Cosmo Connect vs Apollo Federation vs GraphQL Federation

Apollo Federation, GraphQL Federation, and Cosmo Connect are three distinct approaches to building a unified API layer, each with its own trade-offs and design principles. Apollo Federation uses GraphQL subgraphs and the _entities field for entity resolution, requiring organizations to adopt GraphQL as their main tech stack. GraphQL Federation, developed under the GraphQL Foundation, maintains a vanilla GraphQL approach with explicit directives like @lookup, focusing on composability, collaboration, evolvability, and explicitness, though it faces challenges in clarity and batching efficiency. Cosmo Connect, offering a newer approach, generates strict gRPC contracts from SDL, eliminating the need for GraphQL subgraph servers while the Cosmo Router handles operational tasks like batching, authentication, and retries. Cosmo Connect is particularly suited for integrating existing APIs into a Supergraph, providing a streamlined, efficient way to manage API infrastructure without the complexities associated with running additional GraphQL servers.