Comparison to Hono?

[osseonews]

Hey, I was starting a new project. Worked with itty-router in the past and it was great. Now there is some new library Hono, which seems to be everywhere. How does itty-router compare? Am I wrong to assume that itty-router is just simpler to use? Hono just tries to do alot more so is more complex? I took a look at Hono docs and it was a bit overwhelming. Itty-router just seems easier to use. Accurate?

[kwhitley]

Yeah, Hono has focused a ton on marketing the last year, so they've done a great job of propelling it into the spotlight. They've also (as you noted) appeared to try and become the one-stop shop for everything, adding a ton of features and compatibility everywhere - for better or worse.

Personally, that's the opposite direction I originally wanted for itty - envisioning that I would just make it super easy for third-party devs to write (and perhaps publish) their own middleware/abstractions for itty, but that I'd keep the core lib super tiny and super easy to use.

So ultimately I think it just boils down to which syntax vibes with you, and if you need all the extra add-ons that Hono provides. Obviously I'm biased, but none of my projects have really needed much of that, so I prefer what I consider to be the cleaner syntax of itty. Especially given the recent pattern of transforming raw data at the end (versus creating a response within each route), routes have become stupidly light, which I love!

Anyway, glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking itty looks simpler than Hono. I do think they're doing great work, and I love that there are options for everyone!