# Backend for apps: REST API vs GraphQL, which to use

> REST API vs GraphQL for your app’s backend: differences, advantages and when each one suits you so your application runs fast and grows without being rebuilt.

URL: https://codegea.com/en/backend-for-apps-rest-api-vs-graphql-which-to-use
Mobile apps · 2026-07-04 · Derian Pinto

Every mobile app needs a backend to give it data: users, products, orders, whatever. The question is not whether you need one, but how your app talks to it. And that is where the two big approaches appear: the veteran REST API and the flexible GraphQL. Choosing well determines how much code you write, how much data the user spends and how fast your app feels.

> REST is simple, standard and cacheable. GraphQL asks for exactly the data it needs, no more and no less. There is no absolute winner: there is a winner for your case.

## What a REST API is

REST organizes everything into resources with URLs and HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). Each endpoint returns a fixed data structure. It is mature, universal, easy to cache and understood by any developer on the planet. Its price: sometimes it gives you more data than you need, or forces several calls to build a single screen.

## What GraphQL is

GraphQL exposes a single endpoint and a query language: the client asks for the exact fields it wants and receives just that, in a single request even when it crosses several entities. A query reads almost like the result you expect:

```graphql
query {
  producto(id: 10) {
    nombre
    precio
    categoria { nombre }
  }
}
```

## The difference that really matters

REST’s classic problem is over-fetching (it returns more data than you use) and under-fetching (you need several calls for one screen). On mobile, with limited data and uneven networks, that weighs. GraphQL solves both: you ask for exactly what you need in a single call. In exchange, the server is more complex to set up and caching stops being as trivial as it is with REST.

## REST vs GraphQL at a glance

| Criterion | REST | GraphQL |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Maturity and curve | Simpler and more mature | More concepts to learn |
| Shape of the data | Fixed per endpoint | Tailored by the client |
| Number of requests | Sometimes several | One is usually enough |
| HTTP caching | Easy and native | More complex |
| Over/under-fetching | Common | Avoids it |
| Ecosystem | Universal | Broad and growing |

## When to use each

- **REST** if your API is simple, the resources are clear, you want easy HTTP caching or you will expose it to third-party integrations.
- **GraphQL** if you have many screens with different data, mobile devices with limited bandwidth, several clients (web and app) consuming the same thing or a front end that evolves quickly.

Many modern backends already give you both out of the box. We saw it when comparing [Directus vs Strapi](/en/directus-vs-strapi-which-headless-cms-to-choose-for-your-project), which expose REST and GraphQL, and also in a [headless WordPress with Next.js](/en/headless-wordpress-with-nextjs-architecture-advantages-and-how-to-start) architecture, where the front end consumes whichever API you prefer.

## What I would choose

What I would choose depends on the size of the project. For a simple app, with few data types and where I want caching and speed without complications, REST is still unbeatable for simplicity. But as soon as the app has many screens asking for different combinations of data, or when a website and an app share the same backend, GraphQL pays back its complexity many times over: fewer calls, less wasted data and a front end that evolves without asking the backend for a new endpoint every week. My practical advice: do not choose by fashion. If you doubt and the project is small, REST; if you already see the data will be varied and the app large, GraphQL from the start saves you a painful refactor.

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Are you going to build an app or a product and do not know how to approach its backend? At [Codegea](/en/contact) we design and build custom REST and GraphQL APIs, made so your app runs fast and grows without being rebuilt. Tell me what you are building.