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ExpressJS vs Rails API: What are the differences?
What is ExpressJS? Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple. 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.
What is Rails API? Rails for API only applications. Rails::API is a subset of a normal Rails application, created for applications that don't require all functionality that a complete Rails application provides. It is a bit more lightweight, and consequently a bit faster than a normal Rails application. The main example for its usage is in API applications only, where you usually don't need the entire Rails middleware stack nor template generation.
ExpressJS and Rails API can be primarily classified as "Microframeworks (Backend)" tools.
"Simple" is the primary reason why developers consider ExpressJS over the competitors, whereas "Great for quick decoupled apps" was stated as the key factor in picking Rails API.
ExpressJS and Rails API are both open source tools. It seems that ExpressJS with 44.6K GitHub stars and 7.48K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Rails API with 5.26K GitHub stars and 293 GitHub forks.
Pros of ExpressJS
- Simple381
- Node.js336
- Javascript244
- High performance193
- Robust routing152
- Middlewares73
- Open source72
- Great community59
- Hybrid web applications37
- Well documented16
- Sinatra inspired9
- Rapid development9
- Isomorphic js.. superfast and easy7
- Socket connection7
- Light weight5
- Npm4
- Resource available for learning4
- Callbacks3
- Event loop3
- Data stream2
- Easy to use1
Pros of Rails API
- Great for quick decoupled apps5
- Lightweight5
- Simply the best3
- Soon to be merged into core Rails 52
- Logging by default1
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Cons of ExpressJS
- Not python27
- Overrated17
- No multithreading14
- Javascript9
- Not fast5
- Easily Insecure for Novices3