Overview

Spring Framework

Stacks6.5K

Followers885

Votes0

GitHub Stars59.1K

Forks38.8K

NestJS

Stacks2.7K

Followers3.0K

Votes326

GitHub Stars73.3K

Forks8.1K

NestJS vs Spring Framework: What are the differences?

# Comparison: NestJS vs Spring Framework

NestJS and Spring Framework are two popular frameworks used for developing scalable and maintainable applications. While both frameworks aim to provide a robust foundation for building applications, there are key differences that developers should consider before choosing one over the other.


1. **Language Support**: NestJS is primarily used with TypeScript, a statically-typed superset of JavaScript, while Spring Framework is built for Java applications. This difference in language support can be a determining factor for developers based on their familiarity and expertise with a particular language.

2. **Architecture**: NestJS follows an architecture inspired by Angular, using modules, controllers, services, and decorators to structure applications. In contrast, Spring Framework promotes the use of inversion of control (IoC) and aspect-oriented programming (AOP), providing developers with more flexibility in defining application components.

3. **Community and Ecosystem**: Spring Framework has been around for a longer time and has a larger community and ecosystem compared to NestJS. This means that developers using Spring have access to a wider range of resources, plugins, and libraries that can aid in application development.

4. **Scalability**: NestJS provides built-in support for microservices architecture through its Microservices module, making it a suitable choice for developing scalable applications. Spring Framework, on the other hand, can also be used for microservices but may require additional configuration and setup.

5. **Learning Curve**: Due to its TypeScript support and Angular-like architecture, NestJS may have a steeper learning curve for developers unfamiliar with these technologies. In comparison, developers with experience in Java may find it easier to pick up and work with Spring Framework.

6. **Integration with Other Technologies**: Spring Framework offers seamless integration with a wide range of technologies such as Hibernate for ORM and Spring Data for data access. NestJS, while versatile, may not have the same level of integration with certain technologies commonly used in Java applications.

In Summary, NestJS and Spring Framework differ in language support, architecture, community size, scalability features, learning curve, and integration with other technologies, providing developers with distinct options based on their project requirements and expertise.

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Advice on Spring Framework, NestJS

juan9222

Jul 25, 2020

Needs advice

Hi there, I'm deciding the technology to use in my project.

I need to build software that has:

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Main View (access to a user account, News, General Info, Business hours, software, and parts section).
Account Preferences.
Web Shop for Parts (Support, Download Sections, Ticket System).

The most critical functionality is a WebSocket that connects between a car that sends real-time data through serial communication, and a server performs diagnosis on the car and sends the results back to the user.

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Louai

Full Stack Web Developer

May 15, 2020

Needs adviceon

Node.js

TypeScript

ExpressJS

I'm planning with a small team to create an application which is a platform for restaurants. I'm on the backend almost alone currently. I'm going to use Node.js for that, and I'm very fond of TypeScript, and I worked before mostly with ExpressJS. The team may get bigger as the application becomes bigger and more successful, so I have the Scalability concern in mind now, and I was considering these options:

Use Node+Express+Typescript
Use Node+NestJs (which utilizes Typescript by default)

Option 2 is enticing to me because recently I came to love NestJS and it provides more scalability for the project and uses Typescript in the best way and uses Express under the hood. Also I come from an Angular 2 background, which I think is the best frontend framework (my opinion, and I know React quite well), which makes Nest feel familiar to me because of the similarity between Nest and Angular. Option 1 on the other hand uses Express which is a minimalist framework, very popular one, but it doesn't provide the same scalability and brings decision fatigue about what to combine with it and may not utilize Typescript in the best way. Yet, on the other hand, it is flexible and it may be easier to manipulate things in different ways with it. Another very important thing is that it would be easier in my view to hire Node developers with skills in Express than NestJs. The majority of Node developers are much more familiar with JavaScript and Express.

What is your advice and why? I would love to hear especially from developers who worked on both Express and Nest

549k views549k

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Slimane

Jul 9, 2020

Needs adviceon

Spring Boot

NestJS

Node.js

I am currently planning to build a project from scratch. I will be using Angular as front-end framework, but for the back-end I am not sure which framework to use between Spring Boot and NestJS. I have worked with Spring Boot before, but my new project contains a lot of I/O operations, in fact it will show a daily report. I thought about the new Spring Web Reactive Framework but given the idea that Node.js is the most popular on handling non blocking I/O I am planning to start learning NestJS since it is based on Angular philosophy and TypeScript which I am familiar with. Looking forward to hear from you dear Community.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Spring Framework	NestJS
It provides a comprehensive programming and configuration model for modern Java-based enterprise applications - on any kind of deployment platform. The framework's core features can be used by any Java application, but there are extensions for building web applications on top of the Java EE platform.	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.
Lightweight; Dependency Injection; Transaction Management	Extensible - Gives you true flexibility by allowing use of any other libraries thanks to modular architecture.; Versatile - An adaptable ecosystem that is a fully-fledged backbone for all kinds of server-side applications.; Progressive - Takes advantage of latest JavaScript features, bringing design patterns and mature solutions to node.js world.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 59.1K	GitHub Stars 73.3K
GitHub Forks 38.8K	GitHub Forks 8.1K
Stacks 6.5K	Stacks 2.7K
Followers 885	Followers 3.0K
Votes 0	Votes 326
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 54 Powerful but super friendly to work with 42 Fast development 40 Easy to understand documentation 36 Angular style syntax for the backend 32 NodeJS ecosystem Cons 10 User base is small. Less help on Stackoverflow 10 Difficult to debug 5 Angular-like architecture 3 Javascript 3 Updates with breaking changes
Integrations
AngularJS MySQL NetBeans IDE Hibernate IntelliJ IDEA	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Spring Framework, NestJS?

Node.js

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Laravel

It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.