# Pothos vs Strawberry GraphQL

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Strawberry GraphQL

| Attribute | Pothos | Strawberry GraphQL |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 58.8 (48% (low)) | 65.2 (66% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 76 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 316 | 325 |
| adoption.github_stars | 2,623 | 4,722 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 477,926 | 1,448,848 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Pothos is a GraphQL schema builder for TypeScript that emphasizes type-safety and ease of use. It features a plugin ecosystem for extending functionality while maintaining zero-overhead at runtime. It is indexed under GraphQL Tools.","source":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","question":"What is Pothos?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pothos is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the ISC licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","question":"Is Pothos free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pothos supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","question":"What platforms does Pothos support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Pothos can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","question":"Can Pothos be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for Pothos, including Prisma, NestJS, Next.js, Apollo, Mercurius and OpenTelemetry. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","question":"What does Pothos integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Pothos is published under the ISC 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/hayes/pothos","question":"Is Pothos open source?","confidence":0.99}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source Python library for constructing GraphQL servers using Python's type hints and dataclasses to define schemas. It provides async support, federation capabilities, real-time subscriptions, and integrations with popular web frameworks. It is indexed under GraphQL Tools.","source":"https://strawberry.rocks","question":"What is Strawberry GraphQL?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Strawberry GraphQL 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://strawberry.rocks","question":"Is Strawberry GraphQL free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Strawberry GraphQL supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://strawberry.rocks","question":"What platforms does Strawberry GraphQL support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Strawberry GraphQL can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://strawberry.rocks","question":"Can Strawberry GraphQL be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 10 integrations for Strawberry GraphQL, including Django, FastAPI, Flask, Aiohttp, Chalice, Channels, Litestar and Quart, plus 2 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://strawberry.rocks","question":"What does Strawberry GraphQL integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Strawberry GraphQL 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/strawberry-graphql/strawberry","question":"Is Strawberry GraphQL open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | A GraphQL server library for Python that uses type annotations to define schemas, with support for async/await, federation, and integrations with web frameworks like FastAPI and Django. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"schema_builder","language":"TypeScript","federation":true,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true,"schema_approach":"code_first","type_generation":true,"db_introspection":true}` | `{"role":"server","language":"Python","federation":true,"managed_cloud":false,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true,"auth_directives":true,"schema_approach":"code_first","type_generation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 12 | 6 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Prisma"},{"name":"NestJS"},{"name":"Next.js"},{"name":"Apollo"},{"name":"Mercurius"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"Drizzle","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Zod","native":true,"category":"validation","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Valibot","native":true,"category":"validation","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"ArkType","native":true,"category":"validation","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"GraphQL Yoga","native":false,"category":"server","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Apollo Server","native":false,"category":"server","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Apollo Federation","native":true,"category":"federation","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"New Relic","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Dataloader","native":true,"category":"data_loading","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Grafast","native":true,"category":"execution_engine","direction":"bidirectional"}]` | `[{"name":"Django"},{"name":"FastAPI"},{"name":"Flask"},{"name":"Aiohttp"},{"name":"Chalice"},{"name":"Channels"},{"name":"Litestar"},{"name":"Quart"},{"name":"Sanic"},{"name":"Starlette"},{"name":"SQLAlchemy","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Next.js","native":true,"category":"frontend","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Pydantic","native":true,"category":"validation","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | Python |
| license.spdx | ISC | MIT |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://pothos-graphql.dev/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T09:17:12.302Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://strawberry.rocks","retrievedAt":"2026-10-15T20:24:54.298Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 1 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-drizzle%400.20.0","date":"2026-09-14T17:05:23Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-drizzle@0.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-zod%404.3.2","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:53Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-zod@4.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-validation%404.3.4","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:26Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-validation@4.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-validation%404.3.3","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:26Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-validation@4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-tracing%401.1.4","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:38Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-tracing@1.1.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-sub-graph%404.5.3","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:23Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-sub-graph@4.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-sub-graph%404.5.2","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:17Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-sub-graph@4.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-smart-subscriptions%404.1.7","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:14Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-smart-subscriptions@4.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-smart-subscriptions%404.1.6","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:29Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-smart-subscriptions@4.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-scope-auth%404.2.1","date":"2026-09-13T22:48:59Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-scope-auth@4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-scope-auth%404.2.0","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:35Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-scope-auth@4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-relay%404.8.1","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:08Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-relay@4.8.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-relay%404.8.0","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:14Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-relay@4.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-prisma%404.17.0","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:44Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-prisma@4.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-prisma-utils%401.3.6","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:11Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-prisma-utils@1.3.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-prisma-utils%401.3.5","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:59Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-prisma-utils@1.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-mocks%404.1.4","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:56Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-mocks@4.1.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-federation%404.5.3","date":"2026-09-13T22:48:56Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-federation@4.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-federation%404.5.2","date":"2026-09-13T21:56:50Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-federation@4.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/hayes/pothos/releases/tag/%40pothos/plugin-errors%404.9.3","date":"2026-09-13T22:49:17Z","type":"stable","version":"@pothos/plugin-errors@4.9.3"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.335.0","date":"2026-10-14T12:02:24Z","type":"stable","version":"0.335.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.334.4","date":"2026-10-13T14:23:26Z","type":"stable","version":"0.334.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.334.3","date":"2026-10-12T22:48:26Z","type":"stable","version":"0.334.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.334.2","date":"2026-10-12T09:21:41Z","type":"stable","version":"0.334.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.334.1","date":"2026-10-11T21:35:23Z","type":"stable","version":"0.334.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.334.0","date":"2026-10-11T20:54:33Z","type":"stable","version":"0.334.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.333.0","date":"2026-10-10T17:44:12Z","type":"stable","version":"0.333.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.332.1","date":"2026-10-09T22:03:26Z","type":"stable","version":"0.332.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.332.0","date":"2026-10-06T18:29:59Z","type":"stable","version":"0.332.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.6","date":"2026-10-05T23:11:58Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.5","date":"2026-10-05T18:41:11Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.4","date":"2026-10-05T18:21:57Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.3","date":"2026-10-05T16:52:58Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.2","date":"2026-10-05T14:43:22Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.1","date":"2026-10-04T23:24:37Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.331.0","date":"2026-10-04T22:54:50Z","type":"stable","version":"0.331.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.330.3","date":"2026-10-04T17:11:33Z","type":"stable","version":"0.330.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.330.2","date":"2026-10-03T23:22:01Z","type":"stable","version":"0.330.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.330.1","date":"2026-10-03T23:16:30Z","type":"stable","version":"0.330.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/strawberry-graphql/strawberry/releases/tag/0.330.0","date":"2026-10-03T15:57:02Z","type":"stable","version":"0.330.0"}]` |
| security.scorecard | - | 7 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40pothos%2Fcore&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":9,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=strawberry-graphql&per_page=100","last_12m":7,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (GraphQL Tools)

| Capability | Pothos | Strawberry GraphQL |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Role | Schema builder | Server |
| Primary language | TypeScript | Python |
| **Modelling** |  |  |
| Schema approach | Code-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 2026-10-16T20:14:48.951Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*