Hono vs Express: Complete Comparison Guide
Compare Hono and Express on speed, bundle size, edge compatibility, and ecosystem. Discover which web framework is the best fit for your modern project.
Hono
An ultrafast, lightweight web framework of just 14KB that runs on every JavaScript runtime: Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun, and Node.js. Hono is designed for edge computing and offers an Express-like API with significantly better performance and full TypeScript support.
Express
The most widely used Node.js web framework with over a decade of community support and the largest middleware ecosystem. Express is battle-tested in production at thousands of companies and provides a familiar, minimal API for building web applications and APIs.
Comparison table
| Feature | Hono | Express |
|---|---|---|
| Bundle size | Just 14KB — minimal impact on cold starts | Larger footprint with dependencies — noticeable in serverless |
| Performance | Up to 3x faster than Express in routing benchmarks | Baseline speed — sufficient for traditional server deployments |
| Runtime compatibility | Universal — Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun, Node.js | Primarily Node.js — limited support on other runtimes |
| TypeScript support | Native TypeScript with type-safe routes and middleware | Via @types/express — no native integration |
| Middleware ecosystem | Smaller but growing — built-in JWT, CORS, logger | 50,000+ middleware packages — the largest ecosystem |
| Maturity | Young but rapidly growing — since 2022 | Over 10 years proven in production |
Verdict
Hono is the framework of the future for edge computing and serverless architectures. At just 14KB, with universal runtime support and performance three times that of Express, it is ideal for modern deployments. However, Express remains unmatched in ecosystem and proven stability. For new edge-first projects, Hono is the logical choice. For traditional Node.js servers with complex middleware needs, Express remains the safe path. Hono's Express-like API makes migration straightforward.
Our recommendation
At MG Software, we follow Hono with great interest and increasingly deploy it for edge functions and serverless APIs. The combination of tiny bundle size, TypeScript-native development, and Cloudflare Workers support aligns perfectly with our focus on fast, scalable applications. For our Next.js projects running API routes on the edge, Hono is an excellent choice. We are not actively migrating away from Express, but for new projects we always evaluate whether Hono is a better fit.
Frequently asked questions
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