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FastAPI VS ExpressJS

Compare FastAPI VS ExpressJS and see what are their differences

FastAPI logo FastAPI

FastAPI is an Open Source, modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints.

ExpressJS logo ExpressJS

Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple
  • FastAPI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-14
  • ExpressJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-14

FastAPI features and specs

  • High Performance
    Built on Starlette and Pydantic, FastAPI is one of the fastest frameworks for Python, providing high performance due to its asynchronous request handling.
  • Automatic Interactive API Documentation
    FastAPI automatically generates interactive API documentation via Swagger UI and ReDoc, which are very helpful for development and testing.
  • Type Checking and Validation
    With Pydantic models and Python type hints, FastAPI provides automatic data validation and type checking, reducing the chance of runtime errors.
  • Ease of Use
    Its syntax and design make it easy to learn for Python developers, offering a smooth development experience while reducing boilerplate code.
  • Asynchronous Support
    FastAPI supports asynchronous programming, allowing for better performance for I/O-bound operations, making it optimal for handling many simultaneous connections.
  • Extensive Documentation
    It has comprehensive and well-structured documentation, which is very useful for both beginners and advanced users.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    FastAPI has a growing community and ecosystem, with many plugins and integrations available to extend its functionality.

Possible disadvantages of FastAPI

  • Learning Curve for Asynchronous Programming
    Although FastAPI itself is easy to learn, grasping the concepts of asynchronous programming in Python can be challenging for beginners.
  • Complex Dependencies
    Using Pydantic for advanced validation can make the request models complex, requiring a deeper understanding of Pydantic and its functionalities.
  • Early Stage Libraries
    Some third-party libraries and extensions specifically tailored for FastAPI might still be in early stages of development and lack long-term stability.
  • Limited Real-World Examples
    Although the documentation is extensive, there might be limited real-world examples and case studies readily available compared to more mature frameworks.
  • Deployment Complexity
    Deploying FastAPI applications might be more complex in comparison to traditional synchronous frameworks, mainly due to the need for asynchronous server setups.

ExpressJS features and specs

  • Fast Setup
    ExpressJS provides a minimal and flexible framework that allows rapid setup and development of web and mobile applications.
  • Middleware Support
    ExpressJS has a robust middleware system, allowing developers to add reusable functions to the request-handling pipeline.
  • Extensibility
    ExpressJS is highly extensible through third-party libraries and built-in functionality, catering to the needs of various applications.
  • Performance
    Due to its minimalist core, ExpressJS provides efficient performance and is capable of handling a high number of requests per second.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community provides extensive documentation, support, and a wide array of open-source packages to extend functionality.
  • Flexibility
    Compared to full-stack frameworks, ExpressJS gives developers the freedom to structure their applications as they see fit.
  • Compatibility
    ExpressJS works seamlessly with various template engines, databases, and other frameworks, making it versatile for different project requirements.

Possible disadvantages of ExpressJS

  • Minimalist Core
    The minimalist nature of ExpressJS may require additional time and effort to integrate required plugins and libraries for specific features.
  • Learning Curve
    While ExpressJS is straightforward, mastering the middleware pattern and effective usage can have a learning curve for new developers.
  • Callback Hell
    Developers can encounter 'callback hell' due to nested callback functions, though this can be mitigated using Promises and async/await in modern JavaScript.
  • Lack of Convention
    Unlike opinionated frameworks, ExpressJS lacks conventions, which can lead to inconsistent code structure and maintenance challenges across different projects.
  • Security
    ExpressJS does not have built-in security features and relies on third-party solutions, requiring developers to be vigilant about applying best security practices.
  • Scalability
    While ExpressJS can handle high traffic, building and maintaining a highly scalable application might require significant additional effort, particularly in terms of codebase organization and resource management.

FastAPI videos

FastAPI from the ground up

More videos:

  • Tutorial - 30 Days of Python - Day 14 - Web App with Flask, FastAPI, ngrok, and Invictify - Python TUTORIAL
  • Review - [PT] Python - API com FastAPI - Chat | twitch.tv/codeshow

ExpressJS videos

No ExpressJS videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to FastAPI and ExpressJS)
Developer Tools
39 39%
61% 61
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100
Web Frameworks
25 25%
75% 75
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare FastAPI and ExpressJS

FastAPI Reviews

The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
FastAPI, as the name hints, is a swift mover. Built on Starlette, it’s all about speed and performance with Python. Crafting API masterpieces at the speed of light, now that’s something.
25 Python Frameworks to Master
Since its release in 2018, it has rapidly gained popularity due to its great performance and simplicity. In fact, according to PyPi Stats, FastAPI has over 9 million monthly downloads, surpassing even full-stack frameworks like Django.
Source: kinsta.com
3 Web Frameworks to Use With Python
myapp/ is the main directory of your FastAPI application. It includes all the other files and directories needed for the application.static/ is a directory used to store static assets such as CSS, JavaScript, and image files. These assets are served directly by the web server and are typically used to add visual styling and interactivity to the application.css/, img/, js/...
Best Alternatives to FastAPI App Free for Windows (2021)
FastAPI Alternative – So many alternatives app to FastAPI that you must to know out there. And, looking for an ideal software was not easy matter. Lucky you, at this page you can find the best replacement app for FastAPI. So what you are waiting for, get the latest FastAPI alternative app for Windows 10 from this page.
Top 5 Back-End Frameworks to Consider for Web Development in 2021
FastAPI is a modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. It is fast when compared to other major Python frameworks like Flask and Django. FastAPI gives great flexibility to fulfill businesses’ API needs in today’s evolving world.

ExpressJS Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
Express.JS is used to create Restful APIs, which is useful for accepting requests from the front end and sending the appropriate response. Express.JS supports Node.js, which is one of the best reasons developers choose to use it. Moreover, debugging becomes faster and helps in finding errors in less time.
Source: solguruz.com
The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
Express.js — or Express for the cool cats — is Node.js’s minimalist wingman. It’s the train tracks for your web app, setting the path, defining the stops, but letting you drive the engine.
Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
9 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023
Additionally, Express.js v4 now comes with built-in middleware for handling AJAX requests from the client side, making it even easier to get started without having to worry about 3rd party libraries. Express.js is a great tool for quickly building out web applications and APIs in Node.js.
Source: ninetailed.io
JavaScript: What Are The Most Used Frameworks For This Language?
Express.JS is a popular open-source web application framework for Node.JS, which is a server-side JavaScript runtime environment. Express.JS provides a simple, flexible and scalable way to build web applications and APIs using Node.JS. It is known for its minimalist and unimposing approach, which means it provides a basic set of features and tools but allows developers to...
Source: www.bocasay.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ExpressJS should be more popular than FastAPI. It has been mentiond 452 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

FastAPI mentions (265)

  • Top 20 Python API Frameworks with OpenAPI Support
    FastAPI is a modern, high-performance web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. It is designed for quick development and high efficiency. Zuplo is a proud sponsor of the FastAPI project, to help drive API development in Python. - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • How to Promote and Market your API: SPECtacular OpenAPI
    For Small teams and Startups I would recommend picking an API framework that automatically generates an OpenAPI spec through your code. Be very careful in which framework you pick as many claim to have OpenAPI support, but in reality only support a few fields. Many recent frameworks are built from the ground up around OpenAPI support. My recommendations are Huma for Go, Tsoa for Typescript, and FastAPI for Python.... - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • How to Build your very own Google's NotebookLM
    FastAPI serves as our backend framework, chosen for several compelling reasons:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Pydantic: The end of manual validations! ✨
    One of the most prominent use cases of Pydantic is in FastAPI, a modern web framework for building APIs with Python. FastAPI uses Pydantic models extensively for request body validation, query parameters, and response schemas. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Writing Integration And Unit Tests for a Simple Fast API application using Pytest
    Python is a great language for building various types of applications, especially in today's landscape where machine learning and AI are rapidly advancing. With this growth in services, there’s a strong need for well-designed, maintainable, and scalable APIs. That’s where FastAPI comes in, a powerful async web API framework for Python that's both simple and robust https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
View more

ExpressJS mentions (452)

  • CRUD with ExpressJS and MongoDB (Typescript)
    Step 2: Install the necessary dependencies which are morgan, ExpressJS, Mongoose cors and nodemon. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • Introduction to Hono : Advantages, Disadvantages & FAQs
    While inspired by Express.js, Hono.js offers a similar API but emphasizes superior performance and a reduced resource footprint. - Source: dev.to / 13 days ago
  • A Simple Approach to SSR with React 19 and esbuild
    This is a simple application using Express static and middleware approach to serve static files, handle server routes, and route using react-router-dom. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • 🔥How to fetch HTML from server
    To do this, let's create an API route, through which we will receive HTML from the server. For the backend part, we will use Node.js. The framework on which we will do this is Express.js. It is one of the most popular today and it is perfect for the task we are solving. First, we specify the controller that will process the HTML:. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Feature Flags with Express.js and GrowthBook
    This guide walks through how to add GrowthBook feature flags to an Express.js application. It assumes you are starting from scratch, so if you already have an Express.js application, you can skip to step 2. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing FastAPI and ExpressJS, you can also consider the following products

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

Flask - a microframework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jinja 2 and good intentions.

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Yii Framework - Yii is a high-performance component-based PHP framework best for Web 2.0 development.