Best Backend JavaScript Frameworks in 2024

Below are some of the best backend JavaScript frameworks that developers can use in 2024:

1. Express.js

Express is a Node.js (JavaScript runtime) framework, and according to their website, it is fast, minimalist, and unopinionated. It allows developers to create a backend environment with less code and by providing a huge number of features, such as routing, middleware, template engines, and error handling.

It is used by a myriad number of JavaScript developers, which is evident as it has 64,000 stars and 17,000 forks on GitHub. Express is a crucial part of the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js) that is used to build full stack web applications.

Pros of Express

• Flexible and easy-to-use: Express provides quick development of the JavaScript backend environment. With less and easier-to-understand code, even a new developer can create servers in no time. By using its routing capabilities, it is easier to create different routes and couple them with their controller functions.

• Great scalability: Express handles user requests and responses with no extra configuration. Due to its large community support, Express has a good number of packages. This backend framework is used by a lot of organizations around the world, and it has proven to be highly scalable.

Cons of Express

• Lack of coding standard: Flexibility can be a disadvantage too, as Express does not provide any restrictions to a code architecture or standard as such. It is upto developers to write their application however they want. This can lead to inconsistency issues in larger teams.

2. NestJS

NestJS is a JavaScript backend framework used to build highly scalable server-side applications. It combines some elements of Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming (FP), and Functional Reactive Programming (FRP).

Built with TypeScript, NestJS has more than 64,000 stars on GitHub. It offers a robust architecture to backend developers that will make the application loosely coupled, highly testable, and more scalable.

Pros of NestJS

• Developer-friendly: Since NestJS provides a solid architecture to work with, it makes it easier for a developer to quickly start the backend work. The usage of TypeScript in NestJS is favorable for developers as it can integrate with any text editor without any issues.

• Well-maintained documentation: To use any programming language or framework, proper documentation is heavily required, and NestJS has really satisfied this criteria well. FAQs are also listed in the documentation, and makes it easier for any developer to get started.

Cons of NestJS

• Steep learning curve: NestJS uses TypeScript, and that can be comparatively difficult for the new developers to work with. Since this framework is heavily inspired by Angular, it has Angular-like syntax, which can be a little difficult too.

3. Meteor.js

With more than 44,000 stars on GitHub, Meteor.js is an open-source full-stack JavaScript framework whose server-side code is built on top of Node.js. It provides various features out-of-the-box, such as support for TypeScript, an authentication system, almost zero configuration, easy integration with frontend frameworks, and easy connection of frontend and backend.

Meteor has a community where developers can discover packages to solve different problems and publish their own packages too. Overall, Meteor allows rapid development and deployment of applications.

Pros of Meteor.js

• Faster development: Due to the full stack capabilities of Meteor and its use of JavaScript, it offers quick development of an application. It is very easy to install Meteor and get started with it due to its rich documentation. It even lets developers create apps for mobile with simple logic.

• Real-time features and updates: Meteor uses its reactive user interface to reflect the latest change on the interface after every modification in real time. With publications and subscriptions, developers can build apps that promote collaboration.

Cons of Meteor.js

• Difficult to implement for large projects: Meteor may not be suitable for building large and complex applications that have a lot of components clubbed together. It has a relatively smaller ecosystem compared to other backend frameworks.

4. Koa

Built by the team behind Express.js, Koa is another backend JavaScript framework that offers faster server development and multiple features to develop APIs and web apps.

Koa has around 34,000 stars on GitHub and has gained traction on popularity charts. Koa has a small codebase and is not bundled with any middleware. It provides a better way to handle errors through the efficient use of middleware.

Pros of Koa

• No callback hell: Koa uses async functions heavily throughout the code, which removes any chances of an unreadable code. The async functions in Koa have access to the request context and next middleware by the command “await next();”.

• Lightweight, more robust: Koa is extremely lightweight because it has a tiny codebase. It has methods for tasks such as support for proxy, redirection, and content-negotiation. Moreover, Koa uses middlewares, which are executed one after another upon each request.

Cons of Koa

• Small community: The open-source community of Koa is still small in size, so a lot of support for common problems may not be available. Since it is pretty similar to Express.js, a lot of developers still use the latter to build servers and APIs.

5. Sails

Sails is a lightweight MVC (Model-View-Controller) backend JavaScript framework that builds APIs, serves different HTML files, and can scale to handle a huge number of users. It is used to build real-time features such as chat, and custom, enterprise-grade web applications.

Sails is built on top of Node.js, Express, and Socket.io. It has more than 22,000 stars on GitHub, and it is compatible with frontend JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular. It also provides professional support to tackle any problems that developers and stakeholders come across.

Pros of Sails

• Declarative policies: Sails come with role-based access control and basic security middleware in the form of policies. Developers can write policies with Sails to simplify the business logic of the application. They work for both HTTP and WebSockets without any manual effort.

• Easy migration with high performance: Migrating a backend system from the existing Node.js app to Sails app is a smooth task, as routes built with Express.js work well in Sails. Since Sails is lightweight, it enables developers to write fast and scalable applications. Due to its MVC architecture, it separates UI and business logic.

Cons of Sails

• Slow development: The project development with Sails may be a little time consuming, as with a huge memory, this framework may get sluggish. Also, due to low community support, developers may find themselves spending more time looking for solutions rather than fixing them.

6. Next.js

Next.js is a full stack framework for the JavaScript ecosystem. With Next.js, developers can create both the frontend and backend of their project. Since its launch, it has quickly become very popular among JavaScript developers, as it has over 122,000 stars on GitHub.

Next.js provides amazing features such as its own authentication system, server actions, middlewares, built-in support for API routes, etc.

Pros of Next.js

• Vast ecosystem: Next.js is made by a group of developers at Vercel, and it provides seamless integration with Next.js in terms of hosting both the client and the server code. The community support is huge, and as a result, a lot of resources and packages are available for Next.js.

• Positive developer experience: With features like API routing, data fetching on the server, backend, and frontend in the same project directory, it makes it easier for developers to work with Next.js

Cons of Next.js

• Performance overhead: Next.js backend may not be suitable for large or complex projects as some of the backend features are still missing in this framework.

7. Hapi

Containing more than 14,000 stars on GitHub, Hapi is another JavaScript backend framework that is used to build scalable web applications. It does not have any external code dependencies, and each and every line of its code is verified.

hapi focuses on security a lot, as it offers signed and encrypted cookies, HTTP security headers, etc. Developers do not need to care much about different npm packages for solving problems, as hapi itself offers its own official plugins. hapi follows strict coding coverage rules to minimize bugs and increase the readability of the code.

Pros of hapi

• High security: hapi is a framework that focuses a lot on security and does not require any external code. It offers regular updates to the code using a strict protocol, an in-house security architecture and expertise, an authentication and authorization system, and a vast ecosystem.

• Developer-first platform: hapi was created by keeping developer experience in mind as it has an internal logic for code that is easy to follow for any developer. Moreover, it grants so much freedom to a developer, as they can use their own coding style and tools to build applications.

Cons of hapi

• Less used and performance overhead: hapi is still new compared to other backend JavaScript frameworks, so it has fewer resources. Moreover, it may require some additional configuration at the start of initiating the project, and that may hamper its performance compared to other lightweight backend frameworks.

When JavaScript was first created, it used to run only in the browser of the client (user). At that time, it was sufficient, as websites used to be static and just displayed some information for the user to see and read. But as both time and technology moved forward, web development changed.

Soon, there were dynamic websites that had a lot of user interactivity, but that was their front-end aspect. On the backend, JavaScript needed to be evolved too. Now, it is required to run JavaScript outside of the browser. Thus came Node.js, a JavaScript runtime that allowed JavaScript to run on the user’s system and not on the browser. In no time, backend frameworks were created to provide more freedom to JavaScript developers to work on the server side.

In this article, we will discuss what a JavaScript backend framework is, and some of the best JavaScript backend frameworks that developers can use in 2024.