Which GraphQL package is recommended for integration with Hono?

[juergenzimmermann]

I looked at https://www.npmjs.com/ and looked especially for:

• @getcronit/pylon: < 700 weekly downloads
• graphql-yoga: ~ 300.000 weekly downloads
• @apollo/server: ~ 800.000 weekly downloads

Are there other packages that can seriously be recommended? I want to extend a REST API (of course built with Hono) to have an additional GraphQL API. In the 1st step it's mainly for demo purposes, but should be somehow realistic and look serious. Any hints are welcome! And also hints about an integration into a Hono app.

[Namchee]

Have you tried @hono/graphql-server yet?

[juergenzimmermann]

Yes, I saw it and looked at the download rates at https://www.npmjs.com/package/@hono/graphql-server. Then I used the proposed small code fragment from https://github.com/orgs/honojs/discussions/1063#discussioncomment-9121474 to use GraphQL Yoga. This small code fragment is just plain Hono code, and the maintenance of GraphQL Yoga looks promising.

[everton-dgn]

Echoing @Namchee: @hono/graphql-server is the low-friction starting point for adding GraphQL alongside an existing REST API. It's first-party and stays out of the way:

import { Hono } from 'hono'
import { graphqlServer } from '@hono/graphql-server'
import { buildSchema } from 'graphql'

const schema = buildSchema(`
  type Query {
    hello: String
  }
`)

const app = new Hono()

app.use('/graphql', graphqlServer({
  schema,
  rootValue: { hello: () => 'Hello, World!' },
}))

app.get('/api/health', (c) => c.json({ status: 'ok' }))

export default app

For subscriptions, file uploads, persisted queries or anything else beyond a basic schema, graphql-yoga plugs into Hono by passing the raw request through:

import { createYoga, createSchema } from 'graphql-yoga'

const yoga = createYoga({
  schema: createSchema({
    typeDefs: `type Query { hello: String }`,
    resolvers: { Query: { hello: () => 'Hello' } },
  }),
})

app.use('/graphql', (c) => yoga.fetch(c.req.raw, c.env))

Apollo Server also works but carries more weight and is harder to deploy on edge runtimes.

For a demo that needs to look production-ready, I'd reach for @hono/graphql-server first since it's maintained by the Hono team and runs unchanged on Node, Bun, Deno and Cloudflare Workers. Yoga is the upgrade path once you hit the features it doesn't cover.