The edge-first shift toward Hono in 2026

Runtime dictates the framework

I choose Hono for edge deployments because the runtime dictates the framework choice. If you target Cloudflare Workers, Deno, or Bun, Hono runs natively using Web Standards. Express, which arrived in 2010 for Node.js, requires adapters for these environments and carries a bundle size of 579KB. Hono maintains a bundle size under 20KB, while the hono/tiny preset stays under 14KB. This small footprint minimizes cold start times when the edge runtime initializes for a new request. I would skip Express for any new greenfield project on the edge because the compatibility issues with Node-specific modules create unnecessary friction. Hono was created by Yusuke Wada in December 2021 and uses a Trie tree-based router to determine which action executes based on the HTTP method and URL path. It works on platforms including Fastly Compute, Vercel, Netlify, AWS Lambda, and Lambda@Edge. Hono currently has 400,000 weekly npm downloads and 20,000 GitHub stars. Cloudflare uses Hono in core products, including D1 and Workers Logs, to manage internal APIs. I find the portability across these platforms to be the most obvious advantage for teams building distributed APIs on the edge. Hono is a small, simple, and ultrafast web framework built on Web Standards.

Performance and type safety

Hono’s performance on Cloudflare Workers reaches ~840,000 requests per second, beating the ~210,000 requests per second seen from Fastify via an adapter. On Node.js, Fastify maintains a higher throughput of 75,302 requests per second compared to Hono’s 50,899. I find the RPC mode the best part because it shares API types with the frontend without manual synchronization. You use @hono/zod-validator to ensure request bodies match a Zod schema, providing type-safe access through c.req.valid(‘json’). Hono uses a context model to handle bindings like KV, R2, and D1, which you access through c.env with TypeScript type completion. The RegExpRouter matches routes using a single large Regex created before dispatch. Middleware like CORS and logger can be added to the stack only when you need them, which keeps the core bundle small. If you are building a new API for an edge environment like Cloudflare Workers or Bun, Hono remains the most logical choice for developers who prioritize tiny bundle sizes and native TypeScript support from the first line of code. Hono includes a high level of type safety through its built-in features.

When to stay with Node.js

I do not recommend Hono for backends that need long-running processes or raw TCP connections. Edge runtimes lack the fs module and cannot handle 90-second jobs like PDF generation. If your team relies on a massive plugin ecosystem, Fastify’s mature plugins or Express’s thousands of NPM packages make more sense. I would stay with Express if the project is a small prototype or if the team already knows it well. You already know that runtime compatibility is the primary constraint for any edge deployment. Fastify is the best choice if you need JSON-Schema validation without extra libraries. You should consider Fastify if you need maximum performance on a server or a large team with complex routing. Express remains a popular choice because it is unopinionated and gives full control over routing and HTTP request handling. It sees 18 million downloads per week and powers applications at companies like PayPal and Uber. The Express ecosystem is massive, and it remains the default for many legacy migrations. Fastify is the absolute benchmark to beat for high-performance Node.js workloads. Will the ecosystem for Hono expand fast enough to replace Express’s decades of middleware?