REST vs GraphQL for Content Delivery: How to Choose

Your team is building a marketing site in Next.js with a handful of content types. Someone suggests GraphQL because the queries are flexible. Someone else wants REST because it's simpler to cache. Both are right about something — and the right answer depends on what you're actually building.

What REST Gets Right for Content Delivery

REST endpoints are predictable. A GET request to /api/posts/my-slug returns a post. That URL is cacheable by Vercel's Edge Network, Netlify's CDN, or any reverse proxy without any special configuration. If most of your pages display a single content type, REST is often the lower-friction path.

REST also tends to be simpler to debug. You can inspect responses in a browser, curl them from your terminal, and reason about caching headers without understanding query shapes. ContentGrid's REST API returns JSON with predictable field names that match your schema exactly.

What GraphQL Gets Right for Flexibility

GraphQL shines when one page needs content from multiple types in a single request. A homepage that pulls featured posts, a hero entry, testimonials, and a pricing table can fetch all of it in one query instead of four REST calls. That matters for performance when you're server-rendering on Vercel with a short cache TTL.

GraphQL also lets your TypeScript SDK generate types directly from your schema. Tools like GraphQL Code Generator produce accurate interfaces for every query, which eliminates a whole category of runtime errors. If your team is TypeScript-first, that type safety often justifies the added complexity.

Caching Considerations

• REST: GET requests cache naturally at the CDN layer. Set Cache-Control headers and your CDN handles the rest.
• GraphQL: POST requests don't cache by default. You need persisted queries or a GET-based query approach to get CDN caching.
• ContentGrid: Both APIs support cache tags, so you can invalidate specific entries via webhooks when content changes without purging everything.

A Practical Decision Framework

Use REST if: your pages map cleanly to single content types, your team values simplicity, or you need predictable CDN caching without extra configuration. Use GraphQL if: your pages compose content from many types, your team uses TypeScript end-to-end and wants generated types, or you need to trim response payload size for performance-sensitive routes.

Many teams use both. REST for simple blog post pages, GraphQL for complex landing pages or the data layer behind a site search. ContentGrid exposes the same content through both APIs, so you're not locked in at the start. Pick based on the route, not as a project-wide religion.