# AdonisJS vs Express

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Express

| Attribute | AdonisJS | Express |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 62.2 (77% (high)) | 75.7 (77% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 8 | 10 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,234 | 1,853,938 |
| adoption.github_stars | 19,142 | 69,528 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 193,052 | 168,467,798 |
| adoption.stackoverflow_questions | - | 96,000 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"AdonisJS is a web framework for Node.js built entirely in TypeScript that bundles authentication, database management, form validation, email sending, background jobs, and caching into a single system. It takes an opinionated approach to web development, providing one recommended solution for common problems to help developers focus on building features rather than assembling and integrating separate packages. It is indexed under Web Frameworks.","source":"https://adonisjs.com/","question":"What is AdonisJS?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AdonisJS is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $500 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://adonisjs.com/","question":"Is AdonisJS free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"AdonisJS supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://adonisjs.com/","question":"What platforms does AdonisJS support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. AdonisJS can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://adonisjs.com/","question":"Can AdonisJS be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 5 integrations for AdonisJS, including Inertia, Vite, Redis, Tanstack React Query and Cloudflare. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://adonisjs.com/","question":"What does AdonisJS integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. AdonisJS is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core","question":"Is AdonisJS open source?","confidence":0.99}]` | `[{"answer":"A minimal framework providing essential routing, middleware, and HTTP utilities for building web applications and APIs in Node.js without imposing architectural constraints. It is indexed under Web Frameworks.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What is Express?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Express is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"Is Express free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Express supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What platforms does Express support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Express can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"Can Express be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 13 integrations for Express, including Cassandra, Couchbase, CouchDB, LevelDB, MySQL, MongoDB, Neo4j and Oracle, plus 5 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What does Express integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Express is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/expressjs/express","question":"Is Express open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"Express is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"Where is Express available?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A complete backend framework for Node.js applications that provides integrated components for user authentication, database management, data validation, email delivery, task queues, caching, and testing. It aims to reduce setup overhead by including these capabilities as built-in features rather than requiring separate configuration and integration. | A flexible web framework providing essential features for web applications and APIs while allowing developers to choose their own complementary tools and libraries. |
| features.capabilities | `{"language":"TypeScript","rendering":"ssr","api_routes":true,"hot_reload":true,"file_routing":false,"typescript_first":true}` | `{"language":"JavaScript","api_routes":true,"hot_reload":false,"edge_runtime":false,"file_routing":false,"license_type":"MIT/BSD","orm_included":false,"streaming_ssr":false,"language_runtime":"JS/TS","typescript_first":false,"server_components":false,"architecture_style":"minimalist","templating_included":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | 13 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Inertia"},{"name":"Vite"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Tanstack React Query"},{"name":"Cloudflare"},{"name":"Amazon S3","native":true,"category":"cloud storage","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Cloudflare R2","native":true,"category":"cloud storage","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage","native":true,"category":"cloud storage","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Playwright","native":true,"category":"testing"}]` | `[{"name":"Cassandra"},{"name":"Couchbase"},{"name":"CouchDB"},{"name":"LevelDB"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Neo4j"},{"name":"Oracle"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"SQL Server"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| license.spdx | MIT | MIT |
| market.availability | - | `{"source":"https://expressjs.com","hqCountry":"US","confidence":0.95,"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Professional Support","summary":"$500/month","features":["Direct access to creator (Harminder Virk)","Private Slack channel","24-hour guaranteed email response","Architecture consultations","Performance optimization","Early-stage project review","Upgrade and migration support","Priority feature requests","Insiders program access"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Direct support and architecture consultation from the framework creator","contactSales":false}],"summary":"Open source framework; professional support at $500/month","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://adonisjs.com/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T23:03:04.377Z","startingPrice":{"amount":500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://expressjs.com","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:08:30.684Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 11 | 4 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.6.0","date":"2026-10-05T12:16:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.5.2","date":"2026-09-23T14:03:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.5.1","date":"2026-09-23T12:46:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.5.0","date":"2026-08-21T05:06:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.4.0","date":"2026-08-09T07:20:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.5","date":"2026-07-08T07:42:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.4","date":"2026-06-05T05:02:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.3","date":"2026-05-19T11:03:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.2","date":"2026-04-26T14:49:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.1","date":"2026-04-09T09:37:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.3.0","date":"2026-03-28T09:53:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.2.0","date":"2026-03-26T16:30:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.1.1","date":"2026-03-18T10:58:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.1.0","date":"2026-03-18T10:43:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.0.1","date":"2026-03-04T13:43:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.0.0","date":"2026-02-25T06:44:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v7.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.0.0-next.29","date":"2026-02-14T14:00:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v7.0.0-next.29"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.0.0-next.28","date":"2026-02-05T21:01:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v7.0.0-next.28"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v6.20.0","date":"2026-02-05T21:01:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v6.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/adonisjs/core/releases/tag/v7.0.0-next.27","date":"2026-02-01T05:02:58Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v7.0.0-next.27"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v4.22.2","date":"2026-05-11T18:54:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.22.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.2.1","date":"2025-12-01T20:54:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.2.0","date":"2025-12-01T16:21:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v4.22.1","date":"2025-12-01T20:55:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.22.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.22.0","date":"2025-12-01T16:19:48Z","type":"stable","version":"4.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.0.1","date":"2024-10-08T19:41:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.1.0","date":"2025-03-31T14:04:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.21.2","date":"2024-12-05T22:41:41Z","type":"stable","version":"4.21.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.21.1","date":"2024-10-08T18:38:48Z","type":"stable","version":"4.21.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.21.0","date":"2024-09-11T22:34:26Z","type":"stable","version":"4.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.0.0","date":"2024-09-10T04:51:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.20.0","date":"2024-09-10T02:06:04Z","type":"stable","version":"4.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/v5.0.0-beta.3","date":"2024-03-25T14:59:35Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v5.0.0-beta.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.19.2","date":"2024-03-25T14:32:36Z","type":"stable","version":"4.19.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/5.0.0-beta.2","date":"2024-03-25T14:59:09Z","type":"prerelease","version":"5.0.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.19.1","date":"2024-03-25T14:31:15Z","type":"stable","version":"4.19.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.19.0","date":"2024-03-20T16:43:00Z","type":"stable","version":"4.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.18.3","date":"2024-02-29T11:44:48Z","type":"stable","version":"4.18.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.18.2","date":"2022-10-08T20:12:36Z","type":"stable","version":"4.18.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.18.1","date":"2022-04-29T19:32:52Z","type":"stable","version":"4.18.1"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 8.9 |
| security.trust_center | https://adonisjs.com/packages/security | https://expressjs.com/en/advanced/security-updates |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40adonisjs%2Fcore&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` | `{"count":6,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=express&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` |

## Capabilities (Web Frameworks)

| Capability | AdonisJS | Express |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Rendering model | Server-side | - |
| File-based routing | ✗ | ✗ |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| **Rendering** |  |  |
| Server components | - | ✗ |
| Streaming SSR | - | ✗ |
| **Fullstack** |  |  |
| Built-in API / backend routes | ✓ | ✓ |
| **DX** |  |  |
| First-class TypeScript | ✓ | ✗ |
| Fast refresh / HMR | ✓ | ✗ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Edge runtime support | - | ✗ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:15:33.676Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*