// the take
Koa is the minimal, middleware-based HTTP framework from the original Express team, built around async/await instead of callbacks. It's for backend developers who want a thin layer over Node's http module rather than a batteries-included framework.
Tiny core (~570 SLOC) means you actually understand what's happening in your request pipeline; the onion-model middleware composition (await next()) is clean and easy to reason about for logging/error-handling/timing use cases; ctx delegation to request/response objects avoids monkey-patching Node's native objects, which keeps compatibility with other code touching req/res; test coverage is thorough, with dedicated test files for nearly every getter/setter on request and response.
No bundled router, body parser, or static file serving — you're assembling a stack from third-party koa-* packages of wildly varying maintenance quality, which is a real cost compared to Express's ecosystem maturity; the wiki-based middleware list is unofficial and you'll spend time vetting packages yourself; error handling still relies on try/catch conventions in middleware rather than any structured mechanism, so large apps need their own discipline layered on top; node 18+ requirement means older deployments can't just drop this in.
We read the README, the directory tree and a key source file in October 2026. Nobody pays to be listed. How we judge →