Survey: Which JS Frameworks (Node.js) Are Actually Used in Production

Survey: Which JavaScript (Node.js) Frameworks Are Used in Production

The Node.js ecosystem continues to actively develop, and choosing the right framework for a production project remains one of the key challenges for developers. To find out the real picture, the PythonLib team conducted a survey among 500+ web developers using JavaScript on the server side. We asked: "Which Node.js frameworks are you using in production right now?" — and got interesting results.

Rating Leaders: Stability and Minimalism

The first place was predictably taken by Express.js — it was chosen by 62% of respondents. This minimalist framework remains the standard for REST APIs, microservices, and simple web applications. Developers value it for its huge community, thousands of ready-made middleware, and low entry barrier.

The second place was shared by Fastify (18%) and NestJS (15%). Fastify attracts with high performance and built-in support for JSON schemas, which is critical for high-load projects. NestJS, on the other hand, is chosen by teams that want to use an architecture close to Angular, with dependency injection and decorators.

Dark Horses and Niche Solutions

About 5% of the votes went to Koa.js (a modern successor to Express with async/await) and Hapi.js (popular in the enterprise segment, especially among PayPal and Walmart developers). Another 3% of respondents noted AdonisJS — a full-fledged MVC framework with ORM and built-in authorization, popular in startups.

The remaining 2% went to experimental or highly specialized solutions: Moleculer (microservices), Feathers.js (real-time applications), Meteor (full-stack platforms with client and server), and custom wrappers over the Node.js http module.

What Influences Framework Choice?

Based on the survey results, we identified three main criteria:

• Community and support — 54% of developers choose a framework for which it is easy to find answers on Stack Overflow and ready-made plugins.
• Performance — 32% of respondents, especially in fintech and e-commerce, prefer Fastify or Koa.
• Architectural rigor — 14% of teams choose NestJS or AdonisJS to avoid "spaghetti code" in large projects.

Trends and Forecasts

Interestingly, the share of Express is gradually declining (it was 68% a year ago), while Fastify and NestJS are growing steadily. Analysts attribute this to the shift towards microservice architecture and increased requirements for response speed. Additionally, more and more developers are moving away from "bare" frameworks in favor of those that provide ready-made solutions for authorization, validation, and working with databases.

If you are just starting to learn Node.js, our advice: start with Express to understand the basics, and then try Fastify or NestJS for production projects. The main thing is not to chase trends, but to choose the tool for the specific task.

The survey was conducted in February 2025 among PythonLib subscribers and members of specialized Telegram chats. The results may not reflect the full market picture, but they provide a good representation of