PrinceJS vs Hono vs Express vs Elysia: Benchmarking the Fastest Bun Frameworks in 2025

#bunjs #webdev #javascript #performance

If you're building a backend with Bun in 2025 and you care about raw performance, you've probably looked at Hono and Elysia. They're fast. But there's a new framework sitting comfortably in the top three — and it was built by a 13-year-old from Nigeria.

That framework is PrinceJS.

This post breaks down the real benchmark numbers, what they mean for your application, and why PrinceJS might be the right choice even though it isn't the fastest framework in the list.

The Real Benchmark Numbers

All benchmarks were run with oha -c 100 -z 30s on Windows 10. Same machine, same conditions, no tricks.

Framework	Req/s	Total Requests
Elysia	25,312	759k
Hono	22,124	664k
PrinceJS	21,748	653k
Express	9,325	280k

PrinceJS hits 21,748 requests per second — third globally among Bun frameworks and 2.3x faster than Express.

Elysia leads the pack, Hono is second, and PrinceJS is right behind at third. The gap between Hono and PrinceJS is about 1.7%. The gap between PrinceJS and Express is enormous.

Why PrinceJS is Competitive Despite Being Third

Raw req/s isn't the only metric that matters. Here's the full picture:

Framework	Req/s	Bundle Size
Elysia	25,312	~22kb
Hono	22,124	~14kb
PrinceJS	21,748	4.8kb gzipped
Express	9,325	200kb+

PrinceJS is the smallest Bun framework in this comparison at 4.8kb gzipped. That bundle size is why PrinceJS loads in 97 milliseconds on Slow 3G — a real-world metric that req/s benchmarks don't capture.

For developers building APIs that start up quickly, edge functions, or any backend where cold start time matters — the bundle size difference between PrinceJS and Elysia is meaningful.

What PrinceJS Actually Ships

Despite being 4.8kb gzipped, PrinceJS ships a remarkably complete feature set. This isn't a minimal micro-framework — it's a full-featured framework that's been engineered to stay small.

Feature	Import
Routing	`princejs`
Middleware (CORS, Logger, Rate Limit, Auth, JWT)	`princejs/middleware`
Zod Validation	`princejs/middleware`
Cookies & IP Detection	`princejs`
File Uploads	`princejs/helpers`
WebSockets	`princejs`
Server-Sent Events	`princejs/helpers`
Sessions	`princejs/middleware`
Response Compression	`princejs/middleware`
In-memory Cache	`princejs/helpers`
Cron Scheduler	`princejs/scheduler`
OpenAPI + Scalar Docs	`princejs`
JSX / SSR	`princejs/jsx`
SQLite Database	`princejs/db`
Plugin System	`princejs`
End-to-End Type Safety	`princejs/client`
Deploy Adapters (Vercel, Cloudflare, Deno, Node)	`princejs/vercel` etc.
Lifecycle Hooks	`princejs`

This is the full feature list of a production-ready framework, shipping in 4.8kb gzipped.

Getting Started

bun add princejs
# or
npm install princejs

A complete server with middleware in under 10 lines:

import { prince } from "princejs";
import { cors, logger } from "princejs/middleware";

const app = prince();

app.use(cors());
app.use(logger());

app.get("/", () => ({ message: "Hello PrinceJS!" }));
app.get("/users/:id", (req) => ({ id: req.params.id }));

app.listen(3000);

PrinceJS vs Hono vs Elysia — Which Should You Use?

Use PrinceJS if:

Bundle size and cold start time matter (edge functions, serverless, mobile backends)
You want the most complete feature set in the smallest package
You need deploy adapters for Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, or Node
You want built-in OpenAPI docs, SQLite, WebSockets, and SSE without adding dependencies

Use Elysia if:

You need the absolute maximum raw req/s
You're heavily TypeScript-first and want Elysia's type system

Use Hono if:

You need Hono's specific middleware ecosystem
You're deploying to Cloudflare Workers natively
You want the second-fastest option with a larger community

The One-Line Summary

PrinceJS is the third fastest Bun framework in the world, 2.3x faster than Express, ships in 4.8kb gzipped with a full production feature set, and was built in three days by a 13-year-old from Abuja, Nigeria.