REST API vs GraphQL : A literature and experimental study

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to compare the two architectural techniques REST and GraphQL. This thesis will compare the two techniques and what defines them. A literature study and experimental study are carried out by the researchers. Four applications have been developed that include the ability to disable and to enable caching for both technologies to test the performance effect of caching. Earlier work has not covered the effects on caching related to these two frameworks. The literature study results point to that REST services are up to date and GraphQL is a technique with a shorter history, but that has declared growth in the industry and is a well suited choice for example when bandwidth matters in mobile phone applications. In the experimental study the tests showed slightly better results on average for REST API in terms of total response time (ms). Depending on the intended project there are many factors that need to be evaluated before making a decision on which framework to use.