Hot Chocolate is a free, open-source GraphQL server for .NET that runs on ASP.NET Core and builds a typed schema from C# types and resolvers. Developers can define schemas using implementation-first or code-first approaches. The server supports GraphQL over HTTP and WebSocket, as well as Server-Sent Events for streamed responses. Its documentation describes schema downloads, a Nitro GraphQL IDE endpoint and a command-line interface for exporting schemas. Listed data integrations include Entity Framework, MongoDB and Marten. DataLoaders and batch resolvers group and cache related requests to reduce repeated fetching. OpenTelemetry instrumentation covers the server, execution engine and DataLoader layers. Security guidance recommends cost analysis, pagination limits, execution-depth limits and timeouts for public APIs; private APIs can restrict requests to registered operations using trusted documents. A server can act as a Fusion subgraph. Hot Chocolate is MIT licensed for commercial or private projects, and its documentation says it implements the GraphQL 2025 specification and GraphQL over HTTP. It is self-hosted and uses C#.
Who it is for
Hot Chocolate suits .NET developers building GraphQL APIs on ASP.NET Core. Trusted documents are described for private APIs serving known clients, such as an organisation’s own web or mobile apps.
What is good
- Supports implementation-first and code-first schema authoring.
- Includes DataLoader and batch resolver options.
- Provides OpenTelemetry instrumentation.
- MIT licensed for commercial and private projects.
What to know first
- Gateway uploads to stitched services are not supported.
- Getting-started tutorial requires .NET 8 SDK or later.
- Paid support plans start at $450 per month.
Verdict
Hot Chocolate offers schema authoring, data-loading and observability tools for .NET GraphQL servers. Its security guidance distinguishes safeguards for public APIs from trusted-document controls for private ones.
Hot Chocolate plans and pricing
All plansCompared on GraphQL tools
- Free plan
- Yes
- Deployment model
- self-hosted
- API explorer
- Yes
- Operation testing
- Yes
- Server languages
- C#
