Comparison

Headless Bridge vs WPGraphQL

Honest comparison to help you choose the right API solution for your headless WordPress project.

Quick Summary

Feature
Headless Bridge
WPGraphQL
Best For
Content sites (blogs, marketing)
Complex apps (e-commerce, dashboards)
TTFB
50-80ms
300-800ms
Learning Curve
Low (REST API)
High (GraphQL)
Query Flexibility
Fixed endpoints
Full GraphQL queries
Price
Free + Pro ($49/yr)
Free
Plugin Ecosystem
Growing
Mature (many extensions)

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

Metric
Headless Bridge
WPGraphQL
TTFB
51ms
387ms
Database Queries
1
12
Response Size
8.4KB
15.1KB
CPU Usage
5%
35%

Winner: Headless Bridge (7.5x faster)

List Endpoint (20 Posts)

Metric
Headless Bridge
WPGraphQL
TTFB
62ms
920ms
Database Queries
1
48
Requests/sec (load test)
287
8.7

Winner: Headless Bridge (15x faster, 33x more throughput)

At Scale (100,000 Posts)

Metric
Headless Bridge
WPGraphQL
TTFB
53ms
2,150ms
Performance Degradation
None
Severe

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)

Solution
Server Needs
Monthly Cost
Headless Bridge
2 vCPU, 4GB RAM
~$24/mo
WPGraphQL
8 vCPU, 16GB RAM
~$96/mo

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.