Performance Analysis of Web Microservices with Technological Convergence between REST and GraphQL API Architectures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61467/2007.1558.2026.v17i5.1412Keywords:
web microservices, REST API, GraphQL API, Software Performance, microservicios web, rendimiento del softwareAbstract
Efficient data exchange between heterogeneous systems is a critical need in modern software development. REST API and GraphQL API are the dominant paradigms for web microservices implementation; however, the scientific community has not reached a consensus on which offers better performance. Both technologies offer complementary strengths worth of studying, while REST has better response time and throughput, GraphQL improves on resource consumption. This paper presents a controlled and reproducible experiment that evaluates server response time when combining both technologies in different proportions within the development of a system. Microservices were designed by combining REST and GraphQL technologies on a basic generic user management case study; a set of 32 microservices web designs, each composed by five CRUD operations and operating with server request volumes ranging from 1 to 10, accumulating up to 76,800 requests. Findings show that a web service design involving the management of 4 CRUD operations by REST and 1 by GraphQL achieves comparable or superior median response times in contrast with a design that implements all operations using REST. Particularly, when one of the read or create CRUD operations is implemented using GraphQL and the remaining with REST the response time is minimized. In the other hand, implementing one of the update or delete CRUD operations with GraphQL causes a significative worst performance. These results provide empirical evidence of the requirements that a web microservices must meet to improve its design from the combination of REST and GraphQL technologies. Hence, strategic integration of GraphQL and REST in web microservice design might result in overall performance improvements, opposing the common sense that dictates using REST will always results in the best response times.
Spanish-language metadata / Metadatos en español
Título en español:
Análisis del rendimiento de microservicios web con convergencia tecnológica entre arquitecturas API REST y GraphQL
Resumen:
El intercambio eficiente de datos entre sistemas heterogéneos constituye una necesidad crítica en el desarrollo moderno de software. Las API REST y GraphQL representan dos de los paradigmas predominantes para la implementación de microservicios web; sin embargo, la comunidad científica aún no ha alcanzado un consenso respecto a cuál de ellos ofrece un mejor rendimiento. Ambas tecnologías presentan fortalezas complementarias que justifican su estudio: mientras que REST ofrece mejores tiempos de respuesta y mayor rendimiento (throughput), GraphQL mejora el consumo de recursos.
Este artículo presenta un experimento controlado y reproducible que evalúa el tiempo de respuesta del servidor al combinar ambas tecnologías en diferentes proporciones durante el desarrollo de un sistema. Los microservicios se diseñaron mediante distintas combinaciones de tecnologías REST y GraphQL sobre un caso de estudio genérico y básico de gestión de usuarios. Se evaluó un conjunto de 32 diseños de microservicios web, cada uno compuesto por cinco operaciones CRUD y sometido a volúmenes de solicitudes al servidor comprendidos entre 1 y 10, hasta acumular un total de 76.800 solicitudes.
Los resultados muestran que un diseño de servicio web en el que cuatro operaciones CRUD son gestionadas mediante REST y una mediante GraphQL alcanza tiempos medianos de respuesta comparables o superiores a los de un diseño que implementa todas las operaciones mediante REST. En particular, cuando una de las operaciones CRUD de lectura o creación se implementa mediante GraphQL y las restantes mediante REST, el tiempo de respuesta se minimiza.
Por el contrario, implementar mediante GraphQL una de las operaciones CRUD de actualización o eliminación produce un deterioro significativo del rendimiento. Estos resultados aportan evidencia empírica sobre los requisitos que deben cumplir los microservicios web para mejorar su diseño mediante la combinación de tecnologías REST y GraphQL.
En consecuencia, una integración estratégica de GraphQL y REST en el diseño de microservicios web podría producir mejoras globales en el rendimiento, en contraste con la idea generalizada de que el uso exclusivo de REST siempre proporciona los mejores tiempos de respuesta.
Palabras Claves:
microservicios web, API REST, API GraphQL, rendimiento del software
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