State of JS Survey: Which Node.js Frameworks Are Chosen for Production in 2024

Online Python Trainer for Beginners

Learn Python easily without overwhelming theory. Solve practical tasks with automatic checking, get hints in Russian, and write code directly in your browser — no installation required.

Start Course

State of JS Survey: Which Node.js Frameworks Are Chosen for Production in 2024

The annual State of JavaScript (State of JS) survey is one of the most authoritative sources of data on developer preferences worldwide. In 2024, its results once again confirmed: the world of server-side JavaScript (Node.js) is not standing still. We analyzed the latest data on which Node.js frameworks are most often used in production environments and prepared a brief overview for you.

Market Leaders: Classics and New Stars

The survey showed that the Node.js framework market remains mature but dynamic. Traditional leaders maintain their positions, but more modern and performant alternatives are hot on their heels.

Express.js — the undying king. Despite its age, it is used in production by over 70% of respondents. The reason is a huge community, millions of ready-made middleware, and maximum simplicity. However, the percentage of "satisfied" users is gradually declining, giving way to more modern solutions.
Fastify — the main "Express killer". This framework is experiencing explosive growth. It is faster, lighter, and has built-in schema validation (JSON Schema). In 2024, its share among production projects exceeded 35%, and the satisfaction rate is one of the highest (around 90%).
NestJS — the choice for enterprise applications. This framework, inspired by Angular, offers a strict architecture, Dependency Injection, and TypeScript decorators. It consistently ranks 3rd in production popularity, especially in large projects and startups where scalability is important.
Koa.js — the "little brother" of Express from the same team. It uses async/await and a lighter core. Its share in production is about 10-12%, but it remains a niche tool for those who want more control.

Unexpected Trends and Outsiders

The survey revealed several interesting trends:

Hono — an ultra-lightweight framework for edge computing and Cloudflare Workers. It is gaining popularity at an incredible pace, although it is still rarely used in classic monolithic productions. Its share is still small (less than 5%), but the growth rate is record-breaking.
Next.js and Nuxt.js — although these are primarily full-stack frameworks, their server-side part (API Routes) is often used as a full-fledged Node.js backend. The survey showed that one in five developers uses Next.js for server-side logic in production.
Sails.js and AdonisJS — frameworks with a Rails-like approach (MVC, ORM). They remain afloat, but their share is not growing. They are mainly chosen by developers migrating from Ruby or PHP.

What Do Professionals Choose?

Interestingly, experienced developers (with more than 10 years of experience) most often choose Express for quick prototypes and NestJS for serious projects. Beginners, on the other hand, are more likely to experiment with Fastify and Hono. At the same time, almost 60% of respondents stated that they use at least two different frameworks in production — one for microservices, another for a monolith.