The short version
REST is a set of conventions for exposing resources over HTTP — one endpoint per resource, standard verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). GraphQL is a query language that lets the client ask for exactly the fields it needs, in one request, from one endpoint. Neither is “better” in the abstract — the right choice depends on what your client applications actually need to do.
Where REST still wins
REST is simpler to cache (HTTP caching works out of the box), simpler to secure per-endpoint, and easier for a small team to reason about. If you’re building a handful of well-defined screens against a handful of well-defined resources, REST is usually the faster path to shipping.
Where GraphQL earns its complexity
GraphQL pays off when you have many different client views pulling different slices of the same underlying data — a mobile app, a web dashboard and a partner integration all wanting different fields from the same “product” object. Instead of building a new REST endpoint per view, the client just asks for what it needs.
Our take
We default to REST for most client projects — it’s faster to build, faster to secure, and easier to hand off. We reach for GraphQL specifically when a project has multiple frontends consuming the same backend with genuinely different data needs, which is a smaller set of projects than the hype suggests.