The Future of Federation: Replacing GraphQL Subgraphs with gRPC Services

WunderGraph proposes replacing GraphQL subgraphs with gRPC services in federated architectures to address key limitations: lack of type safety, manual data loader implementation, performance bottlenecks, and Apollo's vendor lock-in. The new approach maintains GraphQL on the client side while using gRPC for service communication, providing automatic batching, compile-time type safety, and faster innovation cycles. The solution includes a GraphQL SDL-to-proto compiler that generates gRPC services from existing schemas, eliminating the need for subgraph frameworks while improving performance and developer experience.