About Express.js
Express is the most popular Node.js web framework. It provides routing, middleware, and a simple API for building web applications and APIs.
Key Features
- Middleware architecture
- Routing
- Template engine support
- Static file serving
- Error handling
- Massive ecosystem
Express.js is the backbone of the Node.js web ecosystem. Its minimalist design — a thin layer of routing and middleware on top of Node's HTTP module — gives developers maximum flexibility while handling the repetitive parts of building a web server. Express powers everything from small API servers to large-scale applications at companies like IBM, Uber, and Accenture. The middleware pattern is elegant: functions that process requests in sequence, handling authentication, parsing, logging, and error handling. While newer frameworks like Fastify and Hono offer better performance, Express's simplicity, maturity, and massive ecosystem of middleware keep it as the starting point for most Node.js projects.