Every year, we share with you the most popular NodeJS frameworks available, that make developers’ work so much easier. Just as a quick reminder, Node.js a.k.a. NodeJS, was first introduced in the year 2009 and is in itself a cross-platform framework built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.
In turn, a web application framework is a combination of libraries, helpers, and tools that provide a way to easily build and run web applications. So, in this situation, Node.js is used to build fast, highly scalable event-based network applications that do not block the input/output model, asymmetric single-threaded programming.
Every web framework lays the foundation for building a website/application, and its most important aspects are architecture and features (such as customization support, flexibility, extensibility, security, compatibility with other libraries, etc.).
The popularity of a web framework is important because it is an indicator of whether it will continue to be maintained, and what resources are likely to be available in terms of documentation, add-on libraries, and technical support.
However, JavaScript-based frameworks like NojeJS are even further simplified by using frameworks of their own. As a result, in this article, we are going to talk about some Node.js frameworks specifically, that will make working with Node.js easier and more pleasant.
So, let’s have a look at the 10 Most Popular NodeJS Frameworks of 2021. Note that this list is not organized in any particular order.
1. Express.js
Express.js is a Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications. It is designed for a developer to develop, build and run web apps quickly. It is a standard for most Node.js applications today.
Express.js features and benefits:
- Write handlers for requests with different HTTP verbs at different URL paths (routes).
- Integrate with “view” rendering engines in order to generate responses by inserting data into templates.
- Set common web application settings like the port to use for connecting, and the location of templates that are used for rendering the response.
- Add additional request processing “middleware” at any point within the request handling pipeline.
Based on the number of high-profile companies that use Express, the number of people contributing to the codebase, and the number of people providing both free and paid-for support, Express is a popular framework!
2. Koa.js
Koa.js is one of the more dominant Node.js frameworks. With Koa, building different web services, aka APIs, becomes super fun and easy since it can efficiently deal with HTTP middleware with a stack-like method.
Koa.js features and benefits:
- Is a Customizable & Futuristic framework- is referred to as a lightweight version of Express.
- Handles errors exceptionally.
- Has cascading middleware (Personalizing user experience).
- Normalises node inconsistencies clean and helps in maintaining code.
- Cleans cache, supports proxy and content negotiation.
- Has more options for Customization; allows building apps from scratch.
Koa.js is specially created for a big project and it can build extensive apps with large and experienced development teams. Furthermore, Koa has proven to be a faster framework than Express. However, it’s still in the growth stages with the community and is less popular as a result.
3. Socket.io
Socket.io is a full-stack platform that uses many programming languages. It provides a simple and clear API that interacts with virtually any service quickly. With its excellent speed and durability of development, developers are very pleased with this architecture. Many businesses use this framework including Microsoft and IBM.
Socket.io features and benefits:
- The framework offers auto reconnection support. If a client is disconnected, it will keep retrying unless stopped manually;
- The engine.io is capable of detecting disconnection which might occur;
- Within namespaces, you are allowed to create rooms for sockets to join and leave;
- Socket.io uses WebSockets after adding metadata to each packet;
- Offers real-time analytics;
- Binary streaming and easy socket management;
- Ability to tailor URL routing for web sockets;
- Auto error detection and correction.
4. Sail.js
Sail.js is a Model-View-Controller (MVC) web application framework developed atop the Node.js environment. A popular MVC micro-framework that is built on Node.js, Express.js and facilitates the wide range of WebSocket integration features as Socket.io provides.
Compatible with all leading databases including MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and more, Sails also supports all major frontend technologies including iOS, Angular, React, and Android.
Sail.js features and benefits:
- Automatic generation of REST-APIs.
- Support web socket.
- Hasslefree handling of HTTP requests.
- Easy integration of middleware.
5. Hapi.js
Hapi is a commercial-centered server and open-source framework used for web applications. It is known for developing proxy servers, and REST APIs, and other types of desktop applications. This framework is reliable and rich in its security aspects. It can provide great development support for a large team that manages multiple tasks simultaneously.
Hapi.js features and benefits:
- No external dependencies.
- It allows code reusability.
- Compatible with Rest APIs & HTTPS proxy apps.
- Outstanding framework for large size and distributed teams.
- Provide extensive support for the reusable components.
- Offers support for amazing plugins.
6. Meteor.js
Meteor.js is an ultra-simple full-stack Node.js framework for building modern web and mobile applications. It is compatible with the web, iOS, Android, or desktop.
It integrates key collections of technology to build reactive client-related applications, a program of building tools, and a curated set of packages from Node.js and the general JavaScript community.
Meteor has comprehensive libraries and testing features to keep up with the client-server communication. The framework is known for its smooth running of data between client and server, which most applications of high-streaming, real-time functionalities require.
Meteor is a perfect Node.js framework to build simple, efficient, and modern web applications.
Meteor.js features and benefits:
- Writing of code in an Isomorphic framework.
- The cross-platform framework, building rapid prototyping with CLI.
- Extensive community support, open-source framework.
- Full-stack solution.
- Superfast interactions – fast results.
- Easy integration with other frameworks.
- Less requirement of coding web and mobile applications.
- Easy to integrate with other programming languages including, Angular, React, Vue, etc.
- Allows using the same code for writing both apps.
7. Adonis.js
Adonis.js is another popular Node.js web framework that is simple and stable with an elegant syntax. It is an MVC framework that provides a stable ecosystem for writing stable and scalable web applications on the server-side from scratch. Adonis.js is of modular design; It consists of several service providers, components of AdonisJs applications.
A consistent and expressive API allows you to build web applications with a full array of micro API servers. It is designed to favor the joy of developers and there is a well-documented blog mechanism for learning the basics of AdonisJs.
Adonis.js features and benefits:
- Organized Pattern with a folder structure.
- Easier validation of user input.
- Service provider for lifecycle dependency management and IOC for DI(Dependency Injection).
- Facility to write custom functional test scripts.
- Protection against threats like cross-site forgery protection.
- Multi-transport mailer.
- Robust middleware layer to interact with incoming HTTP requests.
- Nunjucks based templates.
- Support for emitting and listening to application-wide events.
- Inbuilt support for Redis.
- Secure and straightforward file uploads.
- Security features with support for CORS, CSRF, Content sniffing, and XSS attacks.
- Supportive and friendly community.
8. Derby.js
Derby.js is a full-stack framework that makes it simple to compose real-time, shared applications that run in both node.js and browsers. Derby is considered an MVC framework that is used for making constant versatile mobile and web applications. The main feature of it is its synchronization across clients and servers.
Derby.js features and benefits:
The prime reason to choose this MVC framework is to build real-time web apps based on a data synchronization engine. However, there are also many other reasons, among which we include:
- MVC architecture for both client-side and server-side.
- provides you with seamless data synchronization between your server and client with an automatic conflict resolution powered by ShareDB’s operational transformation of JSON and text.
- Best utilized for creating mobile and web applications.
- It uses server rendering for quick page loads, HTML templates, and excellent search engine support.
- Faster support and automatic timing allow multiple users to use the same application simultaneously.
- It is made up of several standard Node.js modules.
- Many see it as ideal for developing real-time collective applications.
- It permits you the opportunity to add customized codes to build highly efficient web applications.
9. LoopBack
LoopBack is one of the famous and most used node.js frameworks. It has an easy-to-use CLI and API explorer that is dynamic. There are different features of loopback such as the better connection between different devices and browsers, runs on its property, and usage of Android, iOS, and Angular software development kits for creating applications.
LoopBack features and benefits:
- Saves you a lot of manual work.
- Its CLI provides a wide range of commands that can do pretty much anything, from creating models, repositories and controllers, to configuring a data source for the application.
- It can be used in various scenarios, including CRUD operations (accessing databases) and integrating with other infrastructures and services.
- It’s simple to get started using LoopBack because the learning curve is low. As a framework, LoopBack has a lot of potentials to introduce myriad benefits to the Node.js community.
- It gives the strength of full-stack development.
- We can share models with clients and servers.
- It is baked by IBM.
- It has a built-in ORM.
- It also builds in user and access role features.
10. Nest.js
Nest.js is a flexible, versatile, and progressive REST API framework for building efficient, reliable, and scalable server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript and is built with TypeScript. It combines the elements of OOP (object-oriented programming), FP (functional programming), and FRP (functional reactive programming).
It is an external application architecture packaged in a complete enterprise-level application development kit. It uses Express internally, providing compatibility with a wide range of other libraries.
Nest.js features and benefits:
- When a new project in Node.js is started it is a clear architecture based on a few simple components (controllers, modules, and providers). This gives great ease to split applications into microservices.
- It is easily extendible, as it can be used with other libraries; versatile thanks to its adaptive fully-fledged ecosystem and progressive, bringing JavaScript features and design patterns.
- It leverages TypeScript – strongly typed language which is a superset of JavaScript
- Easy to use, learn, and master
- Powerful Command Line Interface (CLI) to boost productivity and ease of development
- Detailed and well-maintained documentation
- Active codebase development and maintenance
- It is open-source (MIT license)
- Easy unit-testing applications
- A quick and efficient development process.
- Highly scalable and easy to maintain applications.
- Large community and support system.
- Built for large-scale enterprise applications.
- Nest provides an out-of-the-box application architecture that allows developers and teams to create highly testable, scalable, loosely coupled, and easily maintainable applications.
Conclusion
We hope that with this article you have understood the main basis of the most popular and distinctive frameworks in the market.
Each framework has its features that make them different from others, so you can choose any one of these frameworks to upgrade your JavaScript skills with back-end technology and create the next project with the framework that suits your needs in the best way.
If you need guidance, contact us, and let’s talk about your future project!
See more articles
https://wiredelta.com/10-most-popular-nodejs-apps-of-2021/
https://wiredelta.com/10-most-popular-nodejs-frameworks-of-2020/
https://wiredelta.com/how-to-choose-the-best-javascript-framework/
