Backend Options

Django

• Pros
  • App is already built in django
  • Lots of defaults to accelerate development time
  • Built-in ORM
• Cons
  • Less flexibility
  • Very heavy (slower, more memory)
  • Still in Python ecosystem (multiple languages)

Flask

• Pros
  • Lighter than Django
  • Good support for SQL (Flask-SQLAlchemy)
• Cons
  • Fewer out-of-the-box features than Django
  • Still in Python ecosystem (multiple languages)

Express

• Pros
  • Fast and lightweight framework
  • Part of the JS ecosystem
  • The most used backend globally
  • Plenty of online examples and tutorials
• Cons
  • Basically unsupported
  • Poor support of new JS features
  • “Callback hell” in async code
  • Enforces no application structure

Fastify

• Pros
  • Solves all the outdated issues with Express
  • Incredibly fast
  • Amazing validation and OpenAPI generation
• Cons
  • Enforces no application structure
  • Very few open-source examples for real-world sites
  • TypeScript support is second-class

NestJS

• Pros
  • Also JS ecosystem
  • Wrapper around either Express or Fastify
  • Enforces fantastic structure and modularity
  • TypeScript support is first-class
  • Plenty of online examples and tutorials
  • Amazing validation and OpenAPI generation
• Cons
  • Some people find it overly structured