Express vs. FastAPI vs. PydanticAI vs. dbForge Data Generator for MySQL Comparison Chart

Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications. With a myriad of HTTP utility methods and middleware at your disposal, creating a robust API is quick and easy. Express provides a thin layer of fundamental web application features, without obscuring Node.js features that you know and love. Express has no notion of a database. This concept is left up to third-party Node modules, allowing you to interface with nearly any database. In Express, 404 responses are not the result of an error, so the error-handler middleware will not capture them. This behavior is because a 404 response simply indicates the absence of additional work to do; in other words, Express has executed all middleware functions and routes, and found that none of them responded.

PydanticAI is a Python-based agent framework designed to simplify the development of production-grade applications using generative AI. Built by the team behind Pydantic, the framework integrates seamlessly with popular AI models such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and others. It offers type-safe design, real-time debugging, and performance monitoring through Pydantic Logfire. PydanticAI also provides structured responses by leveraging Pydantic to validate model outputs, ensuring consistency. The framework includes a dependency injection system to support iterative development and testing, as well as the ability to stream LLM outputs for rapid validation. It is ideal for AI-driven projects that require flexible and efficient agent composition using standard Python best practices. We built PydanticAI with one simple aim: to bring that FastAPI feeling to GenAI app development.