The pros and cons of using Express as the backend framework for your project.

If in your first project you need a backend framework, for sure Express is one option you have to think about. It has a lot of pros, but also some little cons, that we are going to find out in this article. Let’s dive in.

Express: an introduction

Express is a backend framework, used to develop API, dynamic websites, and backend systems in general. It is written in JavaScript.

It is built on top of Node.js runtime, and it is open-source, under an MIT license. It is the most popular and used JavaScript backend framework, and for a lot of good reasons.

Express’s pros

Community

Express has been around for pretty a lot of time now, so it is really recognized and used by a lot of people. It has, over the years, created a really strong community, that always means a lot of online content, documentation, tutorial, and resources.

If you need to learn Express from scratch or you are already familiar, you know that online you will find everything you need in order to develop your application in the best way.

Good documentation is always a synonym for success.

The community is also a consequence of the fact that Express is an open-source project, that everyone can contribute. There are a lot of developers that develop the project and then use it.

JavaScript language

Express is built in JavaScript, and you need to know JavaScript in order to use Express. This is one of the big advantages of Express, because JavaScript is a really popular programming language, with a lot of perks, like its simplicity and ubiquity.

JavaScript is also an interpreted language, but it is fast and performant.

Easy integration with third-party services

Express is part of the Node ecosystem, so one of the most various worlds for developers. There are a lot of middleware services and much more, and you can choose whatever you want.

It makes Express really flexible and gives you all the choice, according to what you need.

Fast app development

It is really fast to develop applications with Express because if you don’t need some specific functionalities or perks, you can avoid using and programming them, making the coding journey much smoother and more enjoyable.

Scalability and performance

Express is built on top of Node and JavaScript, and that makes it one of the fastest frameworks out there. The response times are really low. Here there is a comparison between Express and some of the other main frameworks.

It is as fast as other frameworks built on top of compiled languages. This is amazing.

If it is fast, it can also be easily scaled up when your project starts to grow, and this is something that needs to be recognized as a HUGE perk.

Versatility

If you need to do a backend project, it can be whatever you want, but Express is always a good suite for it.

Django is used for REST API, RPC services, and every type of website out there, from content management to the most famous social network. It can perform every operation for this site.

Big company choice

There is also a lot of company that uses Django for their backend, and that means that it is a really valuable choice, and it is here to stay and be maintained.

Some of the most important companies are Twitter, PayPal, Uber, IBM, and Fox Sport.

Express’s cons

JavaScript language

I know, this was also a pro, but every framework brings advantages and disadvantages to the language they are written in, and a perfect language does not exist.

Like JavaScript, Express has a problem with types, which can be a huge pain, especially in backend development.

Not really defined structure

The majority of frameworks tend to have some mandatory patterns to store code files inside the project, but Express doesn’t.

This can lead to confusion while two developers are in the same repository, and make also the code less maintainable over time. In my opinion, a strong structure is almost a must in the backend framework, and especially for new developers, the lack of this can be a problem.

Conclusion

In the end, Express is such an amazing framework, with a lot of huge pros, and also cons. Anyway, it is for sure one of the best choices there are out there when it comes to backend development.

In my opinion, there is not a real project where you should not use Node. You can use it for small and big projects. Both for API and dynamic websites. It is suitable for almost everything.

In all other cases, Express may not be only a good choice, but also the best possible.

In most cases, Express is good, but in some cases, it is perfect, projects where you need to work fast and you want a lot of freedom on the codebase, and performance is a key parameter. Also for real-time applications

For all the other cases, it is really suitable.

So, overall it has 9,5/10 marks for all that it offers.