[coreyp_1]

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

I've used Express, and it's great for what it does, it just doesn't do what I'm looking for. I'm wanting a framework that can be a CMS as well as a store, or a brochure-ware site, or a game backend server, or whatever else.

Basically, a plugin-able framework. I don't want to use a package from npm if that means having to hack it just to add something to a form. For that matter, I don't want to worry about the security of a 3rd party module simply because there is no standard way to generate/handle forms.

It's a philosophical argument, I suppose. You can write secure code if you do everything right, but if a framework requires you to use an API everywhere (a la Drupal's FAPI), then you get security for free.

I've written my own login and session handling scripts. I've written my own CRUD routines. It's painful, because it should not be necessary (IMO).

[izolate]

node+npm does everything you need here. if you're writing your own libs, you're doing something wrong.

there are so many middleware modules for express that you can have a web app with a connected db, user auth, forms with csrf up in a matter of minutes.