NestJS vs Play: What are the differences?
Developers describe NestJS as "A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications by @kammysliwiec". Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses progressive JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming)
Under the hood, Nest makes use of Express, but also, provides compatibility with a wide range of other libraries, like e.g. Fastify, allowing for easy use of the myriad third-party plugins which are available.. On the other hand, Play is detailed as "The High Velocity Web Framework For Java and Scala". Play Framework makes it easy to build web applications with Java & Scala. Play is based on a lightweight, stateless, web-friendly architecture. Built on Akka, Play provides predictable and minimal resource consumption (CPU, memory, threads) for highly-scalable applications.
NestJS and Play belong to "Frameworks (Full Stack)" category of the tech stack.
"Powerful but super friendly to work with" is the primary reason why developers consider NestJS over the competitors, whereas "Scala" was stated as the key factor in picking Play.
NestJS and Play are both open source tools. It seems that NestJS with 17.4K GitHub stars and 1.22K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Play with 11.2K GitHub stars and 3.77K GitHub forks.
Coursera, Keen, and Codacy are some of the popular companies that use Play, whereas NestJS is used by Sofit Software, Quero Education, and YABAWT. Play has a broader approval, being mentioned in 112 company stacks & 47 developers stacks; compared to NestJS, which is listed in 12 company stacks and 13 developer stacks.