# Express vs Laravel

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Express

| Attribute | Express | Laravel |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 77.1 (79% (high)) | 56.2 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 40 | 10 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1,853,938 | 1,166 |
| adoption.github_stars | 69,394 | 84,875 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 131,895,868 | - |
| adoption.stackoverflow_questions | 96,000 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Express is a minimalist web framework for Node.js that provides core routing and middleware capabilities for building web applications and APIs. It is written in JavaScript and runs on the Node.js runtime environment, requiring Node.js 18 or higher for use.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What is Express and what programming language does it use?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Yes, Express is open source software maintained by the OpenJS Foundation and released under the MIT license, a permissive open source license that permits commercial and private use. The project is publicly available on GitHub as expressjs/express and receives community contributions.","source":"https://github.com/expressjs/express","question":"Is Express open source and what is its license?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Express enables developers to define HTTP routing (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.), handle requests through middleware functions, serve static files, render dynamic templates, handle errors, and connect to databases. It provides these features through a thin, extensible layer over Node.js without imposing a specific architecture.","source":"https://expressjs.com/en/starter/basic-routing.html","question":"What are the core capabilities of Express?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Express uses middleware functions to process HTTP requests in a pipeline. Middleware are functions that have access to the request and response objects, allowing developers to execute code, modify requests/responses, end the request cycle, or pass control to the next middleware function.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"How does Express handle requests and what is middleware?","confidence":0.93},{"answer":"Express is explicitly unopinionated and minimalist, providing only fundamental web application features and leaving architectural decisions to developers. This differs from more opinionated frameworks that provide a complete structure and predetermined patterns for application organization.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What makes Express different from other Node.js frameworks?","confidence":0.92},{"answer":"Yes, Express can be used with TypeScript by installing type definitions via npm (@types/express and @types/node), and developers can run TypeScript files directly with recent versions of Node.js (22.18.0 or higher) without requiring a separate build step.","source":"https://expressjs.com/en/starter/installing.html","question":"Can Express be used with TypeScript?","confidence":0.94},{"answer":"Express is well-suited for building REST APIs, full-featured web applications, mobile app backends, and microservices running on Node.js. Its lightweight nature makes it effective for projects requiring quick setup and customization without imposed patterns.","source":"https://expressjs.com","question":"What types of projects is Express suitable for?","confidence":0.93}]` | - |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | A minimal framework providing essential routing, middleware, and HTTP utilities for building web applications and APIs in Node.js without imposing architectural constraints. | A batteries-included PHP web application framework that enables developers and AI agents to build and ship web apps at high speed with opinionated conventions. |
| features.capabilities | `{"language":"JavaScript","api_routes":true,"hot_reload":false,"edge_runtime":false,"file_routing":false,"streaming_ssr":false,"typescript_first":false,"server_components":false}` | `{"language":"PHP","rendering":"hybrid","api_routes":true,"file_routing":true,"typescript_first":false,"server_components":false}` |
| integrations.count | 13 | 7 |
| 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":"GitHub Actions"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"Claude Code"},{"name":"Neon"},{"name":"Valkey"},{"name":"Composer"}]` |
| language.primary | JavaScript | Blade |
| license.spdx | MIT | - |
| market.availability | `{"source":"https://expressjs.com","hqCountry":"US","confidence":0.95,"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://expressjs.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T10:20:13.635Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$5/month plus usage, first month free","features":["Unlimited applications, environments, builds, & users","Scale-to-Zero Flex compute","Spending limits and alerts","1 managed queue per environment","DDoS mitigation","10 custom domains","1 day log retention","Standard support"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Everything you need for prototypes & hobby projects.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"log_retention":"1 day","custom_domains":"10","managed_queues":"1 per environment","monthly_usage_credits":"$5"}},{"free":false,"name":"Growth","summary":"$20/month plus usage","features":["All Starter features","Pro compute","Autoscaling up to 10× replicas","Preview environments","Worker clusters","10 managed queues per environment","Basic WAF","Team roles and permissions","50 custom domains","7 day log retention"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":20,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Autoscaling, team permissions, & preview environments.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"log_retention":"7 days","custom_domains":"50","managed_queues":"10 per environment"}},{"free":false,"name":"Business","summary":"$200/month plus usage","features":["All Growth features","Unlimited + scheduled autoscaling","Unlimited managed queues","Advanced WAF","Largest compute and resource sizes","Custom roles and permissions","250 custom domains","30 day log retention","Private networking (Add-on)"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":200,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Scheduled autoscaling, custom roles, & advanced networking.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"log_retention":"30 days","custom_domains":"250","managed_queues":"Unlimited"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["All Business features","Private networking","Dedicated compute","RDS databases & VPC peering (Private Cloud only)","24/7 incident response","Volume discounts & custom contracts","Dedicated technical account manager"],"description":"Dedicated infrastructure for the most demanding workloads.","contactSales":true}],"summary":"From $5/month plus usage. First month free on Starter.","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://laravel.com/cloud/pricing#calculator","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:59:26.673Z","startingPrice":{"amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | no |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | 7 |
| 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/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.10.1","date":"2026-08-25T16:27:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.10.0","date":"2026-08-18T13:44:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.9.0","date":"2026-08-12T04:30:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.8.0","date":"2026-05-27T04:02:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.7.0","date":"2026-05-19T18:44:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.6.0","date":"2026-05-13T15:50:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.5.0","date":"2026-05-05T21:20:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.4.0","date":"2026-04-28T17:28:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.3.0","date":"2026-04-21T14:20:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.2.0","date":"2026-04-14T14:39:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.1.2","date":"2026-03-31T20:43:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.1.1","date":"2026-03-31T13:50:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.1.0","date":"2026-03-18T16:32:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v13.0.0","date":"2026-03-17T15:04:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v13.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.12.2","date":"2026-03-14T16:54:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.12.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.12.1","date":"2026-03-10T20:25:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.12.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.12.0","date":"2026-03-10T16:17:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.11.2","date":"2026-01-20T17:30:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.11.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.11.1","date":"2026-01-06T16:32:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.11.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/laravel/laravel/releases/tag/v12.11.0","date":"2025-12-09T16:03:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v12.11.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 8.9 | 5.7 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| 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":3,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=packagist&package_name=laravel%2Flaravel&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Web Frameworks)

| Capability | Express | Laravel |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Rendering model | - | Hybrid (SSR+SSG+CSR) |
| File-based routing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| **Rendering** |  |  |
| Server components | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming SSR | ✗ | - |
| **Fullstack** |  |  |
| Built-in API / backend routes | ✓ | ✓ |
| **DX** |  |  |
| First-class TypeScript | ✗ | ✗ |
| Fast refresh / HMR | ✗ | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Edge runtime support | ✗ | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:58:45.842Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*