Apollo Client (GraphQL)

Apollo Client allows developers to manage both remote server data and local application state using a unified GraphQL API. Instead of fetching data and putting it into Redux, the data is cached locally by Apollo's normalized store. This simplifies your architecture by consolidating your data fetching and state management into a single layer.

While React Query is great for simple REST API state, Apollo Client shines when dealing with highly complex, interconnected GraphQL data graphs. Apollo offers predictable, robust caching, optimistic UI responses, and built-in pagination management specifically tailored for GraphQL. It acts as a single source of truth that is highly optimized for GraphQL schemas.

Apollo Client provides a fetchMore function and supports cursor-based or offset-based pagination out of the box. You use the updateQuery function or the newer merge function in the cache fieldPolicy to combine the newly fetched data with the existing list in the cache. This allows for seamless infinite scroll experiences without manually managing array states.

Apollo Client exposes both network errors and GraphQL errors through the onError link in your Apollo Link chain. You can configure a global error handling link to intercept authentication failures or automatically retry failed network requests. Alternatively, the useQuery hook passes an error object directly to your component for localized UI handling.