Why I Chose 60 Lines of JavaScript Over NestJS for a Budget Project

When a friend‑of‑a‑friend calls you with the words “we have a micro‑budget but we trust you,” you either run for the hills or pour yourself another espresso and crack VS Code open. I chose the second option, which is how I ended up spending two very caffeine‑charged weekends deciding whether to build a tiny API with bare‑bones JavaScript or to reach for the shinier, batteries‑included NestJS framework. VS Code NestJS This post is a blow‑by‑blow log of that internal knife fight. No corporate buzzwords, no AI‑crafted SEO paragraphs—just me, my keyboard, and way too many TODO comments. If you’ve ever wondered whether NestJS is overkill for something that could fit in a single file, or whether hand‑rolled JavaScript is a maintenance nightmare dressed in hipster minimalism, read on. TODO NestJS The Mini‑Project That Started the Drama Picture a two‑person startup that sells hand‑painted skateboard decks. They’d need a teeny‑tiny backend that could: expose a REST API for product listings (GET /decks) accept orders (POST /orders) ping Stripe’s webhook once a week expose a REST API for product listings (GET /decks) GET /decks accept orders (POST /orders) POST /orders ping Stripe’s webhook once a week …and run on the cheapest $6 VPS the CFO (aka the founder’s dog) could find. $6 VPS $6 VPS CFO Total budget for dev work: ≈ $1 000.Deadline:two weekend sprints.Team:me, my linters, and a fig plant that judges my tab spacing. $1 000 two weekend sprints me With numbers that tight, every hour of setup matters, so the “framework vs. no‑framework” decision suddenly felt heavy. Route 1 — The Bare‑Bones JavaScript Way Spinning up a Node server by hand is the programming equivalent of camping with just a knife and a roll of duct tape: uncomfortable, but extremely satisfying when it works. // server.js — 59 lines, all mine import http from 'node:http'; import { parse } from 'node:url'; import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'; const PORT = process.env.PORT ?? 3000; const DB = JSON.parse(readFileSync('./db.json', 'utf8')); const routes = { '/decks': (req, res) => { res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }); res.end(JSON.stringify(DB.decks)); }, '/orders': async (req, res) => { if (req.method !== 'POST') return send404(res); const body = await buffer(req); const order = JSON.parse(body); // TODO: validation, payment, kittens, etc. DB.orders.push(order); res.writeHead(201); res.end('cool'); } }; http.createServer((req, res) => { const path = parse(req.url).pathname; (routes[path] ?? send404)(req, res); }).listen(PORT, () => console.log('listening', PORT)); function send404(res) { res.writeHead(404); res.end('nope'); } function buffer(req) { return new Promise(res => { let d = ''; req.on('data', c => (d += c)).on('end', () => res(d)); }); } // server.js — 59 lines, all mine import http from 'node:http'; import { parse } from 'node:url'; import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'; const PORT = process.env.PORT ?? 3000; const DB = JSON.parse(readFileSync('./db.json', 'utf8')); const routes = { '/decks': (req, res) => { res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }); res.end(JSON.stringify(DB.decks)); }, '/orders': async (req, res) => { if (req.method !== 'POST') return send404(res); const body = await buffer(req); const order = JSON.parse(body); // TODO: validation, payment, kittens, etc. DB.orders.push(order); res.writeHead(201); res.end('cool'); } }; http.createServer((req, res) => { const path = parse(req.url).pathname; (routes[path] ?? send404)(req, res); }).listen(PORT, () => console.log('listening', PORT)); function send404(res) { res.writeHead(404); res.end('nope'); } function buffer(req) { return new Promise(res => { let d = ''; req.on('data', c => (d += c)).on('end', () => res(d)); }); } Sixty lines, zero dependencies, and it runs on Node v18 that ships with Ubuntu 22.04. I could almost hear my VPS cheering. Sixty lines, zero dependencies, and it runs on Node v18 that ships with Ubuntu 22.04. I could almost hear my VPS cheering. Why I love this approach Instant bootstrap. node server.js and we’re live. Zero cognitive overhead. The entire app fits on one screen. Disk‑space friendly. The node_modules folder is literally non‑existent. Old‑school debugging. Add a console.log, refresh, done. Instant bootstrap. node server.js and we’re live. Instant bootstrap. node server.js Zero cognitive overhead. The entire app fits on one screen. Zero cognitive overhead. Disk‑space friendly. The node_modules folder is literally non‑existent. Disk‑space friendly. node_modules Old‑school debugging. Add a console.log, refresh, done. Old‑school debugging. console.log Why it keeps me up at night Manual everything. CORS, validation, DI—if I want it, I write it. Testing pain. Jest + supertest works, but all the wiring is on me. Callback relapse. One async slip and we’re in callback‑hell nostalgia. Team onboarding. Future devs might cry or quit (or both). Manual everything. CORS, validation, DI—if I want it, I write it. Manual everything. Testing pain. Jest + supertest works, but all the wiring is on me. Testing pain. Callback relapse. One async slip and we’re in callback‑hell nostalgia. Callback relapse. Team onboarding. Future devs might cry or quit (or both). Team onboarding. Here’s what a “quick” validation patch looked like by Sunday midnight: if (!order.email || !/^[\w+.]+@\w+\.\w+$/.test(order.email)) { res.writeHead(422); return res.end('invalid email bro'); } if (!order.email || !/^[\w+.]+@\w+\.\w+$/.test(order.email)) { res.writeHead(422); return res.end('invalid email bro'); } Multiply that by every field in the payload and you start missing those NestJS DTOs. Multiply that by every field in the payload and you start missing those NestJS DTOs. Route 2 — The NestJS Rollercoaster According to the NestJS 11 documentation released last month, the platform delivers “structure without the pain” for each version since version 6. The framework adopts a stringent structure by default while utilizing TypeScript by default while demanding SOLID pattern adoption despite your real feelings of pattern neutrality. The catch? Node v20 has become the required minimum version according to their documentation, so I had to replace my comfortable Debian 10 droplet. The famous five‑minute start looked like this: The famous five‑minute start looked like this: npm i -g @nestjs/cli nest new skatedecks-api cd skatedecks-api npm run start:dev npm i -g @nestjs/cli nest new skatedecks-api cd skatedecks-api npm run start:dev Then I scaffolded the decks module: Then I scaffolded the decks module: nest g resource decks nest g resource decks Boom—controller, service, DTOs, tests, e2e spec, an OpenAPI stub, and a partridge in a pear tree. Boom—controller, service, DTOs, tests, e2e spec, an OpenAPI stub, and a partridge in a pear tree. A slice of the generated controller // decks.controller.ts @Controller('decks') export class DecksController { constructor(private readonly svc: DecksService) {} @Get() findAll() { return this.svc.all(); } @Post() create(@Body() dto: CreateDeckDto) { return this.svc.add(dto); } } // decks.controller.ts @Controller('decks') export class DecksController { constructor(private readonly svc: DecksService) {} @Get() findAll() { return this.svc.all(); } @Post() create(@Body() dto: CreateDeckDto) { return this.svc.add(dto); } } The good stuff Type safety. Muscle‑memory order. autocomplete instead of guessing keys. Dependency injection. Swap DecksService for a mock in one line—tests love you. Batteries included. Swagger doc, class‑validator, caching, WebSockets—all one import. Ecosystem. I found a Stripe module in 13 seconds. Type safety. Muscle‑memory order. autocomplete instead of guessing keys. Type safety. order. Dependency injection. Swap DecksService for a mock in one line—tests love you. Dependency injection. DecksService Batteries included. Swagger doc, class‑validator, caching, WebSockets—all one import. Batteries included. import Ecosystem. I found a Stripe module in 13 seconds. Ecosystem. The wallet ache Cold start. npm install pulled 164 MB of packages—not great for the $6 VPS. Learning curve. My junior dev would need a full day to grok modules vs. providers. Boilerplate. Every file opens with four decorators and a dozen imports. Performance tax. In Hello‑World benchmarks, NestJS adds ~10 ms to P99. On big iron you don’t care; on a t2.micro you do. Cold start. npm install pulled 164 MB of packages—not great for the $6 VPS. Cold start. npm install 164 MB Learning curve. My junior dev would need a full day to grok modules vs. providers. Learning curve. Boilerplate. Every file opens with four decorators and a dozen imports. Boilerplate. Performance tax. In Hello‑World benchmarks, NestJS adds ~10 ms to P99. On big iron you don’t care; on a t2.micro you do. Performance tax. Detour — The Case of “Just Use Express” On Day 1 a buddy dropped into Slack and went, “Dude, why are you tormenting yourself with raw Node? Just npm i express, done.” Express sits between vanilla JS and full‑blown frameworks, so I gave it a fair trial. Spoiler: it solved 20 % of my gripes but introduced others. npm i express import express from 'express'; const app = express().use(express.json()); app.get('/decks', (req, res) => res.json(DB.decks)); app.post('/orders', (req, res) => { const order = req.body; // still writing manual validation... }); app.listen(3000); import express from 'express'; const app = express().use(express.json()); app.get('/decks', (req, res) => res.json(DB.decks)); app.post('/orders', (req, res) => { const order = req.body; // still writing manual validation... }); app.listen(3000); Express saved me maybe 30 lines, but I was still stitching middlewares, hand‑rolling Swagger, and dreaming about decorators. It felt like buying furniture from IKEA—cheaper than custom carpentry, but you’re still the one with an Allen key at 11 PM. Express saved me maybe 30 lines, but I was still stitching middlewares, hand‑rolling Swagger, and dreaming about decorators. It felt like buying furniture from IKEA—cheaper than custom carpentry, but you’re still the one with an Allen key at 11 PM. Benchmark Rabbit Hole Because I’m a numbers nerd, I spun up three DigitalOcean droplets (each 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) and hammered them with wrk: wrk wrk -t4 -c200 -d30s http://myip:3000/decks wrk -t4 -c200 -d30s http://myip:3000/decks Stack Req/sec P99 Latency Vanilla HTTP 12 560 14 ms Express 5 beta 11 830 16 ms NestJS 11 (Fastify) 11 310 25 ms Stack Req/sec P99 Latency Vanilla HTTP 12 560 14 ms Express 5 beta 11 830 16 ms NestJS 11 (Fastify) 11 310 25 ms Stack Req/sec P99 Latency Stack Stack Req/sec Req/sec P99 Latency P99 Latency Vanilla HTTP 12 560 14 ms Vanilla HTTP Vanilla HTTP 12 560 12 560 14 ms 14 ms Express 5 beta 11 830 16 ms Express 5 beta Express 5 beta 11 830 11 830 16 ms 16 ms NestJS 11 (Fastify) 11 310 25 ms NestJS 11 (Fastify) NestJS 11 (Fastify) 11 310 11 310 25 ms 25 ms TL;DR: the difference is peanuts compared to Stripe’s 300 ms average. If performance is your only yardstick, choose whichever stack lets you ship faster. “Can’t I Just Add TypeScript to Vanilla?” Absolutely—and I tried. But the moment you add ts-node, tsconfig.json, a build script, and types for Node, you’re already halfway up the framework mountain. NestJS just finishes the climb and throws in rope and a granola bar. ts-node tsconfig.json Hidden Costs I Almost Missed DevOps friction. My hand‑rolled server needed a dozen custom health checks for Kubernetes. NestJS offers a ready‑made health module. Monitoring. NestJS + @nestjs/terminus + Prometheus exporter took 10 min. Rolling my own metrics exporter would be “fun” but billable. Security headers. One line with helmet() vs. a night with OWASP docs. Community answers. StackOverflow has 53 k questions tagged NestJS. Hand‑rolled patterns usually = “you’re on your own, buddy.” DevOps friction. My hand‑rolled server needed a dozen custom health checks for Kubernetes. NestJS offers a ready‑made health module. DevOps friction. Monitoring. NestJS + @nestjs/terminus + Prometheus exporter took 10 min. Rolling my own metrics exporter would be “fun” but billable. Monitoring. @nestjs/terminus Security headers. One line with helmet() vs. a night with OWASP docs. Security headers. helmet() Community answers. StackOverflow has 53 k questions tagged NestJS. Hand‑rolled patterns usually = “you’re on your own, buddy.” Community answers. These soft costs rarely show up in spreadsheets, but they bite you at 2 AM. Costing the Two Paths (Round 1) I grabbed a napkin, a pen, and my highly scientific “developer‑hour × coffee” formula. Item Vanilla JS NestJS Initial setup 2 h 5 h Basic CRUD & validation 6 h 4 h Tests & docs 5 h 3 h Containerization 1 h 1 h Total 14 h 13 h Item Vanilla JS NestJS Initial setup 2 h 5 h Basic CRUD & validation 6 h 4 h Tests & docs 5 h 3 h Containerization 1 h 1 h Total 14 h 13 h Item Vanilla JS NestJS Item Item Vanilla JS Vanilla JS NestJS NestJS Initial setup 2 h 5 h Initial setup Initial setup 2 h 2 h 5 h 5 h Basic CRUD & validation 6 h 4 h Basic CRUD & validation Basic CRUD & validation 6 h 6 h 4 h 4 h Tests & docs 5 h 3 h Tests & docs Tests & docs 5 h 5 h 3 h 3 h Containerization 1 h 1 h Containerization Containerization 1 h 1 h 1 h 1 h Total 14 h 13 h Total Total Total 14 h 14 h 14 h 13 h 13 h 13 h Surprise: NestJS actually wins by an hour once you factor validation and docs. The time I saved not hand‑rolling OpenAPI wiped out the heavier bootstrap. Hourly rate being $60 (hey, it’s a friend project), that’s $840 vs. $780. Not a deal‑breaker, but when the budget cap is $1 000, fifty bucks buys better coffee beans. What If the Budget Was $10 000? Interestingly, the decision matrix flips. With more money I’d consider going even simpler (e.g., Cloudflare Workers or Firebase) to avoid running servers at all. The real enemy isn’t frameworks—it’s YAGNI: building things you’ll never need. even simpler But in a $1 000 universe, self‑hosted VPS plus a sensible framework hits the sweet spot between cost and control. A Quick Checklist for Your Own Decision < 50 LOC and never grows? ➜ Raw Node. Needs Swagger, validation, & a team? ➜ NestJS. Edge function serving static JSON? ➜ Skip Node, use serverless. You hate decorators with a fiery passion? ➜ Express + Zod. Management wants “enterprisey” buzzwords? ➜ NestJS wins PR points. < 50 LOC and never grows? ➜ Raw Node. < 50 LOC and never grows? Needs Swagger, validation, & a team? ➜ NestJS. Needs Swagger, validation, & a team? Edge function serving static JSON? ➜ Skip Node, use serverless. Edge function serving static JSON? You hate decorators with a fiery passion? ➜ Express + Zod. You hate decorators with a fiery passion? Management wants “enterprisey” buzzwords? ➜ NestJS wins PR points. Management wants “enterprisey” buzzwords? Stick this list on your monitor; thank me later. The Hybrid Compromise Nobody Talks About Here’s the secret third option: start in NestJS but treat it like a micro‑kernel. Use only the core: controllers, services, pipes. Skip fancy modules until needed. Replace Fastify adapter if performance hurts later. Keep feature flags to eject back to vanilla JS for specific hot paths. Use only the core: controllers, services, pipes. Use only the core: controllers, services, pipes. Skip fancy modules until needed. Skip fancy modules until needed. Replace Fastify adapter if performance hurts later. Replace Fastify adapter if performance hurts later. Keep feature flags to eject back to vanilla JS for specific hot paths. Keep feature flags to eject back to vanilla JS for specific hot paths. I actually wrote one tiny performance‑critical route in raw Node and mounted it under /legacy/*: /legacy/* import { createServer } from 'node:http'; // legacy.ts export function mount(app: INestApplication) { const server = createServer((req, res) => { // crazy optimized CSV streaming }); app.use('/legacy', (req, res) => server.emit('request', req, res)); } import { createServer } from 'node:http'; // legacy.ts export function mount(app: INestApplication) { const server = createServer((req, res) => { // crazy optimized CSV streaming }); app.use('/legacy', (req, res) => server.emit('request', req, res)); } It felt dirty—but it worked, and nobody on Reddit yelled at me. It felt dirty—but it worked, and nobody on Reddit yelled at me. A Little Easter Egg Because Hackernoon loves code 😀, here’s the cheapest possible NestJS guard I wrote to rate‑limit the orders endpoint without introducing Redis: @Injectable() export class SimpleThrottleGuard implements CanActivate { private readonly hits = new Map (); canActivate(ctx: ExecutionContext): boolean { const ip = ctx.switchToHttp().getRequest().ip; const now = Date.now(); const count = (this.hits.get(ip) ?? 0) + 1; this.hits.set(ip, count); setTimeout(() => this.hits.set(ip, count - 1), 30_000); // decay in 30 s return count (); canActivate(ctx: ExecutionContext): boolean { const ip = ctx.switchToHttp().getRequest().ip; const now = Date.now(); const count = (this.hits.get(ip) ?? 0) + 1; this.hits.set(ip, count); setTimeout(() => this.hits.set(ip, count - 1), 30_000); // decay in 30 s return count < 10; // 10 hits per 30 s per IP } } Yes, it’s in‑memory and will reset on pod restart, but for tiny budgets elegance often loses to pragmatism. Yes, it’s in‑memory and will reset on pod restart, but for tiny budgets elegance often loses to pragmatism. Spoiler: What I Finally Picked After two weekends, four espressos, and a delicate negotiation with the VPS gods, I went with NestJS. The deciding factors were: VPS NestJS Free Swagger docs impressed the client without extra code. class‑validator saved ~300 lines of manual checks. Onboarding the cousin dev is easier with consistent patterns. Docker image size barely changed after multi‑stage build tricks. Free Swagger docs impressed the client without extra code. Free Swagger docs impressed the client without extra code. class‑validator saved ~300 lines of manual checks. class‑validator saved ~300 lines of manual checks. class‑validator Onboarding the cousin dev is easier with consistent patterns. Onboarding the cousin dev is easier with consistent patterns. Docker image size barely changed after multi‑stage build tricks. Docker image size barely changed after multi‑stage build tricks. Here’s the final Dockerfile slice that kept the image at 140 MB: FROM node:20-alpine AS build WORKDIR /app COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm ci --omit=dev COPY . . RUN npm run build FROM node:20-alpine WORKDIR /app COPY --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules COPY --from=build /app/dist ./dist CMD ["node", "dist/main.js"] FROM node:20-alpine AS build WORKDIR /app COPY package*.json ./ RUN npm ci --omit=dev COPY . . RUN npm run build FROM node:20-alpine WORKDIR /app COPY --from=build /app/node_modules ./node_modules COPY --from=build /app/dist ./dist CMD ["node", "dist/main.js"] The server now idles at 29 MB RAM, handles ~400 req/s on wrk, and logs pretty JSON. Most importantly, I sleep better knowing future‑me won’t invent a routing convention at 2 AM because “why not.” The server now idles at 29 MB RAM, handles ~400 req/s on wrk, and logs pretty JSON. Most importantly, I sleep better knowing future‑me won’t invent a routing convention at 2 AM because “why not.” wrk Tiny Lessons You Can Steal Measure first. Benchmarks killed my fear of NestJS latency. Hide boilerplate. Generate templates once; point juniors to src/examples. Don’t marry a framework. It’s OK to break out raw Node for edge cases. Budget ≠ tech stack. The cheapest code is the code you only write once. Measure first. Benchmarks killed my fear of NestJS latency. Measure first. Hide boilerplate. Generate templates once; point juniors to src/examples. Hide boilerplate. src/examples Don’t marry a framework. It’s OK to break out raw Node for edge cases. Don’t marry a framework. Budget ≠ tech stack. The cheapest code is the code you only write once. Budget ≠ tech stack. Outro — Ship First, Refactor Less Each stack that leads genuine users to engage physically with actual skateboards represents the flawless stack choice. The selection of my next side-project can take a different direction, which is perfectly acceptable. Digital stacks function like tools that do not become permanent tattoos. Purchasing me a coffee in Yerevan will show appreciation for my decision paralysis guidance. You will spot me in the corner zone working on pipe transformation from the guard structure as the fig plant agrees with silent gestures.