vioscaleAI
Comparison

Grafbase vs Pothos

No clear leader: Pothos (58.8) and Grafbase (56.2) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Grafbase full profile →Pothos full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Grafbase56
Pothos59
Score
vioscaleAI score
Grafbase56 / 100medium · 71%
Pothos59 / 100low · 48%
Pricing
Free tier
Grafbase✓
Pothos–
Model
Grafbasefreemium
Pothoscommercial
Price level
Grafbaselow
Pothosfree
Transparent
Grafbase✗
Pothos–
Integrations
Count
Grafbase7
Pothos12
Security
Soc2
Grafbase✓
Pothos–
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Grafbase99.99
Pothos–
Status page
Grafbase✓
Pothos–
Adoption
Dependent repos
Grafbase–
Pothos316
Github stars
Grafbase–
Pothos2,623
Package downloads weekly
Grafbase–
Pothos477,926
Activity
Commits last 30d
Grafbase–
Pothos100
Release
History
Grafbase–
Pothos20 items
License
Spdx
Grafbase–
PothosISC
Language
Primary
Grafbase–
PothosTypeScript
Content
Faq
Grafbase6 items
Pothos6 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for graphql tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Role
GrafbaseGateway / federation
PothosSchema builder
Primary language
GrafbaseGraphQL
PothosTypeScript
Modelling
Schema approach
GrafbaseSchema-first
PothosCode-first
Scale
Federation / subgraph composition
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓
Realtime
Real-time subscriptions
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓
Performance
Response / edge caching
Grafbase✓
Pothos-
DX
Typed code generation
Grafbase-
Pothos✓
Automation
Generates API from a database
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓
Security
Built-in authz / permissions
Grafbase✓
Pothos-
Deployment
Official hosted offering
Grafbase✓
Pothos-
Self-hostable
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Grafbase

A GraphQL federation gateway that aggregates and unifies multiple GraphQL APIs into a single interface, with built-in governance and analytics capabilities.

Independently observed

Pothos

A GraphQL schema builder that leverages TypeScript's type system to minimize manual type annotations, integrating with databases like Prisma and Drizzle through a modular plugin architecture.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Grafbase

HybridFree tier60-day trial

Free open-source tier. 60-day free trial. Enterprise pricing available via contact sales.

  • Open SourceFree
    • High performance Rust gateway
    • Open-source license
    • No feature gating
    • Community support
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Unified schema composition
    • Schema proposal & approval workflows
    • Entity-level caching
    • Persisted queries
    • Intelligent query execution
    • +9 more
as of verify ↗

Pothos

Open source
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓
CLI
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Grafbase✓
Pothos✗
Self-hosted
Grafbase✓
Pothos✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Grafbase

7 total
  • Snowflake
  • NATS
  • Kafka
  • Postgres
  • gRPC
  • REST
  • JWT
Independently observed

Pothos

16 total
  • Prisma
  • NestJS
  • Next.js
  • Apollo
  • Mercurius
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Drizzle
  • Zod
  • Valibot
  • ArkType
  • GraphQL Yoga
  • Apollo Server
  • Apollo Federation
  • New Relic
  • Dataloader
  • Grafast
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Grafbase or Pothos: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.