# gqlgen vs Nexus

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** gqlgen

| Attribute | gqlgen | Nexus |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57.6 (36% (low)) | 48.8 (66% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 28 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 3,167 | 2,363 |
| adoption.github_stars | 10,768 | 3,430 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 239,628 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A schema-first code generation library for Go that lets developers define GraphQL APIs using the schema definition language and automatically generates type-safe server implementations. It eliminates boilerplate by handling code generation while enforcing type safety throughout. It is indexed under GraphQL Tools.","source":"https://gqlgen.com","question":"What is gqlgen?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"gqlgen is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://gqlgen.com","question":"Is gqlgen free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"gqlgen supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://gqlgen.com","question":"What platforms does gqlgen support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. gqlgen is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen","question":"Is gqlgen open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source GraphQL schema library that enables developers to define GraphQL types programmatically in TypeScript/JavaScript with full type safety and IDE intellisense. It bridges the simplicity of schema-definition-language approaches with the flexibility and long-term maintainability of code-based construction. It is indexed under GraphQL Tools.","source":"https://nexusjs.org/docs/","question":"What is Nexus?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Nexus is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://nexusjs.org/docs/","question":"Is Nexus free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Nexus is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus","question":"Is Nexus open source?","confidence":0.99}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open-source Go framework that generates GraphQL server code from schema definitions. It emphasizes type safety, automatic code generation to reduce boilerplate, and a schema-first development approach. | An open-source library enabling declarative GraphQL schema construction with automatic TypeScript type generation and GraphQL SDL schema output. It provides a strongly-typed, code-first API for building GraphQL servers without separate schema definition files. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"server","caching":false,"language":"Go","federation":true,"managed_cloud":false,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true,"auth_directives":false,"schema_approach":"schema_first","type_generation":true,"db_introspection":false}` | `{"role":"schema_builder","language":"TypeScript/JavaScript","managed_cloud":false,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true,"schema_approach":"code_first","type_generation":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 4 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Prisma"},{"name":"Next.js"},{"name":"graphql-js"},{"name":"graphql-yoga"},{"name":"graphql-middleware"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | MIT | MIT |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://gqlgen.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T21:39:40.951Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://nexusjs.org/docs/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T13:54:44.471Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| release.cadence_days | 17 | 27 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.95","date":"2026-09-01T19:42:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.95"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.94","date":"2026-07-09T15:29:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.94"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.93","date":"2026-06-25T23:54:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.93"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.92","date":"2026-06-21T13:23:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.92"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.91","date":"2026-06-11T14:33:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.91"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.90","date":"2026-04-25T19:11:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.90"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.89","date":"2026-03-24T18:45:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.89"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.88","date":"2026-03-09T00:10:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.88"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.87","date":"2026-02-19T14:14:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.87"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.86","date":"2026-01-12T01:28:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.86"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.85","date":"2025-12-17T02:21:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.85"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.84","date":"2025-11-24T16:56:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.84"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.83","date":"2025-11-11T02:05:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.83"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.82","date":"2025-11-07T01:29:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.82"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.81","date":"2025-09-25T23:00:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.81"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.80","date":"2025-09-17T16:13:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.80"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.79","date":"2025-09-14T19:35:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.79"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.78","date":"2025-07-27T23:09:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.78"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.77","date":"2025-07-27T03:26:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.77"},{"url":"https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen/releases/tag/v0.17.76","date":"2025-06-28T23:25:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.76"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/next","date":"2020-07-07T22:25:09Z","type":"prerelease","version":"next"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v1.3.0","date":"2022-03-07T13:45:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/1.1.0","date":"2021-06-23T20:39:56Z","type":"stable","version":"1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/1.0.0","date":"2020-12-14T18:10:17Z","type":"stable","version":"1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.19.2","date":"2020-11-27T17:29:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.19.1","date":"2020-11-25T14:51:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.19.0","date":"2020-11-25T13:56:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.18.0","date":"2020-11-12T14:14:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.17.0","date":"2020-10-28T13:27:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.16.0","date":"2020-09-30T14:47:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.15.0","date":"2020-08-04T13:56:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.14.0","date":"2020-06-03T20:11:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.13.1","date":"2020-03-30T20:40:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.12.0-rc.7","date":"2020-01-23T01:22:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0-rc.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.12.0-rc.5","date":"2019-11-20T13:21:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0-rc.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.12.0-rc.4","date":"2019-11-07T22:38:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0-rc.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.12.0-rc.3","date":"2019-11-07T22:39:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0-rc.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/graphql-nexus/nexus/releases/tag/v0.12.0-rc.2","date":"2019-11-07T22:39:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0-rc.2"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 6 | 3.5 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2F99designs%2Fgqlgen&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=nexus&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (GraphQL Tools)

| Capability | gqlgen | Nexus |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Role | Server | Schema builder |
| Primary language | Go | TypeScript/JavaScript |
| **Modelling** |  |  |
| Schema approach | Schema-first | Code-first |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Federation / subgraph composition | ✓ | - |
| **Realtime** |  |  |
| Real-time subscriptions | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| Response / edge caching | ✗ | - |
| **DX** |  |  |
| Typed code generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Automation** |  |  |
| Generates API from a database | ✗ | - |
| **Security** |  |  |
| Built-in authz / permissions | ✗ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Official hosted offering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:04:49.971Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*