Ultra-fast web framework purpose-built for edge computing. Supports Workers, Deno, Bun, Node.js — lightweight weapon for indie devs building APIs.
Hono middleware executes in registration order. cors() must come before routes, auth middleware must come before protected routes. Wrong middleware order produces no errors — it just silently fails. This is the most common newbie issue.
While Hono claims Write Once Run Anywhere, real-world differences exist: Deno's WebSocket API differs from Workers, the Node.js adapter underperforms native Workers, and some middleware is only available on specific runtimes. Test every target before cross-runtime deployment.
hono/client's hc needs to import server-side types — meaning your frontend bundle will include route type definitions. For simple landing pages or lightweight SPAs, plain fetch() may be a better fit.
Hono's default error response is a plain text Internal Server Error. Production must use app.onError() for custom error handling, logging, and structured error responses. Otherwise you'll have zero visibility when debugging production issues.
Hono was released in 2022. Despite explosive growth, the volume of StackOverflow answers and blog tutorials is far less than Express (2010). Complex scenarios (custom auth middleware, non-standard WebSocket usage) may require reading the source.
| Hono RPC Docs | Blog | - |
