Technical

Can I host Prisma myself?

There are basically two ways for hosting Prisma:

• With Prisma Cloud. Follow this tutorial to started with Digital Ocean.
• Do it yourself (using any available cloud provider, such as Digital Ocean, AWS, Google Cloud, ...). Follow this tutorial to started.

How do I connect my database to Prisma?

At the moment, Prisma supports MySQL as a database technology (with a lot more coming in the future). Connecting an existing MySQL database will require the following steps:

1. Translate your SQL schema into a GraphQL data model written in SDL
2. Deploy a Prisma service with that data model
3. If your database previously contained some data, import the data into your Prisma service

If you want to migrate from an existing data source, you can check out our plans to support automatic data imports here.

What databases does Prisma support?

MySQL is the very first database supported by Prisma. You can find more information about which databases will be supported here.

If you have any preferences on which database you'd like to see implemented, you can create a new feature request or give a +1 for an existing one.

Does Prisma Cloud come with a built-in Database?

By its very nature, Prisma Cloud does not come with a built-in Database.

We offer a fully managed solution where we optionally offer you a database. https://www.prisma.io/cloud/ (search for “serverless hosting”)

There are demo servers available in Prisma Cloud where you can create demo services, which will use the DB assigned to those servers (owned by Prisma for development purposes).

What are the benefits of GraphQL?

GraphQL comes with a plethora of benefits for application development:

• GraphQL allows client applications to request exactly the data they need from an API (which reduces network traffic and increases performance).
• When accessing a GraphQL API from the frontend, you can use a GraphQL client library (such as Apollo Client or Relay) which reduces frontend boilerplate and provides out-of-the-box support for features like caching, optimistic UI updates, realtime functionality, offline support and more.
• GraphQL APIs are based on a strongly typed schema which effectively provides a way for you to have a strongly typed API layer. This means developers can be confident about the operations an API allows and the shape of the responsed to be returned by the server.
• GraphQL has an amazing ecosystem of tooling which greatly improve workflows and overall developer experience. For example, GraphQL Playground which provides an interactive IDE for sending queries and mutations to an API (which can even be used by non-technical audiences). Another example are GraphQL bindings which enable to compose existing GraphQL APIs like LEGO bricks.
• The GraphQL ecosystem is made the fantastic GraphQL community who is putting in a lot of thought as well as hard work for how GraphQL can be evolved in the future and what other tools developers will benefit from.

How do backups work?

Because Prisma is only a layer on top of your database, you still have full control over the database itself. This means you have the full power and flexibility regarding your own backup strategy.

Prisma also offers a data export feature which you can use to create continuous backups for your data from the API layer.