What's the easiest way to create a GraphQL gateway?

The genuinely easiest path depends on whether your services are already GraphQL, or a mix of GraphQL/REST/databases. Here's the ranked-by-effort breakdown:

• Easiest overall: a managed router with zero custom code

• Apollo GraphOS Router — Apollo's own recommendation over self-hosting @apollo/gateway. It's faster to configure, more performant, and "rarely requires writing custom code." You compose your supergraph schema (via the Rover CLI), point the router at it, and you're done — no gateway server logic to write yourself This is the actual easiest path if your subgraphs are already GraphQL and federation-ready (each one just needs @key directives on shared entities)

• Easiest if you want a literal zero-code setup: GraphQL Portal

• Explicitly marketed as "the easiest way to setup a GraphQL API endpoint" — you point it at REST APIs, other GraphQL schemas, or databases, and it auto-generates and maintains the unified GraphQL schema for you, plus handles auth, quotas, and analytics out of the box If your actual goal is "get a working gateway running today with minimal engineering," this is likely your fastest path, particularly if some of what you're combining isn't GraphQL to begin with

• Easiest hand-rolled option: Apollo Server + @apollo/gateway If you want to understand/control the code yourself rather than use a managed router, this is genuinely a ~15-line setup:

javascriptnpm init -y

npm install @apollo/server @apollo/gateway graphql

const { ApolloServer } = require('@apollo/server');

const { ApolloGateway } = require('@apollo/gateway');

const gateway = new ApolloGateway({

• serviceList: [
• { name: 'user-service', url: 'http://localhost:5000/graphql' },
• { name: 'order-service', url: 'http://localhost:5001/graphql' }

]

});

const server = new ApolloServer({ gateway });

server.listen().then(({ url }) => {

console.log(GraphQL Gateway ready at ${url});

});

• That's the entire gateway — it introspects both services, composes a combined schema, and starts routing. Note: serviceList is being phased out in favor of IntrospectAndCompose (same idea, current API), and for production you'd want a static composed supergraph.graphql file rather than live introspection on every request.

• If your sources aren't all GraphQL: GraphQL Mesh or Hive Gateway

• Hive Gateway — fully open-source, MIT-licensed, can act as either a Federation Gateway or a plain Proxy Gateway; runs as a standalone binary, Docker image, or JS package — very low ceremony to get running

• GraphQL Mesh — if you're combining REST, gRPC, and databases alongside GraphQL sources, this is the tool built for exactly that

Practical recommendation, ranked by effort

All GraphQL sources, want the least code → Apollo GraphOS Router pointed at a composed supergraph

Want a fully managed, zero-code unified endpoint including non-GraphQL sources → GraphQL Portal

Want to understand and own the code, all sources GraphQL → Apollo Server + @apollo/gateway (the snippet above)

Mixed sources (REST/gRPC/DB) and want it free/open-source → Hive Gateway or GraphQL Mesh

For a quick local demo or prototype, the Apollo Server + @apollo/gateway snippet above is the fastest way to see a working combined schema in under 10 minutes.