Nest vs Fastify, Express and Hono

Fastify, Express and Hono route requests to your handlers, and you choose or write what goes around them. Nest organizes the whole backend, with modules, dependency injection, guards, pipes and first-party packages, and it runs on top of Express, Fastify or Node's own node:http. So Nest doesn't replace Fastify or Express: they can be what it runs on. This page helps you choose.

When to use which#

What comes with each#

How small a Nest application can be#

nest new my-api --minimal generates an application whose code is one file, src/main.ts:

import { Controller, Get, Injectable, Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';

@Injectable()
class AppService {
  getHello(): string {
    return 'Hello World!';
  }
}

@Controller()
class AppController {
  constructor(private readonly appService: AppService) {}

  @Get()
  getHello(): string {
    return this.appService.getHello();
  }
}

@Module({
  controllers: [AppController],
  providers: [AppService],
})
class AppModule {}

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = await NestFactory.create(AppModule);
  await app.listen(process.env.PORT ?? 3000);
}
await bootstrap();

It stays the same application as it grows. nest g resource users adds a module, and when src/main.ts gets long, you move the root module to its own file. See One-file projects.

Fastify, Express and Hono start with fewer lines, which stays an advantage while the application stays small. As it grows, where authentication lives, how its parts share services, and how tests replace dependencies become yours to design. Nest decides those up front.

Performance#

Requests per second on GET /, with each server answering Hello world!, using wrk -t4 -c100 for 8 seconds after a 3-second warm-up, on Node.js 24.20. Each number is the median of 3 rounds:

So with the NodeAdapter, Nest handled about 3% fewer requests per second than plain Fastify, about 5% more than Hono on Node, and about 50% more than plain Express.

A separate round on an M1 Pro, with a route parameter and a JSON body:

Here Nest on Node came within 3-6% of plain Fastify and stayed 41-43% ahead of plain Express.

To run these yourself, follow the steps in nestjs/nest#18063, which also have the servers for Hono, Koa, Elysia and AdonisJS. Other machines give different gaps, and Hono's number covers only Node, not the other runtimes it runs on.

These routes do almost no work. A route that queries a database or calls other services spends most of its time waiting for them, so for most applications these differences won't decide the choice.

Moving to Nest later#

The choice doesn't have to be final:

• From Fastify, Nest runs on the same server through the FastifyAdapter, and your plugins keep working. See Migrating from Fastify.
• From Express, routes move one at a time with both serving requests, or all at once. See Migrating from Express.