Comparison

GraphQL Yoga vs Pothos

No clear leader: GraphQL Yoga (63.4) and Pothos (58.8) 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.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
GraphQL Yoga63
Pothos59
Score
vioscaleAI score
GraphQL Yoga63 / 100medium · 67%
Pothos59 / 100low · 48%
Pricing
Free tier
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos–
Model
GraphQL Yogaopen_source
Price level
GraphQL Yogafree
Pothosfree
Transparent
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos–
Integrations
Count
GraphQL Yoga12
Pothos12
Reliability
Status page
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos–
Adoption
Dependent repos
GraphQL Yoga759
Pothos316
Github stars
GraphQL Yoga8,528
Pothos2,623
Package downloads weekly
GraphQL Yoga1,943,364
Pothos477,926
Activity
Commits last 30d
GraphQL Yoga22
Pothos100
Release
Cadence days
GraphQL Yoga6
Pothos–
History
GraphQL Yoga20 items
Pothos20 items
License
Spdx
GraphQL YogaMIT
PothosISC
Language
Primary
GraphQL YogaTypeScript
Content
Faq
GraphQL Yoga7 items
Pothos6 items

Capabilities

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

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

What each one is

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

GraphQL Yoga

A comprehensive GraphQL server emphasizing ease of setup and developer experience, featuring built-in federation, subscriptions, response caching, and support for self-hosting across any JavaScript runtime environment.

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.

GraphQL Yoga

Open sourceFree tier

Free and open source

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
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos✓
CLI
GraphQL Yoga✗
Pothos✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos✗
Self-hosted
GraphQL Yoga✓
Pothos✓

Integrations

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

In common (3)
  • Apollo Federation
  • New Relic
  • NestJS

GraphQL Yoga

19 total - 16 not shared
  • Auth0
  • Sentry
  • StatsD
  • GraphQL Modules
  • Hive
  • GraphQL Armor
  • GraphQL Codegen
  • Apollo Router
  • Cloudflare Workers
  • Stellate
  • Apollo Link
  • URQL
  • Redis
  • Cloudflare KV
  • Prometheus
  • Envelop
Independently observed

Pothos

16 total - 13 not shared
  • Prisma
  • Next.js
  • Apollo
  • Mercurius
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Drizzle
  • Zod
  • Valibot
  • ArkType
  • GraphQL Yoga
  • Apollo Server
  • Dataloader
  • Grafast
Independently observed
Still deciding?

GraphQL Yoga 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.