# Express vs Koa

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Express

| Attribute | Express | Koa |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 75.7 (77% (high)) | 52.3 (66% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 10 | 2 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,853,938 | 109,950 |
| adoption.github_stars | 69,528 | 35,677 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 168,467,798 | - |
| adoption.stackoverflow_questions | 96,000 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"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,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | - |
| description.long | A flexible web framework providing essential features for web applications and APIs while allowing developers to choose their own complementary tools and libraries. | A library that uses SHA1 HMAC to sign and verify data (like cookies or URLs) by maintaining a rotating system of secret keys. Old keys can be removed and new ones added without invalidating existing client credentials. |
| features.capabilities | `{"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}` | `{"language":"JavaScript","api_routes":true}` |
| integrations.count | 13 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"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 | JavaScript | 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}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://expressjs.com","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:08:30.684Z"}` | - |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | 16 |
| release.history | `[{"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"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.2.1","date":"2026-05-21T07:26:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.2.0","date":"2026-03-28T05:41:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.1.2","date":"2026-02-25T13:37:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v2.16.4","date":"2026-02-25T13:38:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.16.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.1.1","date":"2025-10-27T04:27:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.1.0","date":"2025-10-26T13:17:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.0.3","date":"2025-10-18T14:22:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v2.16.3","date":"2025-10-18T14:36:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.16.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.0.2","date":"2025-10-17T06:56:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v2.16.2","date":"2025-07-30T00:02:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.16.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.0.1","date":"2025-07-27T07:38:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v3.0.0","date":"2025-04-28T00:40:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/3.0.0-alpha.5","date":"2025-04-06T21:43:50Z","type":"stable","version":"3.0.0-alpha.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/v2.16.1","date":"2025-04-06T21:41:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/3.0.0-alpha.4","date":"2025-03-21T07:37:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.0.0-alpha.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/2.16.0","date":"2025-02-27T05:56:03Z","type":"stable","version":"2.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/2.15.4","date":"2025-02-12T14:12:11Z","type":"stable","version":"2.15.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/koajs/koa/releases/tag/3.0.0-alpha.2","date":"2024-11-04T05:10:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.0.0-alpha.2"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 8.9 | 5.8 |
| security.trust_center | https://expressjs.com/en/advanced/security-updates | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":6,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=express&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` | `{"count":6,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=koa&per_page=100","last_12m":2,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Web Frameworks)

| Capability | Express | Koa |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Rendering model | - | - |
| File-based routing | ✗ | - |
| Language | JavaScript | 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 2026-10-16T20:58:06.563Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*