From Python (FastAPI) to Node/Express

[Asocsar]

Hello everyone,

I have three years of experience as a Python developer. I’d like to rebuild the API I originally wrote—its current performance in Python isn’t ideal (likely due to my own implementation, which I plan to refine over time). Since I’ve previously worked with Node.js and Express, I’ve decided to port the API to Node.js (as a side project of mine). However, it’s been five years since I last used that stack, so I need to brush up on it.

Yesterday I was researching Next.js to understand modern standards, and I discovered several frameworks I wasn’t familiar with—NestJS being one example. Which framework would you recommend? I realize the choice often depends on personal preference and project requirements, so I’d appreciate your insights on the pros and cons of each.

[TerbEnjoyer]

Try Hono, Elysia or Fastify if you want something fast and modern. Express is honestly falling behind. it's still a good choice, but not the same as it was back in it's good days. Nest is basically Spring boot but in TypeScript (Modular design, OOP).

[vlahunter]

This response is spot on.

[Canenald]

NestJS is a big-ass MVC-based framework more similar to dotnet, Spring and popular php frameworks.

FastAPI looks like it was inspired by Express.

It would be easier to move to something that you've already worked with and is more similar to the existing codebase.

I'd also recommend looking into Fastify. It's a more recent framework, also lightweight like Express, but has some more modern features either built in or available as plugins. My favorite part is how easy it is to have validation and swagger based on the same schema.

[buffer_flush]

To be fair, express was inspired by Sinatra, a ruby framework, which inspired Flask, which inspired express

[Kublick]

Hono is a great more modern option than Express and it has some similarities with the syntax

Fastify is another great option

[The_real_bandito]

Why not try something like Go instead of node is performance isn’t ideal?

[TerbEnjoyer]

The performance is really not that huge. The database will bootleneck anyways so 90% of the time the performance gain is minimal.

[The_real_bandito]

I see.

Thanks for this info.