Overview

Flask

Stacks19.3K

Followers16.2K

Votes60

ExpressJS

Stacks35.1K

Followers24.0K

Votes1.6K

ExpressJS vs Flask: What are the differences?

ExpressJS and Flask are two popular web application frameworks for JavaScript and Python, respectively. Let's discuss the key differences between ExpressJS and Flask:

Routing and Request Handling: ExpressJS uses a simple and flexible routing system where routes can be defined with various HTTP methods and parameters. It allows for greater control over URL routing and request handling. On the other hand, Flask uses Decorators to define routes, which is a more concise and Pythonic way of handling routing and request handling.
Language Support: ExpressJS is primarily designed for JavaScript, making it a popular framework for Node.js applications. It benefits from the extensive JavaScript ecosystem, allowing developers to leverage modules, libraries, and tools built specifically for JavaScript. Flask, being a Python framework, provides seamless integration with Python libraries and tools, offering access to a wide range of functionality and module support.
Scalability and Performance: ExpressJS is known for its performance and scalability, especially when used with Node.js, which is built on asynchronous, event-driven architecture. This makes it ideal for handling large-scale applications with high traffic and real-time data requirements. In comparison, Flask performs admirably for medium-sized applications, but it may not have the same level of performance and scalability as ExpressJS for handling high loads.
Community and Ecosystem: ExpressJS has a large and active community with a vast ecosystem of plugins, modules, and frameworks built specifically for it. This makes it easy to find solutions and resources for various application requirements. Flask also has a vibrant community, but the ecosystem might be relatively smaller compared to ExpressJS. However, Flask benefits from the wider Python community, which provides a wealth of support and libraries for various web development tasks.
Learning Curve and Flexibility: ExpressJS is known for its simplicity and ease of use, which makes it an excellent choice for beginners and developers who prefer a more straightforward framework. It also offers great flexibility, allowing developers to structure their applications as per their preference. Flask, on the other hand, may have a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its Pythonic nature. However, it provides a lot of flexibility and control over the application structure, making it suitable for complex applications.
Integration with Databases and ORM: ExpressJS has excellent support for various databases and provides several libraries and modules for Object-Relational Mapping (ORM). This makes it easy to work with different databases and define database models in JavaScript. Flask, being built on Python, has access to a wide range of database libraries and offers seamless integration with popular ORMs like SQLAlchemy, making it a great choice for handling database-related tasks.

In summary, ExpressJS is a minimalist and flexible Node.js web application framework that simplifies the creation of robust and scalable server-side applications, emphasizing a "middleware" approach for handling HTTP requests and responses. On the other hand, Flask is a lightweight Python web framework that follows a micro-framework design, providing simplicity and extensibility for building web applications with a focus on modular components and ease of use.

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Advice on Flask, ExpressJS

Kristan Eres

Senior Solutions Analyst

Jul 30, 2020

Needs adviceon

Django

Python

Flask

My journey to developing REST APIs started with Flask Restful, and I've found it to be enough for the needs of my project back then. Now that I've started investing more time on personal projects, I've yet to decide if I should move to use Django for writing REST APIs. I often see job posts looking for Python+Django developers, but it's usually for full-stack developers. I'm primarily interested in Data Engineering, so most of my web projects are back end.

Should I continue with what I know (Flask) or move on to Django?

392k views392k

Comments

Saurav

Application Devloper at Bny Mellon

Mar 27, 2020

Needs advice

I have just started learning Python 3 weeks ago. I want to create a REST API using python. The API will be used to save form data in an Oracle database. The front end is using AngularJS 8 with Angular Material. In python, there are so many frameworks to develop REST APIs.

I am looking for some suggestions which REST framework to choose?

Here are some features I am looking for:

Easy integration and unit testing, like in Angular. We just want to run a command.
Code packaging, like in java maven project we can build and package. I am looking for something which I can push in as an artifact and deploy whole code as a package.
Support for swagger/ OpenAPI
Support for JSON Web Token
Support for test case coverage report

Framework can have features included or can be available by extension. Also, you can suggest a framework other than the ones I have mentioned.

337k views337k

Comments

Girish

Software Engineer at FireVisor Systems

Apr 17, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

Nameko

RabbitMQ

Which is the best Python framework for microservices?

We are using Nameko for building microservices in Python. The things we really like are dependency injection and the ease with which one can expose endpoints via RPC over RabbitMQ. We are planning to try a tool that helps us write polyglot microservices and nameko is not super compatible with it. Also, we are a bit worried about the not so good community support from nameko and looking for a python alternate to write microservices.

310k views310k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Flask	ExpressJS
Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind.	Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.
-	Robust routing;HTTP helpers (redirection, caching, etc);View system supporting 14+ template engines;Content negotiation;Focus on high performance;Executable for generating applications quickly;High test coverage
Statistics
Stacks 19.3K	Stacks 35.1K
Followers 16.2K	Followers 24.0K
Votes 60	Votes 1.6K
Pros & Cons
Pros 10 For it flexibility 9 Flexibilty and easy to use 7 User friendly 6 Secured 5 Unopinionated Cons 10 Not JS 7 Context 5 Not fast 1 Don't has many module as in spring	Pros 381 Simple 336 Node.js 244 Javascript 193 High performance 152 Robust routing Cons 27 Not python 17 Overrated 14 No multithreading 9 Javascript 5 Not fast
Integrations
No integrations available	Node.js

What are some alternatives to Flask, ExpressJS?

Django REST framework

It is a powerful and flexible toolkit that makes it easy to build Web APIs.

Sails.js

Sails is designed to mimic the MVC pattern of frameworks like Ruby on Rails, but with support for the requirements of modern apps: data-driven APIs with scalable, service-oriented architecture.

Sinatra

Sinatra is a DSL for quickly creating web applications in Ruby with minimal effort.

Lumen

Laravel Lumen is a stunningly fast PHP micro-framework for building web applications with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Lumen attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as routing, database abstraction, queueing, and caching.

Slim

Slim is easy to use for both beginners and professionals. Slim favors cleanliness over terseness and common cases over edge cases. Its interface is simple, intuitive, and extensively documented — both online and in the code itself.

Fastify

Fastify is a web framework highly focused on speed and low overhead. It is inspired from Hapi and Express and as far as we know, it is one of the fastest web frameworks in town. Use Fastify can increase your throughput up to 100%.

Falcon

Falcon is a minimalist WSGI library for building speedy web APIs and app backends. We like to think of Falcon as the Dieter Rams of web frameworks.

hapi

hapi is a simple to use configuration-centric framework with built-in support for input validation, caching, authentication, and other essential facilities for building web applications and services.

TypeORM

It supports both Active Record and Data Mapper patterns, unlike all other JavaScript ORMs currently in existence, which means you can write high quality, loosely coupled, scalable, maintainable applications the most productive way.

FeathersJS

Feathers is a real-time, micro-service web framework for NodeJS that gives you control over your data via RESTful resources, sockets and flexible plug-ins.