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  1. Stackups
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  4. Microframeworks
  5. ExpressJS vs Koa

ExpressJS vs Koa

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

ExpressJS
ExpressJS
Stacks35.1K
Followers24.0K
Votes1.6K
Koa
Koa
Stacks812
Followers483
Votes12
GitHub Stars35.7K
Forks3.2K

ExpressJS vs Koa: What are the differences?

Key Differences between ExpressJS and Koa

ExpressJS and Koa are both popular web application frameworks for Node.js. While they have some similarities, there are several key differences between them.

  1. Middleware Handling: ExpressJS has a simple and straightforward middleware handling process. It uses a middleware stack concept and uses a callback-based approach. On the other hand, Koa uses a more elegant and modern approach, with a composition of async functions. Koa's middleware flow control is based on async/await patterns, enabling better error handling and flow control.

  2. Context Object: ExpressJS does not have a built-in context object, thus developers often rely on the req and res objects to access request and response details. In contrast, Koa introduces a ctx (context) object that encapsulates both the request and response objects. The context object allows developers to access various aspects of the request and response, making development more streamlined and organized.

  3. Error Handling: ExpressJS handles errors using try-catch blocks, which can lead to callback hell when dealing with async functions. Koa, on the other hand, has a built-in error handling mechanism using try-catch blocks and middleware. Koa's error handling process is much more intuitive and cleaner, making it easier to handle and propagate errors.

  4. Generator Functions vs Async Functions: ExpressJS primarily uses generator functions for handling middleware. While generator functions can provide more control flow options, they have a steeper learning curve and can be harder to work with. Koa, on the other hand, uses async functions, which are more readable and easier to reason about, especially with the use of await keywords.

  5. Community Support and Popularity: ExpressJS has been around for a long time and has a vast and supportive community. It has a large number of third-party middleware and plugins available, making it a popular choice for developers. While Koa is gaining popularity, it still has a smaller community and fewer third-party packages available.

  6. Learning Curve and Documentation: ExpressJS has well-established documentation and resources, making it easier for developers to learn and get started quickly. Koa, being a newer framework, has a smaller user base and slightly less comprehensive documentation. This could make it slightly more challenging for beginners to get up to speed with Koa compared to ExpressJS.

In Summary, ExpressJS and Koa differ in middleware handling, context object usage, error handling, choice of functions, community support, and learning curve. Developers should consider these factors when choosing between the two frameworks for their projects.

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Advice on ExpressJS, Koa

Tony
Tony

Oct 21, 2020

Review

I personally like using a wholly JS stack, with TypeORM + MySql/Postgres over MongoDb + Mongoose because TypeOrm's Typescript support is much stronger. After developing large projects with Typescript, there is no going back to regular javascript (typings help catch a LOT of errors / maintains data structure !)

Sticking with a javascript stack will allow you to share certain aspects of your application between front and backend. For example: one particularly common feature is to validate API call data and form entry data. Both of these are the same data shape typically (aside from pagination, metadata, etc), and can benefit from a single schema for validation. I use Yup to define this schema, then in the front and back end I can utilize this definition instead of rewriting the same logic in two different languages.

Same goes for certain utility functions such as data structure typings, decryption, encryption, sanitizing inputs, formatting of data, and other utilities. No point of writing these in two languages when both frontend and backend will use them. It will also help reduce developer work load, due to less tests / code to work with.

The only thing you must ensure in your import chain the frontend never imports any secret variables or sensitive logic used by the backend, as that will get bundled into your application. All shared imports should be individual modules

If you want to go one step further, next.js is basically create react app with server side rendering (SSR). This would allow you to skip the annoying step of configuring separate backend and frontend build tools. Might be worth exploring depending on your skill level.

812 views812
Comments

Detailed Comparison

ExpressJS
ExpressJS
Koa
Koa

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.

Koa aims to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Through leveraging generators Koa allows you to ditch callbacks and greatly increase error-handling. Koa does not bundle any middleware.

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
Provides 3 different kinds of functions as middleware; common function; async function; generator function
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
35.7K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
3.2K
Stacks
35.1K
Stacks
812
Followers
24.0K
Followers
483
Votes
1.6K
Votes
12
Pros & Cons
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
Pros
  • 6
    Async/Await
  • 5
    JavaScript
  • 1
    REST API
Integrations
Node.js
Node.js
Node.js
Node.js

What are some alternatives to ExpressJS, Koa?

Django REST framework

Django REST framework

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

Sails.js

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

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

Lumen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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