Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Hasura VS JsonAPI

Compare Hasura VS JsonAPI and see what are their differences

Hasura logo Hasura

Hasura is an open platform to build scalable app backends, offering a built-in database, search, user-management and more.

JsonAPI logo JsonAPI

Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Query Languages
  • Hasura Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21
  • JsonAPI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-21

Hasura features and specs

  • Real-Time Data
    Hasura provides built-in support for GraphQL subscriptions, allowing you to easily implement real-time data updates in your applications.
  • Auto-Generated APIs
    With Hasura, you can instantly generate a fully-functional, scalable GraphQL API from your existing databases without writing any code.
  • Authorization and Authentication
    Hasura provides granular authorization controls and integrates well with various authentication services, helping to secure your data access.
  • Microservices & Event Triggers
    Hasura allows you to create event-driven architectures by allowing you to trigger webhooks based on specified database events.
  • Scalability
    Designed for performance, Hasura can handle large-scale applications by optimizing database queries and offering load-balancing capabilities.
  • Multi-Data Source Support
    Hasura can connect to multiple data sources and databases, making it a versatile choice for complex architectures.
  • Developer Productivity
    The tool significantly reduces the time required for backend development, allowing developers to focus on building frontend features and improving user experience.
  • Community and Support
    Hasura has a growing community and offers comprehensive documentation, which can be invaluable for troubleshooting and getting the most out of the platform.

Possible disadvantages of Hasura

  • Complex Initial Setup
    Although Hasura simplifies many tasks, setting it up initially can be complex and may require a good understanding of both GraphQL and your underlying database.
  • Vendor Lock-In Concerns
    Depending heavily on Hasura can create vendor lock-in situations, making it difficult to switch technologies later without significant redevelopment effort.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers unfamiliar with GraphQL, event-driven architectures, or advanced database concepts may face a steep learning curve when adopting Hasura.
  • Limited Customization
    Some advanced use cases may require lower-level customizations not easily achievable through Hasura’s auto-generated APIs.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although optimized for performance, the additional layer Hasura introduces can still introduce latency, especially in highly complex queries.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Diagnosing issues can sometimes be complicated due to the number of components involved, including the database, Hasura, and the generated APIs.
  • Cost
    While Hasura offers a free tier, advanced features and enterprise-level support come at a cost, which can add up as your project scales.

JsonAPI features and specs

  • Standardization
    JSON:API provides a standardized format for building APIs, which promotes consistency and interoperability between different APIs.
  • Efficiency
    It supports features like sparse fieldsets, compound documents, and included relationships which help in reducing the amount of data transferred and improving response times.
  • Decoupling
    JSON:API encourages a clear separation between client and server, allowing them to evolve independently as long as they adhere to the specification.
  • Error Handling
    It has a well-defined error format that makes it easier for clients to understand what went wrong and how to fix it.
  • Community and Tooling
    A growing community and increasing tooling support make it easier to implement JSON:API in various server-side and client-side technologies.

Possible disadvantages of JsonAPI

  • Complexity
    The specification can be complex and may introduce a learning curve for developers who are new to it or used to simpler REST approaches.
  • Overhead
    Strict adherence to the JSON:API specification can sometimes introduce additional overhead in terms of implementation effort, especially for small projects.
  • Flexibility
    While the standardization is beneficial, it can reduce flexibility in scenarios where a more customized or optimized solution is needed.
  • Adoption
    Although growing, JSON:API is not as widely adopted as other conventions like simple REST, and thus some developers and projects might resist switching to it.
  • Resource Intensive
    Some features of JSON:API, like relationship links and included resources, can become resource-intensive for the server if not implemented carefully.

Hasura videos

Scott Tries Hasura - A Realtime GraphQL API Builder

More videos:

  • Review - Evaluating Hasura
  • Review - The founder of Hasura teaching me about Hasura - FUN!

JsonAPI videos

No JsonAPI videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hasura and JsonAPI)
GraphQL
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
85 85%
15% 15
API Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hasura should be more popular than JsonAPI. It has been mentiond 122 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.

Hasura mentions (122)

  • Supabase Alternatives 🔄 in 2025 😼
    Hasura is a neck-to-neck competitor to Supabase as a BaaS, but with a crucial difference: its GraphQL-first approach. Unlike Supabase, Hasura doesn't bundle database services, allowing it to work with virtually any database including Supabase's own Postgres, Neon, and others. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Automatically Generate REST and GraphQL APIs From Your Database
    Hasura and PostGraphile lead the PostgreSQL GraphQL landscape. Hasura provides real-time subscriptions and a powerful permissions system, while PostGraphile offers deep PostgreSQL integration and excellent performance for complex queries. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • The Myth of GraphQL
    Here is an example data schema we get for a query using Hasura and GraphQL-Codegen. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Hasura CLI on NixOS: A Working Solution
    Hasura is a great tool. I was worried about a few things such as huge RAM consumption, excessive focus on new features and functions despite many outstanding issues, long time rewrite of the server in Rust, etc... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Haskell Certification Program
    Hasura has commercial use: https://hasura.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
View more

JsonAPI mentions (50)

  • Build Real-Time Knowledge Graph for Documents with LLM
    For context, the subject-predicate-object pattern is known as a semantic triple or Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_triple They're useful for storing social network graph data, for example, and can be expressed using standards like Open Graph and JSONAPI: https://ogp.me https://jsonapi.org I've stored RDF triples in database tables and experimented with query... - Source: Hacker News / 11 days ago
  • OSF API: The Complete Guide
    Built on JSON API standards, the OSF API is intuitive for anyone familiar with REST conventions. Once you learn its core patterns, you can quickly expand into project creation, user collaboration, and more—without constantly referencing documentation. The official OSF API docs provide everything needed to get started. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Common Mistakes in RESTful API Design
    Following established patterns reduces the learning curve for your API. Adopt conventions from JSON:API or Microsoft API Guidelines to provide consistent experiences. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Starting the Console front-end for Rainbow Platform
    I’ve used both GraphQL and REST in the past. From json:api to Relay, each approach for building APIs has its pros and cons. However, a constant challenge is choosing between code-first and schema-first approaches. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • REST API: Best practices and design
    There is a group of people who set out to standardize JSON responses into a single response style, either for returning single or multiple resources. You can take their style as a reference when designing their API to ensure uniformity of responses. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Hasura and JsonAPI, you can also consider the following products

Supabase - An open source Firebase alternative

ReqRes - A hosted REST-API ready to respond to your AJAX requests.

How to GraphQL - Open-source tutorial website to learn GraphQL development

graphql.js - A reference implementation of GraphQL for JavaScript - graphql/graphql-js

GraphQl Editor - Editor for GraphQL that lets you draw GraphQL schemas using visual nodes

Apollo - Apollo is a full project management and contact tracking application.