Fastify Has a Free Node.js Framework — 4x Faster Than Express

Fastify handles 60,000+ requests per second on Node.js. Schema-based validation, automatic serialization, and a plugin architecture that doesn't sacrifice speed.

Why Not Express?

Express is simple but slow. It has no built-in validation, no schema support, no serialization optimization. Every middleware adds overhead.

Fastify was designed from day one for performance without compromising developer experience.

What You Get for Free

import Fastify from 'fastify';

const app = Fastify({ logger: true });

app.get('/user/:id', {
  schema: {
    params: { type: 'object', properties: { id: { type: 'string' } } },
    response: {
      200: {
        type: 'object',
        properties: {
          id: { type: 'string' },
          name: { type: 'string' },
          email: { type: 'string' }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}, async (request) => {
  return getUser(request.params.id);
});

app.listen({ port: 3000 });

JSON Schema validation — request validated before your handler runs
Fast serialization — response serialized based on schema (2-3x faster than JSON.stringify)
Encapsulated plugins — plugins can't leak into other parts of your app
TypeScript support — first-class types with @fastify/type-provider-typebox
Logging — pino logger built-in (30x faster than morgan)

Performance

Requests/second (JSON response):

• Express: ~15,000
• Koa: ~25,000
• Fastify: ~60,000+

The secret: Fastify compiles JSON schemas into optimized serialization functions at startup.

Plugin Ecosystem

npm i @fastify/cors @fastify/jwt @fastify/swagger @fastify/rate-limit

app.register(require('@fastify/cors'));
app.register(require('@fastify/swagger'), { openapi: { ... } });
app.register(require('@fastify/rate-limit'), { max: 100, timeWindow: '1 minute' });

Swagger docs auto-generated from your schemas. Rate limiting, JWT, CORS — all official plugins.

Quick Start

npm i fastify

That's it. No express-generator, no template. Import, define routes, listen.

If you need Node.js performance close to Go/Rust — Fastify gets you 80% of the way there.

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