Polka

Polka is a micro web server for Node.js that positions itself as an extremely minimal yet highly performant alternative to Express. Under the hood it is essentially a thin layer on top of Node’s native HTTP server, adding just enough routing, middleware, and sub-application support to be productive without the weight of a full framework. Its API is intentionally similar to Express, which makes it easy for existing Express users to migrate or share middleware with minimal changes. Because it focuses on speed and small size, polka can be attractive for performance-sensitive services, serverless functions, or applications where dependency budgets are tight. The project exposes common features like route parameters, query parsing (usually via external middleware), and simple error handling, but leaves more advanced concerns to the user or ecosystem packages.