Apollo GraphQL

Apollo GraphQL is an API orchestration platform that connects AI agents, web, and mobile applications to both GraphQL and REST APIs through a unified supergraph architecture. It is designed for backend teams who need to build a self-service, self-documenting graph that can power any number of applications, and for frontend teams who want to fetch all required data from a single endpoint. Enterprise leaders such as Netflix, PayPal, The New York Times, Expedia Group, Volkswagen, Priceline, Peloton, Wayfair, Booking.com, Hyatt, Ford Credit, MLB, Coinbase, and Indeed trust Apollo to unify their APIs into a single, discoverable, and reusable platform. The platform is particularly suited for organizations that need to decouple backend and frontend development, reduce technical debt from backends-for-frontends, and enable rapid AI iteration with secure data access.

Apollo GraphOS, the company's complete API management platform, includes built-in support for GraphQL Federation, Connectors, Response Caching, and Federated Subscriptions. Apollo Connectors allow developers to bring all APIs together in minutes on a declarative query-based GraphQL platform, powering any app with real-time data. The platform provides a central registry and standardized workflows for backend teams, enabling them to define core entities and business logic once and ship across any interface. Apollo reduces latency by enabling frontend teams to fetch all needed data in a single request, and GraphOS Router can be self-hosted. The platform also includes Schema Proposals for collaboration and approval workflows, single sign-on (SSO), audit logging, and custom MSA. Data retention for checks and insights ranges from 1 day on the Free plan to 18 months on the Enterprise plan, with field-level latency data retained for 7 days across all paid tiers.

Apollo competes directly with Hasura, StepZen, Stellate, Adeptia, and Back4App. Compared to Hasura, which uses a domain-first approach that auto-generates GraphQL APIs from databases, Apollo requires a schema-first approach that may demand more initial setup and manual schema design. However, Apollo's federation model is more mature for large-scale, multi-team environments where different teams own different subgraphs. StepZen offers a similar declarative approach but with a focus on REST-to-GraphQL conversion, while Stellate specializes in GraphQL caching and CDN delivery. Apollo's enterprise adoption—with customers like Netflix, Warner Brothers, and Booking.com—demonstrates its proven infrastructure at scale, but its pricing model (starting at $5 per million requests) can become costly for high-volume APIs compared to open-source alternatives like Hasura Community Edition.

Key trade-offs include the schema-first learning curve, which can slow initial development compared to auto-generating tools like Hasura. The Free plan limits the self-hosted GraphOS Router to 60 requests per minute, which is insufficient for any production workload. Developer plan pricing starts at $5 per million requests, which can accumulate quickly for high-traffic APIs, and the Free plan retains data for only 1 day, limiting debugging capabilities. Additionally, while Apollo's GraphOS Router is self-hosted, the platform itself is a managed cloud service, meaning teams must rely on Apollo's uptime for schema registry and insights features. Despite these trade-offs, Apollo remains the dominant choice for organizations that need a battle-tested federation platform with enterprise-grade support and collaboration tools.

Free plan for students or hobbyists (up to 3 developers, 60 requests/min, 1-day data retention); Developer plan starting at $5 per million requests (up to 10 developers, 7-day data retention); Standard plan with custom pricing (up to 30 developers, 90-day data retention); Enterprise plan with custom pricing (unlimited developers, 18-month data retention, 24/7/365 support).