An application can be built using only Node.js which requires more coding time and more code that makes the source code complex and very hard to debug. To reduce the complexity, the Node.js foundation developed a minimal and flexible framework called Express.js,
Express is a small framework that sits on top of Node.js’s web server functionality to simplify its APIs and add helpful new features. It makes it easier to organize your application’s functionality with middleware routing and controller. It adds helpful utilities to Node.js’s HTTP objects. It facilitates the rendering of dynamic HTTP objects.
It is better to have some basic knowledge of Node before learning Express, but it is not required because express provide basic configuration when you initialise a project.
Pros
- The first and most important advantage of using Express.JS is that you would be able to get fast application development experience with it.
- Less developer cost to maintain the application.
- It has a vast, highly supportive open-source community.
- Predefined basic configuration for quick to get something working.
- There's a huge number of packages available on NPM that work great together with Express
Cons
- There are several issues with the callbacks which are inherited from Node.js
- Several client request problems are faced with the middleware system offered with it.
- It doesn't have to dictate security is implemented so you have to use third-party libraries.
Used by
- IBM
- Uber
- PayPal
- Neuton
Approved by experts
