Backend Frameworks

HTTP frameworks

★ Hono — small, fast, edge-native. Runs on Workers, Bun, Deno, Node, Vercel, AWS Lambda. The default for new edge APIs.
Fastify — Node-native, plugin-rich, very fast. Best Node-only choice if you don't need edge.
Express 5 — the classic; still ubiquitous. Express 5 finally shipped (async errors, native promises).
NestJS — opinionated, Angular-style, decorator-driven. Common in larger teams.
AdonisJS — full-stack Node, Rails-shaped. ORM, mailer, auth all included.
Elysia — Bun-first, type-safe, Hono-style. Pick if you're committed to Bun.
h3 — the engine inside Nuxt's Nitro; usable standalone.

★ tRPC v11 — TypeScript-first end-to-end RPC. Massive in the Next.js community. Works alongside any HTTP framework.
oRPC — newer, OpenAPI-compatible, Standard Schema validators, edge-friendly. Gaining ground for projects that need an OpenAPI doc as well as type safety.
ts-rest — typed contracts (Zod-backed) that work on Express, Fastify, Next.js. Good fit when you need REST for non-TS clients but want types for TS clients.
GraphQL — Apollo Server, Pothos (TypeScript schema builder), GraphQL Yoga. Pick if your data has many shapes consumed many ways.
Effect RPC — RPC primitive in Effect.

Server Actions / Server Functions (Next.js, React Router 7, TanStack Start, SvelteKit) — for client → server calls inside the same app, this is now often enough on its own.
OpenAPI-first — design API in OpenAPI, codegen the client and server. Works well if multiple non-TS consumers exist.