Beyond Node.js: My First Experience with Bun and Hono

While Node.js has been the industry standard for years, the JavaScript ecosystem is evolving rapidly. During my internship, I had the chance to step away from the traditional Node.js/Express setup and explore the power of Bun and Hono.

In this post, I’ll share what I learned during my hands on experience and why this stack is gaining so much traction. To put these technologies to the test, I built a simple inventory system. This project allowed me to see how Bun and Hono work together in a real world scenario from handling requests to managing data.

Get the code here:

[embed]GitHub — ruwani425/Inventory-System Contribute to ruwani425/Inventory-System development by creating an account on GitHub.github.com

1. What exactly is Bun?

Bun isn’t just another runtime. It’s an all in one JavaScript toolkit. It is written in Zig and powered by the JavaScriptCore engine (the same engine used by Safari), which makes it significantly faster than Node.js in many scenarios. Bun is a fast JavaScript runtime, package manager, and bundler.

Why I found Bun impressive:

• All in One: It replaces npm , yarn, jest and tsc. You don’t need multiple tools to manage your project.
• Blazing Fast Package Management: Running bun install feels like magic. It’s nearly instantaneous.
• Native TypeScript Support: No more configuring tsconfig.json just to run a simple script. Bun runs .ts files out of the box.

2. Enter Hono: The Lightweight Framework

If Bun is the engine, Hono is the lightweight frame that makes it fly. Hono (meaning “flame” in Japanese) is a small, fast, and web standards based framework.

My key takeaways from using Hono:

• Zero Dependencies: It is incredibly lightweight and has no external dependencies.
• Developer Experience (DX): The syntax is very similar to Express, so the transition was seamless.
• Built-in Middleware: Even though it’s small, it comes with great built-in support for things like JWT, CORS, and Logger.

3. Comparing the Performance (The “Why”)

Now, let’s discuss why we might choose this stack over other frameworks I’ve previously worked with, such as Express.

4. Best Use Cases

Now, let’s discuss the types of projects where this runtime and framework truly shine. While they are versatile, Bun and Hono are particularly well suited for specific use cases.

• Microservices: When you need small, ultra-fast services that start instantly.
• Edge Computing / Serverless: Perfect for platforms like Cloudflare Workers or AWS Lambda where “cold start” times matter.
• Real time APIs: Due to its low overhead, it’s great for high frequency data handling.
• Rapid Prototyping: Since there’s zero configuration for TypeScript, you can go from an idea to a running API in minutes.

5. My Experience: Building the Project

The speed at which I could go from bun init to a running API was incredible. The most refreshing part was the hot reloading. When I made changes to the code, Bun reflected them instantly without needing tools like nodemon.

Step-by-Step Implementation

You can refer to the official website for the steps to create your project.

[embed]Bun — Hono Web framework built on Web Standards for Cloudflare Workers, Fastly Compute, Deno, Bun, Vercel, Node.js, and others…hono.dev

Here are the steps I followed to create a Bun project and integrate Hono with MongoDB.

A starter for Bun is available. Start your project with “bun create” command. Select bun template for this example.

bun create hono@latest my-app

Move into my-app and install the dependencies.

cd my-app
bun install

Install Hono

bun add hono

Then add the dev command to your existing package.json

"scripts": {
    "dev": "bun run --hot src/index.ts"
  }

Add this Into your index.ts file and check is it working

import { Hono } from "hono";
const app = new Hono();
app.get("/", (c) => c.text("Hello Bun!"));
export default app;

Run command

bun run dev

You can specify the port number by exporting port.

const app = new Hono();
app.get("/", (c) => c.text("Hello Bun!"));
export default {
 port: 3000,
 fetch: app.fetch,
};

Hono routing

Hono makes routing incredibly simple and intuitive. If you are coming from Express, you will feel right at home. Here is a breakdown of how I handled routing in my project:

• Basic routes: app.get() app.post() app.put() app.delete() app.patch() app.options()
• Hono supports all standard HTTP methods out of the box.

app.get("/", (c) => c.text("Home"));
app.post("/users", async (c) => c.json(await c.req.json()));

• Path params: use :name and read with c.req.param()
• Handling dynamic data is straightforward. You can use :name syntax and retrieve the value using c.req.param().

app.get("/users/:id", (c) => {
    const id = c.req.param("id");
    return c.text(`User ${id}`);
});

• Optional / wildcard: use ? and *
• For more complex routing, Hono supports wildcards (*) and optional parameters (?).

app.get("/files/*", (c) => c.text("Wildcard"));
app.get("/posts/:id?", (c) => c.text("Optional"));

• Route groups: use app.route() with a sub-app
• One of my favorite features is the ability to clean up the main file by grouping routes using app.route().

const api = new Hono();
api.get("/health", (c) => c.text("OK"));

app.route("/api", api); // This makes the endpoint /api/health

• Middleware by path: app.use() runs before matching handlers
• Hono allows you to run code before matching handlers using app.use(), and it provides built-in hooks for 'Not Found' or global error states.

// Middleware for specific paths
app.use("/api/*", async (c, next) => {
  await next();
});

// Custom 404 and Error handling
app.notFound((c) => c.text("Custom Not Found", 404));
app.onError((err, c) => c.text(err.message, 500));

Use Mongoose with Bun

To make our application functional, we need a database. Since I was already familiar with Mongoose, I decided to use it with Bun. Even though Bun is a new runtime, it handles most Node.js packages like Mongoose seamlessly.

• First, install the Mongoose package using Bun’s lightning fast package manager:

bun add mongoose

• Here is a simple and clean way to set up your database connection logic. Notice how I used process.env to keep the connection string secure.

import mongoose from 'mongoose';

export const connectDB = async () => {
  try {
    console.log('Connecting to DB...');
    // The '!' tells TypeScript that we are sure this variable exists
    await mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGODB_URI!); 
    console.log('Successfully connected to MongoDB Atlas');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('DB connection error:', error);
    process.exit(1); // Exit the process if the connection fails
  }
}

If you ever run into runtime compatibility issues with Mongoose on Bun (as it is still evolving), you can always switch to the official MongoDB driver by running bun add mongodb.

Use a .env file with Bun

Create a .env file in your project root and add your configuration:

• Install dotenv (optional): bun add dotenv

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/inventory_db

• When you run your project using bun run or bun --hot, Bun automatically injects these values into process.env.

const port = Number(process.env.PORT ?? 3000);
console.log(`Server will run on port: ${port}`);

6. The Trade-offs (Cons)

No technology is perfect. While Bun and Hono are amazing, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Ecosystem Maturity: Bun is still young. Some complex Node.js libraries might have minor compatibility issues.
• Community Size: Compared to the massive Express/Node.js community, finding solutions for very specific bugs might take more time.

7. Final Thoughts

Exploring Bun and Hono during my internship learning curve opened my eyes to the future of backend development. While Node.js isn’t going anywhere soon, Bun and Hono provide a high performance alternative that is perfect for microservices and edge computing.

If you are a developer looking for speed and a simplified workflow, I highly recommend giving this stack a try!

Have you tried Bun or Hono yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments !

✍️ Written by Ruwani Ranthika 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruwani-ranthika-ba4186314

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