Hasura GraphQL Engine
Instant GraphQL APIs on your databases with fine-grained access control and real-time subscriptions.
What is Hasura GraphQL Engine?
Hasura GraphQL Engine is an open-source server that instantly creates a production-ready GraphQL API over your databases. It automatically generates CRUD operations, real-time subscriptions, and fine-grained access control layers, eliminating the need to manually write GraphQL resolvers or middleware. It solves the problem of building secure, scalable backend APIs quickly by connecting directly to data sources like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and SQL Server.
Backend and full-stack developers building modern web or mobile applications who need rapid API development, real-time features, and secure data access without extensive backend coding.
Developers choose Hasura for its ability to deliver instant, secure GraphQL APIs with zero boilerplate, built-in real-time capabilities, and extensibility through custom connectors. It dramatically reduces backend development time while providing enterprise-grade security and scalability out of the box.
Overview
Blazing fast, instant realtime GraphQL APIs on all your data with fine grained access control, also trigger webhooks on database events.
Use Cases
Best For
- Rapidly prototyping GraphQL backends for new applications
- Adding real-time subscriptions to existing databases
- Building internal tools with secure, role-based data access
- Migrating from REST to GraphQL without rewriting business logic
- Creating unified GraphQL APIs across multiple database types
- Implementing event-driven architectures with database triggers
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring extensive custom REST APIs or strict control over API design beyond GraphQL
- Teams using databases not supported by Hasura's connectors, such as Oracle or SQLite
- Applications with highly dynamic or non-relational data models that don't map cleanly to auto-generated GraphQL schemas
- Environments with ultra-low latency requirements where the GraphQL layer overhead is unacceptable
Pros & Cons
Pros
Automatically generates a complete, real-time GraphQL API from database schemas in minutes, eliminating manual resolver coding as highlighted in the README's key features.
Connects to PostgreSQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse, and MS SQL Server, providing a unified API across diverse database types without custom integration work.
Supports GraphQL subscriptions over WebSockets out of the box, enabling live data updates for applications without additional server setup.
Offers configurable role-based permissions at row and column levels, ensuring secure data access as detailed in the features section.
Cons
The mono-repo has a large git history, making cloning slow and setup cumbersome, as admitted in the README's cloning instructions with recommendations for shallow clones.
Auto-generated GraphQL schemas may not fit complex business logic, requiring additional work with Connector SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go) for extensions, which adds development overhead.
With both V2 (stable) and V3 (future) versions, developers face potential confusion and migration challenges, as noted in the README's separate documentation links.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code
Official GitHub repositoryTypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output.
ViteNext generation frontend tooling. It's fast!
MetabaseThe easy-to-use open source Business Intelligence and Embedded Analytics tool that lets everyone work with data :bar_chart:
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.