

0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing GraphQL and Requestly.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Requestly's answer:

Verizon
AT&T
Adobe
Salesforce
Telegraph
Intuit
Verizon

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Requestly's answer:

Front-end developers, QAs, PMs, Digital Marketers

What makes your product unique?

Requestly's answer:

Requestly is an open-source API development and testing tool that combines the capabilities of an API Client and HTTP Interceptor, making it a better alternative to Postman + Charles Proxy. It simplifies API mocking, request modification, and debugging with an intuitive no-code interface, enabling developers and QAs to test APIs efficiently.

User comments

Share your experience with using GraphQL and Requestly. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GraphQL and Requestly

GraphQL Reviews

We have no reviews of GraphQL yet.
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Requestly Reviews

Comparing Charles Proxy, Fiddler, Wireshark, and Requestly

On the pricing front, Requestly strikes a balance between affordability and functionality. It is an open-source tool, offering freemium to individual developers and affordable pricing plans for team collaboration. We have also clearly differentiated how Requestly differs from Wireshark and other web debugging tools like Proxyman, Modheader, and HTTP ToolKit separately.

Source: dev.to

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GraphQL should be more popular than Requestly. It has been mentiond 258 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GraphQL mentions (258)

API Development: How to Transition to Modern APIs
GraphQL is a query language combined with a server-side runtime. It was created by Facebook in 2012, and soon after, they released the specification to the public and made a NodeJS implementation open source. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
Readings in Database Systems (5th Edition)
Definitely they should include D4M and GraphQL [1],[2]. Not only D4M can cater for structured relational data, it also suitable for sparse data in spreadsheet, matrices and graph. It's essentially a generalization of SQL but for all things data. There's also integration of D4M with SciDB [3]. [1] D4M: Dynamic Distributed Dimensional Data Model: https://d4m.mit.edu/ [2] GraphQL: https://graphql.org/ [3] D4M:... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
Why GraphQL Is Gaining Adoption
GraphQL is becoming a popular choice, making development easier. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
Why GraphQL is gaining adoption
In modern software architecture, Jamstack separates the frontend from the backend through API consumption. Traditionally, this has been achieved with RESTful APIs, which enable data exchange between server and client. However, REST often causes performance issues, such as over-fetching and added complexity. A client may need only a small subset of data, but a REST endpoint might return an entire dataset, which... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
These Key Features of GraphQL make it Unique among Other API Technologies
Before we dive into GraphQL, it's crucial to understand the challenges it was designed to solve. Traditional API architectures like REST often struggle with two pervasive and inefficient patterns:. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago

Requestly mentions (35)

Why You Need a Local-First API Client (With Hands-On Example)
If you want to try a local-first workflow, you can start using Requestly here: https://requestly.com. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
How to use Cursor to Generate API Testcases in Requestly
That’s where automation changes the game. By pairing Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant, with Requestly's local-first API testing and mocking platform, you can offload the grunt work of writing tests to AI while keeping execution secure and reproducible on your own system. In this article, we’ll walk through how to set up Cursor with Requestly, generate test cases automatically, and run them end-to-end so that... - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
These 20 Awesome API Clients Will Change How You Work with APIs
Requestly is a versatile browser extension and web client used to intercept, mock, and debug APIs in real-time—perfect for frontend developers. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
Best Tools for GraphQL Development in 2025
Requestly is a powerful tool for modifying GraphQL responses, intercepting requests, and debugging API interactions. It allows developers to tweak request bodies, capture GraphQL traffic, and share sessions for easier debugging and collaboration. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
How Not to Use AI in Software Development
Learn more at https://requestly.com/. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago