# Grafbase vs Nexus

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Grafbase

| Attribute | Grafbase | Nexus |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 56.2 (73% (medium)) | 46.5 (65% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 2,363 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 3,430 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 224,130 |
| deployment.options | `{"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. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"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}` | `{"role":"schema_builder","language":"TypeScript/JavaScript","managed_cloud":false,"self_hostable":true,"schema_approach":"code_first","type_generation":true}` |
| integrations.count | 7 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"NATS"},{"name":"Kafka"},{"name":"Postgres"},{"name":"gRPC"},{"name":"REST"},{"name":"JWT"}]` | `[{"name":"Prisma"},{"name":"Next.js"}]` |
| language.primary | - | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | - | MIT |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | - |
| pricing | `{"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"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://nexusjs.org/docs/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:30:53.802Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | - |
| release.cadence_days | - | 27 |
| release.history | - | `[{"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"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | 99.99 | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 3.5 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"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 | Grafbase | Nexus |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Role | Gateway / federation | Schema builder |
| Primary language | GraphQL | 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:22:37.400Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*