Headless Bridge vs WPGraphQL
Honest comparison to help you choose the right API solution for your headless WordPress project.
Quick Summary
Bottom Line: Choose Headless Bridge for speed and simplicity on content sites. Choose WPGraphQL for complex, dynamic queries.
What They Are
Headless Bridge
A WordPress plugin that creates a pre-compiled REST API for your content. Instead of computing responses at request time, it generates JSON when you save content in WordPress.
Key approach: Pre-compilation. Do the work once at save time, not on every request.
WPGraphQL
Adds a GraphQL server to WordPress. It lets you query exactly the data you need using GraphQL's query language.
Key approach: Runtime resolution. Compute responses based on each query at request time.
Performance Comparison
Real benchmarks on identical test environments (DigitalOcean, 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM).
Single Post Fetch
Winner: Headless Bridge (7.5x faster)
List Endpoint (20 Posts)
Winner: Headless Bridge (15x faster, 33x more throughput)
At Scale (100,000 Posts)
Key insight: WPGraphQL performance degrades as content volume grows. Headless Bridge stays flat because it's just fetching pre-compiled JSON.
When to Choose Each
Choose Headless Bridge
- ✓Building content sites
Blogs, marketing websites, documentation, portfolios, news sites
- ✓Performance is critical
SEO-dependent businesses, Core Web Vitals matter, high-traffic sites
- ✓Want simplicity
Standard REST patterns, no GraphQL learning curve, simpler frontend code
- ✓Budget-conscious
Lower hosting requirements, smaller development team needed
Choose WPGraphQL
- ✓Building complex applications
E-commerce with filtering, admin dashboards, internal tools
- ✓Need query flexibility
Different data shapes per page, complex nested relationships
- ✓Large development team
GraphQL expertise available, familiar with Apollo/Relay
Advantages & Limitations
Headless Bridge
Advantages
- • 10-40x faster responses (pre-compilation)
- • Simpler code—no GraphQL client needed
- • Flat JSON (no nested .edges and .node)
- • Lower hosting costs
- • Easier caching
- • SEO metadata built-in
Limitations
- • Fixed JSON structure
- • Slight delay on save (5-30 sec)
- • Less flexible for dynamic queries
- • Newer ecosystem
WPGraphQL
Advantages
- • Query flexibility—ask for exactly what you need
- • Mature ecosystem with many extensions
- • Large, active community
- • Officially supported by Automattic
- • Real-time capable (subscriptions)
Limitations
- • Performance overhead (runtime resolution)
- • N+1 query problem
- • Steeper learning curve
- • Caching complexity (POST requests)
- • Higher hosting costs
Code Comparison
Fetching 10 posts:
WPGraphQL
import { gql, useQuery } from '@apollo/client';
const GET_POSTS = gql`
query GetPosts {
posts(first: 10) {
edges {
node {
id
title
slug
excerpt
featuredImage {
node {
sourceUrl
}
}
}
}
}
}
`;
function Posts() {
const { data, loading } = useQuery(GET_POSTS);
const posts = data.posts.edges.map(e => e.node);
// ...
}Headless Bridge
async function getPosts() {
const res = await fetch(
`${API_URL}/pages?type=post&limit=10`
);
return res.json();
}
function Posts() {
const [posts, setPosts] = useState([]);
useEffect(() => {
getPosts().then(data =>
setPosts(data.pages)
);
}, []);
return (
<div>
{posts.map(post => (
<article key={post.uuid}>
<h2>{post.title}</h2>
<img src={post.featuredImage?.url} />
</article>
))}
</div>
);
}Headless Bridge code is: 40% fewer lines, no special client library needed, flatter data access (no .node wrappers), standard JavaScript patterns.
Cost Comparison
Hosting Costs (1M requests/month)
Annual savings with Headless Bridge: ~$864/year
Common Questions
"But WPGraphQL is the standard, right?"
WPGraphQL is popular and well-supported. But "standard" doesn't mean "best for every project." Choose based on your specific needs, not popularity.
"Can I use both?"
Yes. Some teams use WPGraphQL for admin dashboards and Headless Bridge for public-facing content delivery.
"Is GraphQL actually bad?"
No. GraphQL is excellent for certain use cases. It's just overkill for content sites where you're fetching the same data structure repeatedly.
Verdict
Choose Headless Bridge if:
- • Building blogs, marketing sites, documentation
- • Performance and SEO matter
- • Want simpler development
- • Budget-conscious
Choose WPGraphQL if:
- • Building complex apps with dynamic queries
- • Need maximum flexibility
- • Team already knows GraphQL
- • Building admin tools or dashboards
For most headless WordPress projects (blogs, marketing, portfolios), Headless Bridge delivers better performance with less complexity.
Try Both
The best way to decide is to test both on your actual content.