express vs fastify
express is downloaded 13.7× more often than fastify (425,540,092 vs 31,079,568 per month), so it has the larger community and more answered questions online. fastify ships 45% less gzipped JavaScript (129.8 kB vs 236.1 kB), which matters if bundle size is a priority. Both projects are actively maintained.
| Metric | express | fastify |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly downloads | 102,441,526✓ | 7,307,661 |
| Monthly downloads | 425,540,092✓ | 31,079,568 |
| GitHub stars | 69,072✓ | 36,351 |
| Minified size | 586.4 kB | 471.7 kB✓ |
| Minified + gzipped | 236.1 kB | 129.8 kB✓ |
| Dependencies | 28 | 15✓ |
| Open issues | 214 | 146✓ |
| Last commit | 2026-05-17 | 2026-06-01✓ |
| Latest version | 5.2.1 | 5.8.5 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
When to choose which
express
The minimal, ubiquitous Node.js web framework.
Choose it when: The safe default — simplest model and the largest middleware ecosystem; ideal for small to mid APIs and learning.
- + Simplest to learn
- + Huge middleware ecosystem
- + Everywhere
- - No built-in TS / async error handling
- - Dated callback style
fastify
A fast, low-overhead framework with schema validation.
Choose it when: High-throughput APIs where you want JSON-schema validation, structured logging and first-class TypeScript.
- + Very high performance
- + Schema validation built-in
- + Great TypeScript
- - Smaller ecosystem than Express
- - Plugin model to learn
Feature comparison
| Feature | express | fastify |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | Minimal | Minimal+ |
| TypeScript-first | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Performance | Moderate | Very high |
| Built-in features | Minimal | Validation, logging |
| Ecosystem | Huge | Large |
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[](https://devcompare.dev/compare/express-vs-fastify)Data from npm, Bundlephobia and GitHub. Last updated 2026-06-02.