compare
Express vs Koa
The same facts for both, read from GitHub every night, and the relation a person reviewed.
| Fact | Express | Koa |
|---|---|---|
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Stars | 70k | 36k |
| Latest | v5.3.0 | v3.3.0 |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Release cadence | about 75 days between releases | about 42 days between releases |
| Active contributors | 15 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days | 9 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days |
| Flags | none | none |
How they relate
Koa replaces Express. Alternatives to Express →
Full replacementMinimal Node.js web framework built on async functions, with fewer built-in middleware.
Express
- v5.3.02026-10-09Fixed HTTP header conflict between Content-Length and Transfer-Encoding in res.send - by @YuryShkoda in #4893
- v4.22.32026-09-14Update path-to-regexp to 0.1.13 to fix CVE-2026-4867
- v4.22.22026-05-11fix: restore >20 array parsing for req.query repeated keys (8d09bfe6)
- v5.2.12025-12-01> [!IMPORTANT]
- v4.22.12025-12-01> [!IMPORTANT]
Koa
- v3.3.02026-11-03chore: Tell dependabot to update GH Actions
- v3.2.12026-05-21fix: request.length overflows on Content-Length > 2GB
- v3.2.02026-03-28docs: remove dead Job Board links
- v2.16.42026-02-25fix(security): Host Header Injection via ctx.hostname by @killagu
- v3.1.22026-02-25fix: typo in troubleshooting.md
Express
✓ signed The latest release, v5.3.0, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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Koa
✓ signed The latest release, v3.3.0, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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