What are the differences between HTTP module and Express.js module ?

HTTP and Express both are used in NodeJS for development. In this article, we’ll go through HTTP and express modules separately

HTTP: It is an in-build module which is pre-installed along with NodeJS. It is used to create server and set up connections. Using this connection, data sending and receiving can be done as long as connections use a hypertext transfer protocol.

Example: Creating a server using the HTTP module in NodeJS.

index.js

// Importing http module
var http = require('http');

// Create a server object which listens on port 300
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    // Write a response to the client
    res.write('Hello World!');

    // End the response
    res.end();
}).listen(3000);

Run the index.js file using the following command.

node index.js

Output:

Express: Express as a whole is known as a framework, not just as a module. It gives you an API, submodules, functions, and methodology and conventions for quickly and easily typing together all the components necessary to put up a modern, functional web server with all the conveniences necessary for that (static asset hosting, templating, handling CSRF, CORS, cookie parsing, POST data handling, and many more functionalities.

Module Installation: You can install the express module using the following command.

npm i express

Example: Creating a server using the express module in NodeJS.

index.js

// Importing express
const express = require('express');

// Creating instance of express
const app = express();

// Handling GET / Request
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.send("Hello World!, I am server created by expresss");
})

// Listening to server at port 3000
app.listen(3000, function () {
    console.log("server started");
})

Run the index.js file using the following command.

node index.js

Output:

Difference between HTTP module and Express.js module:

HTTP	Express
HTTP comes inbuilt along with NodeJS that is, we don’t need to install it explicitly.	Express is installed explicitly using npm command: npm install express
HTTP is not a framework as a whole, rather it is just a module.	Express is a framework as a whole.
HTTP does not provide function for static hosting, you require to write your own.	Express provide express.static function for static asset hosting. Example: app.use(express.static(‘public’));
HTTP is an independent module.	Express is made on top of the HTTP module.
HTTP module provides various tools (functions) to do things for networking like making a server, client, etc.	Express along with what HTTP does provide many more functions in order to make development easy.