Why Choose GraphQL? Top Benefits & Examples with PostgreSQL

Accessing data is an everyday activity, whether you use a mobile app or a browser. To bring this activity into reality, the industry has long relied on REST APIs to enable the development of many modern technologies. However, GraphQL API has proven to be an equally useful modern alternative.

But just how promising is the GraphQL API in 2025 and beyond? Let's Discover it Briefly!

What is GraphQL API?

GraphQL is an open-source data query and manipulation language made for APIs and also a runtime to fulfill queries using existing data. GraphQL was internally developed by Facebook in 2012 before its open-source public release in 2015.

It utilizes a single endpoint to fetch or modify data, unlike REST, which has to expose multiple endpoints to access different resources.

Top Benefits of GraphQL API: Super Efficient

1. Efficient Data Fetching
Client-side is known to receive more data than is useful by the use of REST APIs and is also known to make multiple fetch requests. GraphQL solves it by allowing clients to specify the exact fields they need in a query, thereby reducing the bandwidth and improving overall performance.

2. Single Endpoint
API management becomes simple when using GraphQL, as it uses a single endpoint for all operations. This increases the intuitiveness of API and prevents redundant actions.

3. Strong Typed Schema
GraphQL APIs are defined through a schema that functions to specify the type of data and their shared relationships. In turn, this ensures better documentation, validation, and error handling, altogether making development cycles smoother.

4. Real-Time Data with Subscriptions
Subscriptions allow GraphQL to receive updates in real-time. This provision helps applications that feature chats, live notifications, or dashboards that require depicting instant data updates.

5. Backend Flexibility
GraphQL is database-agnostic, which means it can work with any database. Therefore, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and others are all compatible with GraphQL, allowing developers to pick the best database according to the use cases.

6. Improved Developer Experience
The declarative nature of GraphQL, with its powerful tools like GraphiQL and Apollo Explorer, makes it easier for developers to test queries, debug issues, and explore APIs.

GraphQL with PostgreSQL: A Winning Combination

PostgreSQL is one of the widely known databases that is powerful yet open-source. This relational database is also known for its scalability, reliability, and support for advanced features like JSONB, full-text search, and geospatial data.

Combining PostgreSQL with GraphQL makes both altogether a supremely powerful backend solution.

Read on about its individual capabilities below.

Efficient Querying
GraphQL can fetch only the data needed and nothing else, where it will fetch only the required data pairs with the advanced querying capabilities of PostgreSQL. For instance, when a client only desires the username and email, GraphQL can translate it into a precise SQL query to avoid unnecessary data retrieval.

Relational Data Handling
The excellent data managing capabilities of PostgreSQL are useful in managing relational data, and GraphQL's schema can represent these relationships easily. For example, a query can be used to fetch a user and their associated comments and posts in a single request.

JSONB Support
The JSON data type of PostgreSQL allows storing and querying JSON documents efficiently. GraphQL can leverage this for handling semi-structured data, making it perfect for developing modern applications.

Scalability
Both PostgreSQL and GraphQL are made to support scalability. The former is capable of dealing with large datasets and complex queries with ease, while GraphQL ensures efficient data delivery to clients, even after the application grows and expands.

Read more: API Architectural Styles: REST, GraphQL, SOAP, and WebSocket

Examples of GraphQL with PostgreSQL

ECommerce
A singular GraphQL query can fetch product details, customer reviews, and inventory status from a PostgreSQL database - all of which can benefit EVERY e-commerce app we know. Switching to this alternative eliminates the need to host multiple REST API calls, significantly improving the round-up performance.

query {
  product(id: 123) {
    name
    price
    reviews {
      rating
      comment
    }
    inventory {
      stock
    }
  }
}

Social Media Platform
Apps made for social media can harness GraphQL to fetch users' profiles, posts, followers, and likes in only one request. In turn, PostgreSQL's relational database management capabilities ensure efficient data retrieval without returning extra data or querying issues.

query {
  user(id: 456) {
    name
    bio
    posts {
      title
      content
    }
    followers {
      name
    }
  }
}

Real-Time Dashboard
Through the use of GraphQL subscriptions, a dashboard can be made to display real-time metrics like user activity or sales. PostgreSQL's triggers and notifications can then serve to push updates to the GraphQL server, enabling data delivery instantly.

subscription {
  salesUpdate {
    product
    quantity
    timestamp
  }
}

The Takeaway

Whether you're developing an eCommerce platform, a social media app, or a real-time dashboard, you can combine GraphQL and PostgreSQL to deliver superior user experiences.

Thus, adopting GraphQL can streamline your development phases and processes and reduce overhead while future-proofing the applications. Explore GraphQL now, or connect with the Ciphernutz team to learn how it can transform your projects!