NestJS vs Express vs Fastify comparison - Hands-On Comparison

Build a Simple API with NestJS, Express, and Fastify

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple API to manage a list of books for a small library. You want to understand how to set up this API using three popular Node.js frameworks: NestJS, Express, and Fastify. This will help you see the differences in setup and structure.

🎯 Goal: Build a basic API endpoint /books that returns a list of books using NestJS, Express, and Fastify. You will create the data, configure the server, implement the route, and complete the setup for each framework.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of books with exact titles and authors

Set up a configuration variable for the server port

Implement a GET route /books that returns the book list

Complete the server start code for each framework

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

APIs like this are common in web apps to provide data to frontend clients or other services.

💼 Career

Understanding how to set up routes and servers in popular Node.js frameworks is essential for backend development roles.

1

Create the books data list

Create a constant array called books with these exact objects: { title: 'The Hobbit', author: 'J.R.R. Tolkien' }, { title: '1984', author: 'George Orwell' }, and { title: 'To Kill a Mockingbird', author: 'Harper Lee' }.

NestJS

// Create the books array with exact objects
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const books = [ ... ] with objects inside.

2

Set the server port configuration

Create a constant called PORT and set it to 3000.

NestJS

const books = [
  { title: 'The Hobbit', author: 'J.R.R. Tolkien' },
  { title: '1984', author: 'George Orwell' },
  { title: 'To Kill a Mockingbird', author: 'Harper Lee' }
];

// Create a constant PORT and set it to 3000
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const PORT = 3000; to set the port number.

3

Implement the GET /books route

Use app.get('/books', (req, res) => { res.json(books); }) to create a route that returns the books array as JSON.

NestJS

const books = [
  { title: 'The Hobbit', author: 'J.R.R. Tolkien' },
  { title: '1984', author: 'George Orwell' },
  { title: 'To Kill a Mockingbird', author: 'Harper Lee' }
];

const PORT = 3000;

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

// Add a GET route for '/books' that returns the books array as JSON
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.get('/books', (req, res) => { res.json(books); }).

4

Start the server listening on the port

Add app.listen(PORT, () => { console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`); }); to start the Express server.

NestJS

const books = [
  { title: 'The Hobbit', author: 'J.R.R. Tolkien' },
  { title: '1984', author: 'George Orwell' },
  { title: 'To Kill a Mockingbird', author: 'Harper Lee' }
];

const PORT = 3000;

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

app.get('/books', (req, res) => {
  res.json(books);
});

// Start the server listening on PORT
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.listen(PORT, () => { console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`); }).