Fastify Has a Free Node.js Framework That's 3x Faster Than Express — Schema Validation, Plugins, TypeScript

The Express Problem

Express was built in 2010. No built-in validation. No TypeScript support. No schema documentation. And it's slow — 15K requests/sec vs. Fastify's 60K+.

Fastify is Express's modern replacement. JSON Schema validation, plugin architecture, TypeScript-first, 3x faster.

What Fastify Gives You

Simple API

import Fastify from 'fastify';

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

app.get('/', async () => {
  return { hello: 'world' };
});

app.listen({ port: 3000 });

JSON Schema Validation (+ Auto Documentation)

app.post('/users', {
  schema: {
    body: {
      type: 'object',
      required: ['name', 'email'],
      properties: {
        name: { type: 'string', minLength: 1 },
        email: { type: 'string', format: 'email' },
        age: { type: 'integer', minimum: 0 },
      },
    },
    response: {
      200: {
        type: 'object',
        properties: {
          id: { type: 'integer' },
          name: { type: 'string' },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  handler: async (request) => {
    // request.body is validated and typed
    return { id: 1, ...request.body };
  },
});

Schema validates input AND serializes output (faster JSON.stringify).

Plugin System

import cors from '@fastify/cors';
import jwt from '@fastify/jwt';
import swagger from '@fastify/swagger';

app.register(cors);
app.register(jwt, { secret: 'your-secret' });
app.register(swagger, { openapi: { info: { title: 'My API', version: '1.0.0' } } });

Hooks (Lifecycle)

app.addHook('onRequest', async (request) => {
  // Authentication check
  const token = request.headers.authorization;
  if (!token) throw app.httpErrors.unauthorized();
});

app.addHook('onResponse', async (request, reply) => {
  // Logging, metrics
  console.log(`${request.method} ${request.url} → ${reply.statusCode}`);
});

Performance

Framework	Requests/sec
Express	15,000
Koa	25,000
Fastify	65,000

TypeScript Support

Full TypeScript support with generic types for request body, params, querystring, and headers.

Quick Start

npm install fastify

Why This Matters

Express served us well for 15 years. Fastify is the next generation — faster, safer, and built for TypeScript.

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