For a product backend that several developers will work on for years, we pick NestJS. For a small service with a handful of endpoints, Express is enough. When the number of requests one server can handle matters most, look at Fastify, and keep in mind that NestJS can run on top of Fastify too. NestJS is also the framework Rocketech backed as a Bronze partner in 2021.
When we announced the Bronze partnership in April 2021, we gave two reasons, and both still hold. NestJS was useful for everyday work and for hard tasks that need a Node.js web server. And with one language on the front end and the back end, even the tricky parts of a project get simpler to solve.
That second point is the one a founder or CTO should care about. When the browser code and the server code are both TypeScript, the same people can read both, types can be shared between them, and a small team doesn’t need two separate specialists for every change.
| NestJS | Express | Fastify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A framework with a set structure for Node.js server apps, built in TypeScript | A minimal, unopinionated web framework for Node.js | A fast, low-overhead web framework for Node.js |
| Who decides the structure | The framework: modules, controllers and providers | Your team | Your team, with plugins |
| Runs on | Express by default, or Fastify | Node.js | Node.js |
| Input validation | A built-in ValidationPipe (with the class-validator library) | Add a library yourself | JSON Schema for routes and responses |
| Best fit | Product backends with several developers and a long life | Small APIs, webhooks, glue services, prototypes | Services where throughput per server matters |
| Extensive use in the past year (Stack Overflow 2026, all respondents) | 5.8% | 15.6% | 3.5% |
Sources for the table: the NestJS docs on the framework and validation, the Express site, the Fastify site and the 2026 Stack Overflow Developer Survey.
The NestJS docs describe it as a framework that gives you an application architecture out of the box, aimed at code that is testable, loosely coupled and easy to maintain. The architecture borrows heavily from Angular. In practice, that buys you four things.
Modules, controllers and providers sit where a NestJS developer expects them. When a new person joins, or another team takes the code over, they don’t have to learn a home-made structure first. For a founder, that makes changing teams cheaper.
NestJS is built with TypeScript and fully supports it. If your front end is React with TypeScript, both halves of the product speak the same language.
Under the hood, NestJS uses Express by default and can be switched to Fastify. You can start on the familiar option and move only if load tests show you need to.
Fewer developers name NestJS than Express in the 2026 Stack Overflow survey, 5.8% against 15.6%. But Node.js itself sits at the top of the same list at 46.4%, and NestJS runs on Express by default, so the layer underneath is familiar to anyone who has built a Node.js API.
Ginger Snail is an iPhone app for law students and legal professionals, with 5 study modules and 150+ quiz tests. We built its back end on Node.js and Nest.js, with PostgreSQL and Redis for data and Docker and Kubernetes for delivery. The admin panel, built from scratch, uses React. The Ginger Snail case study covers the whole project, which took a year and eight months.
Luanda is a business ads marketplace for Angola. The team included one React developer and one Nest.js developer, and the platform was built in 5 months, with paid ad packages for sellers. The Luanda case study has the details.
We don’t use NestJS everywhere. Sigmapool, a crypto mining pool we built, runs on Node.js with Koa. Our web app development stack lists Node.js with Nest.js or Express, as well as Python and PHP, because the right choice depends on the product and on who maintains it.
Express fits small, short-lived or single-purpose services: a webhook receiver, an internal API with a few routes, a prototype you plan to throw away. A full framework would add structure nobody needs.
Fastify fits services that handle a lot of requests per server and benefit from JSON Schema validation compiled into fast functions. If you want NestJS’s structure as well, run NestJS on its Fastify adapter.
And if your team writes Python, use a Python framework. The people who will maintain the backend should already know the framework it runs on.
NestJS has trade-offs, and you should hear them before you pick it.
None of this outweighs the benefits for a long-lived product backend. For a short-lived script or a single webhook, it does, and that is where we use Express.
Three version changes matter if you start a backend now or inherit one.
If you inherit a backend on Express 4 or Node.js 20, put the upgrade on the plan before new features. It’s cheaper than an emergency upgrade after a security notice.
With us, a first version of a web app typically costs $5,000 to $15,000 and takes 2 to 4 weeks. To see what your idea costs to build, describe it in a short brief. Our estimate turns it into user stories, and the budget is the hours for the stories you keep multiplied by our published rate of $39-55 an hour. If you already have a team and need Node.js developers inside it, our staff augmentation costs $39 to $55 an hour per person. People start in 3 to 5 days from our staff or pool, or within 2 weeks if we hire someone new.
For a product backend that several developers will maintain for years, we think so, because NestJS gives every project the same structure. For a small service or a prototype, Express is simpler. NestJS runs on Express by default, so the two work together.
Yes, if the MVP is the first version of a product you plan to grow. The structure costs little at the start and saves time when the team grows. For a throwaway prototype, plain Express is enough.
Yes. The NestJS docs say it uses Express by default and can be configured to use Fastify instead. You can switch adapters later if load tests show the need.
Rocketech became a Bronze partner of NestJS in 2021, and NestJS is still our default framework for Node.js backends. We used it in projects such as Ginger Snail and Luanda.
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