Next is where it's at these days in my opinion. You get a full-featured client-side React framework (the only one that supports modern React SSG), and then on

Next is where it's at these days in my opinion. You get a full-featured client-side React framework (the only one that supports modern React SSG), and then on top of it you get a better-organized approach to doing everything you can do with Express. And do mean everything: I run an entire Postrgraphile server through Next (and you can easily do the sme with Supabase or a similar tool)!