Graphcool, Inc

Graphcool, Inc was a software company best known for Graphcool, a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform built around GraphQL. The first version of Graphcool went live in March 2016, at a time when GraphQL was still new and the surrounding ecosystem consisted of only a few libraries. The company's stated mission was to enable developers to quickly and easily use GraphQL in their projects, and it concluded that the best way to reach that goal was to build a BaaS that removed the development overhead of implementing a GraphQL API with a database, giving developers a fully-featured GraphQL API out of the box. Beyond the platform itself, Graphcool invested heavily in education and community. In 2016 it launched popular tutorials such as Learn Apollo and Learn Relay, as well as How to GraphQL, which remained one of the most popular free learning resources for GraphQL. The company also ran a community Slack that grew over the years and served as a place for discussions around GraphQL and other technologies. Graphcool attracted a substantial developer following. According to the company's own sunset notice, more than 59,000 users signed up for Graphcool and created a total of 234,000 projects, and the platform was used by developers at companies including Twitter, Airbnb, Netlify and Auth0. After running for more than four years, Graphcool sunsetted on July 1, 2020. The team and technology lineage continued under Prisma Data, Inc., the software company known as the developer of Prisma ORM.

Graphcool, Inc emerged in the mid-2010s around GraphQL, a query language for APIs that was then fresh out of the oven. The first version of Graphcool went live in March 2016. At that time there were not many learning resources about GraphQL and the ecosystem consisted of just a few libraries, yet many developers saw its potential and wanted to use it. From day one, the company's mission was to enable developers to quickly and easily use GraphQL in their projects. Its conclusion was that the best way to reach this goal was by building a Backend-as-a-Service that would save the development overhead of implementing a GraphQL API with a database, giving developers a fully-featured GraphQL API out of the box. Because GraphQL was still new and tutorials were scarce, Graphcool also dedicated itself to educating developers. In 2016 it launched popular tutorials such as Learn Apollo and Learn Relay, as well as How to GraphQL, which remained one of the most popular free learning resources for GraphQL. Community was central to the company from the start: its community Slack grew substantially over the years and continued to serve as a place for lively discussions around GraphQL and other technologies. The platform gained meaningful traction. According to the company's sunset notice, more than 59,000 users signed up for Graphcool and created a total of 234,000 projects, and Graphcool was used by developers at companies such as Twitter, Airbnb, Netlify and Auth0. After running for more than four years, Graphcool sunsetted on July 1, 2020. The official website posted a thank-you message to everyone who had accompanied the company during that time. The team and technology lineage continued under Prisma Data, Inc., the software company known as the developer of Prisma ORM.

• The first version of Graphcool went live.

• Graphcool launched popular tutorials including Learn Apollo, Learn Relay and How to GraphQL.

• Graphcool sunsetted after running for more than four years.

Developer-first GraphQL Backend-as-a-Service that removed the overhead of building a GraphQL API with a database, paired with free educational content and a community Slack.

• Graphcool BaaS platform

  A Backend-as-a-Service that gives developers a fully-featured GraphQL API out of the box, saving the overhead of implementing a GraphQL API with a database.

• How to GraphQL

  A free learning resource for GraphQL launched in 2016, described as still one of the most popular free learning resources for GraphQL.

• Learn Apollo

  A popular GraphQL tutorial launched in 2016.

• Learn Relay

  A popular GraphQL tutorial launched in 2016.

1. 1Thank You for Using Graphcool 💚graph.cool
2. 2Prisma Data, Inc — Wikidatawikidata.org