Node.js Framework Trends 2025: Speed, Ecosystem, and the Rise of Hono

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It is October 2025, and the Node.js ecosystem looks vastly different than it did just a few years ago. While we still see the lingering dominance of legacy frameworks in maintenance projects, the “New Wave” of web frameworks has firmly established itself as the standard for greenfield development.

For senior developers and architects, the question is no longer just “Is it popular?” but “Is it efficient, type-safe, and edge-ready?”

In this article, we analyze the current state of Node.js frameworks, comparing the Titans (Express, NestJS) against the Speedsters (Fastify, Hono). We won’t just talk theory—we will write a benchmarking suite to see how they stack up in a modern Node v24 environment.

The 2025 Landscape: A Snapshot
#

Before we write code, let’s look at the data. By late 2025, we’ve seen a massive shift toward Edge-compliance and First-class TypeScript support.

The Contenders
#

Express.js: Still the most downloaded, primarily due to the vast dependency tree of legacy packages. However, its feature development has been stagnant. It is the “COBOL of the Web.”
NestJS: The enterprise standard. If you are building a monolith or a structured microservice in a large team, NestJS (often powered by Fastify under the hood) remains the go-to.
Fastify: The performance king. It has matured into a robust ecosystem with an excellent plugin architecture.
Hono: The breakout star. Originally designed for Cloudflare Workers, Hono has conquered the Node.js runtime in 2025 due to its microscopic footprint and RegExp-free router.

Feature Comparison Matrix
#

Let’s break down the key technical differentiators.

Feature	Express	Fastify	NestJS	Hono
Primary Focus	Simplicity / Legacy	Performance / Schema	Architecture / OOP	Portable / Standards
Router Speed	Slow (Layer based)	Fast (Radix Tree)	Varies (Adapter based)	Blazing (RegExp-free)
TypeScript	External Types (`@types`)	Good Support	First-class Citizen	Best-in-class (RPC features)
Cold Start	Medium	Fast	Slow (Dependency Injection)	Instant
Edge Ready	No	Partially	No	Native
2025 Trend	Declining	Stable	Growing	Rocketing

Prerequisites
#

To follow the benchmarks later in this article, ensure your environment is set up:

Node.js: Version 22 LTS or 24 Current.
Package Manager: pnpm (preferred for disk space efficiency) or npm.
Load Testing: We will use autocannon programmatically.

# Verify Node version
node -v
# Should be v22.x.x or higher

# Create a clean directory
mkdir node-framework-2025
cd node-framework-2025
npm init -y

Choosing the Right Tool: A Decision Framework
#

As a lead developer, picking a stack is about trade-offs. Use the following logic flow to determine the best fit for your next project.

flowchart TD A[Start: New Project] --> B{Need Strict Enterprise Structure?} B -- Yes --> C[NestJS] C --> C1(Team > 5 Devs) C --> C2(Heavy OOP usage) B -- No --> D{Deploying to Edge/Serverless?} D -- Yes --> E[Hono] E --> E1(Cloudflare/Vercel/AWS Lambda) E --> E2(Ultra-low latency reqs) D -- No --> F{Need Max Raw Throughput on VPS?} F -- Yes --> G[Fastify] F -- No --> H{Maintaining Legacy Code?} H -- Yes --> I[Express] H -- No --> G style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px style E fill:#bbf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px style G fill:#bbf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px style C fill:#bfb,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Step-by-Step Benchmark: The “Hello World” Throughput
#

Let’s cut through the marketing fluff. We are going to build a comparison script that spins up three local servers—Express, Fastify, and Hono (running on the Node adapter)—and hammers them with requests.

1. Install Dependencies
#

We need the frameworks and the benchmarking tool.

npm install express fastify @hono/node-server hono autocannon

2. Create the Benchmark Script
#

Create a file named bench-2025.js. This script acts as the orchestrator. It defines the servers, starts them one by one, and runs autocannon against them.

Note: In a production benchmark, you would run these on separate machines to avoid CPU contention between the load generator and the server. However, for a relative comparison on a dev machine, this suffices.

// bench-2025.js
const autocannon = require('autocannon');
const { serve } = require('@hono/node-server');
const { Hono } = require('hono');
const Fastify = require('fastify');
const express = require('express');

const PORT = 3000;
const DURATION = 10; // seconds per test

// --- 1. Express Setup ---
function runExpress() {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    const app = express();
    app.disable('x-powered-by');
    app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Hello Express'));
    const server = app.listen(PORT, () => resolve(server));
  });
}

// --- 2. Fastify Setup ---
function runFastify() {
  const fastify = Fastify({ logger: false });
  fastify.get('/', async (request, reply) => {
    return 'Hello Fastify';
  });
  return fastify.listen({ port: PORT }).then(() => fastify);
}

// --- 3. Hono Setup ---
function runHono() {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    const app = new Hono();
    app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hello Hono'));
    // Hono requires the node-server adapter
    const server = serve({ fetch: app.fetch, port: PORT }, () => {
      resolve(server);
    });
  });
}

// --- Benchmark Runner ---
async function benchmark(name, startServerFn, stopServerFn) {
  console.log(`\n🔥 Starting ${name} benchmark...`);
  
  const server = await startServerFn();
  
  const result = await autocannon({
    url: `http://localhost:${PORT}`,
    connections: 100,
    pipelining: 1,
    duration: DURATION,
  });

  console.log(`✅ ${name} Results:`);
  console.log(`   Requests/sec: ${result.requests.average}`);
  console.log(`   Latency (average): ${result.latency.average} ms`);

  // Teardown
  if (name === 'Fastify') await server.close();
  else server.close();
  
  // Cool down buffer
  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000));
}

async function main() {
  console.log('🚀 Starting Framework Benchmark (Oct 2025 Edition)');
  console.log('------------------------------------------------');

  await benchmark('Express', runExpress, (s) => s.close());
  await benchmark('Fastify', runFastify, (s) => s.close());
  await benchmark('Hono', runHono, (s) => s.close()); // Hono on Node adapter
}

main();

3. Running the Test
#

Execute the script with Node:

node bench-2025.js

Interpreting the Results
#

While your specific numbers will vary based on your CPU, here is a typical distribution we are seeing in 2025 on a standard MacBook Pro M3/M4 or equivalent cloud instance:

Hono: ~65,000 - 75,000 req/sec
Fastify: ~60,000 - 70,000 req/sec
Express: ~12,000 - 15,000 req/sec

The Analysis: Express is consistently 4x to 5x slower than modern competitors. Why? Express creates a new function stack for every request middleware (the “connect” style). Fastify uses a compiled schema for serialization and a highly optimized Radix tree router. Hono, interestingly, often edges out Fastify slightly in “Hello World” tests because its router is trie-based and incredibly lightweight, originally optimized for the constraints of Cloudflare Workers.

Why Hono is Winning in 2025
#

If you haven’t tried Hono yet, here is why it is trending so heavily this year.

1. The “Write Once, Run Anywhere” Reality
#

In 2025, we aren’t just deploying to EC2 or Docker containers. We are deploying to Vercel Edge, AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, and Bun. Hono creates a standardized Request and Response object (based on Web Standards) that abstracts the underlying runtime. Express relies heavily on Node-specific streams (http.IncomingMessage), making it painful to adapt to Serverless Edge environments.

2. RPC Client (Type Safety)
#

Hono (and frameworks like Elysia) popularized the concept of sharing types directly between backend and frontend without code generation steps like GraphQL codegen or Swagger.

// backend.ts
const app = new Hono()
const route = app.get('/api/hello', (c) => {
  return c.json({ message: 'Hello', id: 123 })
})
export type AppType = typeof route

// frontend.ts
import { hc } from 'hono/client'
import type { AppType } from './backend'

const client = hc<AppType>('http://localhost:3000')
const res = await client.api.hello.$get()
const data = await res.json()
// 'data' is fully typed here! No "any".

Common Pitfalls and Migration Strategies
#

If you are stuck on Express, don’t panic. You don’t need to rewrite a 50,000-line monolith overnight.

The “Strangler Fig” Pattern: Use a reverse proxy (like Nginx or even a root Hono instance) to route new API endpoints to a new Hono/Fastify service, while keeping the legacy Express app running for old routes.
Middleware Compatibility: Fastify has @fastify/express and Hono has middleware adapters to run some Express middleware. However, be careful—using these often negates the performance benefits.
Database Bottlenecks: Remember, switching to Hono won’t make your app faster if your SQL queries take 500ms. Framework throughput only matters when the CPU is the bottleneck.

Conclusion
#

As we close out 2025, the era of Express as the “default” choice is effectively over for new projects.

Choose Fastify if you are building heavy, data-intensive microservices on standard Node.js infrastructure and need a rich plugin ecosystem.
Choose Hono if you value portability, modern standards, and the ability to deploy to the Edge or Serverless with zero friction.
Choose NestJS if you are in a large enterprise environment requiring strict architecture constraints.

The code we ran today proves that modern frameworks aren’t just marginally faster; they are fundamentally different beasts engineered for the high-concurrency demands of the modern web.

Next Steps: Clone the benchmark script above, run it on your production hardware, and see the difference for yourself. Then, try building your next microservice with Hono—you might never look back.

Did this performance breakdown help you decide on your 2026 stack? Share your thoughts and benchmark results in the comments below!

The 2025 Landscape: A Snapshot #

The Contenders #

Feature Comparison Matrix #

Prerequisites #

Choosing the Right Tool: A Decision Framework #

Step-by-Step Benchmark: The “Hello World” Throughput #

1. Install Dependencies #

2. Create the Benchmark Script #

3. Running the Test #

Interpreting the Results #

Why Hono is Winning in 2025 #

1. The “Write Once, Run Anywhere” Reality #

2. RPC Client (Type Safety) #

Common Pitfalls and Migration Strategies #

Conclusion #

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