What's the Node framework landscape like?

I feel like it's been a few years since I've paid attention to this area.

Which frameworks are you working with, what is the most popular "stable/boring" framework, and what's new and interesting?

Comments

[Salman Abdurrohman]

Nest.js :)

[Nischal Gautam]

NestJs is the definitely more mature and more fun to work it, worth checking it out.

[waqaradil]

Hey pals, beside node's powerful capabilities, frameworks add more power to existing features.
There are alot of framework available but i would recommend Adonis on the top of others.
I have created a repository structure that is useful for creating APIs as well as admin panel fully compatible with mysql and mongodb.
It has ready made CRUD operations.
Here is the link.
github.com/waqaradil/AdonisRepo

[guledali]

I'm quite surprised no one has mentioned serverless framework?

[Nikolas Burk]

I work at Prisma and we're currently working on a modern Node.js backend framework that'll make it easy to spin up an entire backend. A few core characteristics of the framework are:

• Declarative and type safe
• Minimum boilerplate
• Extensible via plugins (e.g. for auth, logging, ...)
• Database included
• Code-first GraphQL
• Zero-config and awesome developer experience

You can check out the framework on GitHub or watch this short demo video! The temporary name for the framework is graphql-santa 🎅

The stack is based on the following tools:

• Database: PostgreSQL (alternatively you can use MySQL or SQLite)
• Data access (ORM) & Database migrations: Prisma 2
• Code-first GraphQL schema construction: GraphQL Nexus
• GraphQL server: Apollo Server

To get started and set up your first project, you can simply run:

npx graphql-santa

We're very eager on getting feedback for this framework, I'd love to hear some opinions and thoughts on this approach!

[AlbertGao]

I am using Prisma v2 + Nexus + Nexus-Prisma for a month, and have a very pleasant experience with it. DX is top-notch and every flow is connected together.

For example,

First, Prisma2 schema gives you a nice abstraction over the DB, so later on you can migrate your data source easily. And its GraphQL-like syntax means you can pick it up in notime.

Then you play with your database schema, adding this, changing that, with prisma2 dev running, every change will be temp saved and you can review them in the Studio GUI, and after you feel good about it, you use prisma2 lift save and up the changes to the database.

Then go to your GraphQL schema, expose the fields to the schema, wow, just type, t.yourModel.blahblah, all properties from the DB are there with auto-completion.

later on, in the resolver, with normal CRUD, a beautiful t.crud.createOneUser or t.curd.upsertOneUser are there, makes it super easer to up and running, no boilerplate, and you can add control at every step because it is basically just giving you the conveniences without taking the control out of you.

With Typescript, you don't even need to look at the doc as everything is just there in the type information, and the API is intuitive, so I don't think you need to learn, after using it for a few times, you can infer the API by yourself, and found that it is just there... even you forget, with a single dot or hover your mouse over, auto-completion will tell you everything.

If you use REST but GraphQL, you can still benefit from every advantage that I just mentioned.

And then you can see, that it pretty much creates a productive closure for back-end development, and you go through the flow with confidence as everything is backed by typing if you are using Typescript.

Looking forward for graphql-santa for how much further it could take us.

I am always searching for a less-code but without sacrificing control solution to my back-end. And I am glad that I found the Prisma2 stack.

[Nikolas Burk]

If you're looking for a fullstack framework, also definitely check out the Hammerframework.

It's built by GitHub's co-founder Tom Preston-Werner and has similar design as goals graphql-santa, but also includes the frontend. This is the stack they're using:

• Babel
• React
• GraphQL
• Prisma Photon
• JSX
• Styled Components
• React Router
• Apollo
• Prisma Lift
• Storybook

[leob]

FeathersJS deserves a mention. Interesting concept based on "hooks" and "services" which promotes functional/FP and thinking in "services" and pipelines. But having read the other comment it seems good old Express still rules and is the 'safe choice'.

[Casey Brooks]

It seems to me like the crowd that made a lot of buzz surrounding Express a few years ago have since moved to backends written in Go. I don't have any data to back this up, and I'm also not a JS guy, so this could be way off, but it seems like it's pretty common for me to find JS-heavy frontends coupled to Go backends these days, instead of Node backends.

[Shubham Sinha]

Rails like: Nest Js, Foal TS, Adonis
Popular: Express, Fastify
Micro: Polka, Koa

ORM: Objection Js, Sequelize, Typeorm

Other Mentions: Typegraphql

[Kwuang Tang]

Express, Gatsby, and Next.js are all pretty popular, and all used for different reasons.

[Gerret Halberstadt]

I'd like to add another Express. Together with Apollo Server, TypeORM and TypeGraphQL I have the right amount of batteries without too much boilerplate. I use this combination at work and for a very recent side project and I got even happier with it over time.