# Absinthe vs Grafbase

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Grafbase

| Attribute | Absinthe | Grafbase |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 44.8 (35% (low)) | 56.2 (73% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 1 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,257 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,399 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | - | A GraphQL Federation platform providing enterprise-grade governance, control, and observability for unified API management. Supports cloud, hybrid, and on-prem deployment with AI-native capabilities. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"server","language":"Elixir","managed_cloud":false,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true}` | `{"role":"gateway","caching":true,"language":"GraphQL","federation":true,"managed_cloud":true,"self_hostable":true,"subscriptions":true,"auth_directives":true,"schema_approach":"schema_first","db_introspection":true}` |
| integrations.count | - | 7 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"NATS"},{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"Postgres"},{"name":"gRPC"},{"name":"REST"},{"name":"JWT"}]` |
| language.primary | Elixir | - |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://absinthe-graphql.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T13:20:08.370Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Open Source","features":["High performance Rust gateway","Open-source license","No feature gating","Community support"],"description":"High performance Rust gateway with no feature gating","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","features":["Unified schema composition","Schema proposal & approval workflows","Entity-level caching","Persisted queries","Intelligent query execution","Rate limiting","Trusted documents","SAML SSO","Fine-grained access control","Cloud, hybrid, or on-prem hosting","Dedicated customer success team","Slack Connect channel","24/7/365 enterprise support","Up to 99.99% SLA"],"description":"Fully self-hostable with dedicated support and 99.99% SLA","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free open-source tier. 60-day free trial. Enterprise pricing available via contact sales.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://grafbase.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T17:05:27.230Z","freeTrialDays":60,"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 24 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.11.0","date":"2026-06-04T19:07:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.10.0","date":"2026-04-03T16:08:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2025-11-21T15:08:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.8.0","date":"2025-11-06T13:26:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.7.11","date":"2025-10-30T13:52:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.7.10","date":"2025-06-09T16:38:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.7.9","date":"2025-03-14T12:16:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.7.8","date":"2025-03-14T12:09:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.7.7","date":"2024-07-11T20:29:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.6","date":"2021-09-28T21:41:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.5","date":"2021-08-03T16:35:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.4","date":"2021-04-16T21:34:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.3","date":"2021-04-16T21:34:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.2","date":"2021-02-05T07:13:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.1","date":"2021-02-01T19:20:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.0","date":"2021-01-15T23:24:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.0-rc.1","date":"2021-01-14T22:25:31Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.6.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.6.0-rc.0","date":"2021-01-02T21:49:41Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.6.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.5.5","date":"2020-12-08T22:55:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe/releases/tag/v1.5.4","date":"2020-11-28T21:56:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.4"}]` | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.99 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 4.5 | - |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=hex&package_name=absinthe&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | - |

## Capabilities (GraphQL Tools)

| Capability | Absinthe | Grafbase |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Role | Server | Gateway / federation |
| Primary language | Elixir | GraphQL |
| **Modelling** |  |  |
| Schema approach | - | Schema-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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T14:29:59.694Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*