# Express vs Phoenix

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Express

| Attribute | Express | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 75.7 (77% (high)) | 63.9 (77% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 10 | 19 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,853,938 | 21,610 |
| adoption.github_stars | 69,528 | 23,173 |
| 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}]` | `[{"answer":"Phoenix is an Elixir-based web framework for building real-time, interactive applications with built-in GraphQL and REST API support and production-scale reliability. It is indexed under Web Frameworks.","source":"https://www.phoenixframework.org","question":"What is Phoenix?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Phoenix 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://www.phoenixframework.org","question":"Is Phoenix free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Phoenix. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.phoenixframework.org","question":"What platforms does Phoenix support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Phoenix can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.phoenixframework.org","question":"Can Phoenix be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for Phoenix, including Absinthe, Relay, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and SQL Server. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.phoenixframework.org","question":"What does Phoenix integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Phoenix 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/phoenixframework/phoenix","question":"Is Phoenix open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":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. | Phoenix is an Elixir-based web framework for building real-time, interactive applications with built-in GraphQL and REST API support and production-scale reliability. |
| 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":"Elixir","rendering":"ssr","api_routes":true,"license_type":"MIT/BSD","orm_included":true,"streaming_ssr":true,"language_runtime":"Elixir","server_components":true,"websocket_support":true,"templating_included":true}` |
| integrations.count | 13 | 5 |
| 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"}]` | `[{"name":"Absinthe"},{"name":"Relay"},{"name":"PostgreSQL","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"MySQL","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"SQLite","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"SQL Server","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | JavaScript | Elixir |
| 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}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://expressjs.com","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T10:08:30.684Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://www.phoenixframework.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-16T21:36:08.561Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | 15 |
| 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/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.15","date":"2026-09-25T13:18:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.14","date":"2026-09-14T09:39:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.13","date":"2026-08-25T09:11:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.12","date":"2026-08-20T18:05:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.11","date":"2026-08-12T07:55:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.8.10","date":"2026-08-10T16:25:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.5.3","date":"2020-06-26T11:06:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.2.1","date":"2016-08-11T19:49:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2016-06-23T15:51:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.2.0-rc.1","date":"2016-06-03T22:10:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.2.0-rc.0","date":"2016-05-01T13:02:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.1.3","date":"2016-01-20T15:35:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.1.2","date":"2016-01-08T20:48:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.1.1","date":"2015-12-26T20:13:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2015-12-16T15:14:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.0.4","date":"2015-11-30T21:51:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.0.3","date":"2015-09-28T21:21:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.0.2","date":"2015-09-06T23:30:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.0.1","date":"2015-09-03T17:23:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2015-08-28T15:59:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 8.9 | 7.1 |
| 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":8,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=hex&package_name=phoenix&per_page=100","last_12m":6,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Web Frameworks)

| Capability | Express | Phoenix |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Rendering model | - | Server-side |
| File-based routing | ✗ | - |
| Language | JavaScript | Elixir |
| **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 2026-10-16T19:15:54.983Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*