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Building REST APIs with Hono: The Ultra-Fast Web Framework

Build high-performance REST APIs with Hono, the lightweight TypeScript framework that runs on Bun, Deno, Node.js, and Cloudflare Workers. Covers routing,...

Y
Yash Pritwani
13 min read

Why Hono?

Hono (meaning "flame" in Japanese) is a small, ultrafast web framework for the Edge and beyond. At ~14KB, it is one of the smallest web frameworks available, yet it supports middleware, routing, validation, and OpenAPI generation.

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 180" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="180" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><rect x="20" y="20" width="70" height="35" rx="6" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.8"/><text x="55" y="42" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Web</text><rect x="20" y="65" width="70" height="35" rx="6" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.8"/><text x="55" y="87" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Mobile</text><rect x="20" y="110" width="70" height="35" rx="6" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.8"/><text x="55" y="132" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">IoT</text><rect x="150" y="20" width="120" height="130" rx="10" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.9"/><text x="210" y="50" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="12" font-family="system-ui" font-weight="bold">Gateway</text><line x1="165" y1="60" x2="255" y2="60" stroke="#ffffff" stroke-width="0.5" opacity="0.3"/><text x="210" y="80" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Rate Limit</text><text x="210" y="95" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Auth</text><text x="210" y="110" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Load Balance</text><text x="210" y="125" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Transform</text><text x="210" y="140" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="9" font-family="system-ui">Cache</text><rect x="340" y="15" width="95" height="35" rx="6" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.8"/><text x="387" y="37" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service A</text><rect x="340" y="60" width="95" height="35" rx="6" fill="#2dd4bf" opacity="0.8"/><text x="387" y="82" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service B</text><rect x="340" y="105" width="95" height="35" rx="6" fill="#f59e0b" opacity="0.8"/><text x="387" y="127" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service C</text><rect x="490" y="55" width="80" height="45" rx="6" fill="none" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1"/><text x="530" y="82" text-anchor="middle" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">DB / Cache</text><defs><marker id="arrow7" markerWidth="8" markerHeight="6" refX="8" refY="3" orient="auto"><path d="M0,0 L8,3 L0,6" fill="#e2e8f0"/></marker></defs><line x1="92" y1="37" x2="148" y2="55" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="92" y1="82" x2="148" y2="85" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="92" y1="127" x2="148" y2="115" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="272" y1="55" x2="338" y2="32" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="272" y1="85" x2="338" y2="77" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="272" y1="115" x2="338" y2="122" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/><line x1="437" y1="77" x2="488" y2="77" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" marker-end="url(#arrow7)"/></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">API gateway pattern: a single entry point handles auth, rate limiting, and routing to backend services.</p></div>

What makes Hono special:

•Multi-runtime: Works on Bun, Deno, Node.js, Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda
•Type-safe: Full TypeScript support with type inference
•Fast: Benchmarks show it outperforming Express by 5-10x
•Standards-based: Uses Web Standards API (Request/Response)

Getting Started

# Create a new Hono project with Bun
bun create hono my-api
cd my-api

# Or with Node.js
npm create hono@latest my-api

Basic API

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { cors } from "hono/cors";
import { logger } from "hono/logger";
import { prettyJSON } from "hono/pretty-json";

const app = new Hono();

// Middleware
app.use("*", logger());
app.use("*", cors());
app.use("*", prettyJSON());

// Routes
app.get("/", (c) => {
  return c.json({ message: "Welcome to the API", version: "1.0.0" });
});

app.get("/health", (c) => {
  return c.json({ status: "healthy", uptime: process.uptime() });
});

export default app;

CRUD API with Validation

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { zValidator } from "@hono/zod-validator";
import { z } from "zod";

const app = new Hono();

// Validation schemas
const createUserSchema = z.object({
  name: z.string().min(2).max(100),
  email: z.string().email(),
  role: z.enum(["admin", "user", "viewer"]).default("user"),
});

const updateUserSchema = createUserSchema.partial();

// In-memory store (replace with database)
let users: Array<{ id name email role }> = [];
let nextId = 1;

// List users
app.get("/api/users", (c) => {
  const page = Number(c.req.query("page") || "1");
  const limit = Number(c.req.query("limit") || "10");
  const start = (page - 1) * limit;

  return c.json({
    data: users.slice(start, start + limit),
    total: users.length,
    page,
    limit,
  });
});

// Get single user
app.get("/api/users/:id", (c) => {
  const user = users.find((u) => u.id === c.req.param("id"));
  if (!user) {
    return c.json({ error: "User not found" }, 404);
  }
  return c.json(user);
});

// Create user
app.post("/api/users", zValidator("json", createUserSchema), (c) => {
  const body = c.req.valid("json");
  const user = { id: String(nextId++), ...body };
  users.push(user);
  return c.json(user, 201);
});

// Update user
app.put("/api/users/:id", zValidator("json", updateUserSchema), (c) => {
  const id = c.req.param("id");
  const body = c.req.valid("json");
  const index = users.findIndex((u) => u.id === id);

  if (index === -1) {
    return c.json({ error: "User not found" }, 404);
  }

  users[index] = { ...users[index], ...body };
  return c.json(users[index]);
});

// Delete user
app.delete("/api/users/:id", (c) => {
  const id = c.req.param("id");
  const index = users.findIndex((u) => u.id === id);

  if (index === -1) {
    return c.json({ error: "User not found" }, 404);
  }

  users.splice(index, 1);
  return c.json({ message: "User deleted" });
});

export default app;

Middleware

Authentication Middleware

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { bearerAuth } from "hono/bearer-auth";
import { jwt } from "hono/jwt";

const app = new Hono();

// Simple bearer token
app.use("/api/*", bearerAuth({ token: "my-secret-token" }));

// JWT authentication
app.use("/api/*", jwt({ secret: "your-jwt-secret" }));

// Custom auth middleware
const requireRole = (role) => {
  return async (c: any, next: any) => {
    const payload = c.get("jwtPayload");
    if (payload.role !== role) {
      return c.json({ error: "Forbidden" }, 403);
    }
    await next();
  };
};

app.get("/api/admin", requireRole("admin"), (c) => {
  return c.json({ message: "Admin area" });
});

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 220" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="220" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><rect x="230" y="15" width="140" height="35" rx="8" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.9"/><text x="300" y="38" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="12" font-family="system-ui" font-weight="bold">API Gateway</text><rect x="30" y="80" width="100" height="50" rx="8" fill="#3b82f6" opacity="0.8"/><text x="80" y="100" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Auth</text><text x="80" y="115" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service</text><rect x="160" y="80" width="100" height="50" rx="8" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.8"/><text x="210" y="100" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">User</text><text x="210" y="115" text-anchor="middle" fill="#ffffff" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service</text><rect x="290" y="80" width="100" height="50" rx="8" fill="#2dd4bf" opacity="0.8"/><text x="340" y="100" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Order</text><text x="340" y="115" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service</text><rect x="420" y="80" width="100" height="50" rx="8" fill="#f59e0b" opacity="0.8"/><text x="470" y="100" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Payment</text><text x="470" y="115" text-anchor="middle" fill="#1a1a2e" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Service</text><line x1="265" y1="50" x2="80" y2="78" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="285" y1="50" x2="210" y2="78" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="315" y1="50" x2="340" y2="78" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><line x1="335" y1="50" x2="470" y2="78" stroke="#e2e8f0" stroke-width="1" opacity="0.5"/><ellipse cx="80" cy="175" rx="35" ry="12" fill="none" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="45" y1="175" x2="45" y2="190" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="115" y1="175" x2="115" y2="190" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><ellipse cx="80" cy="190" rx="35" ry="12" fill="none" stroke="#3b82f6" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="80" y1="130" x2="80" y2="163" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="3,3"/><ellipse cx="340" cy="175" rx="35" ry="12" fill="none" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="305" y1="175" x2="305" y2="190" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="375" y1="175" x2="375" y2="190" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="1.5"/><ellipse cx="340" cy="190" rx="35" ry="12" fill="none" stroke="#2dd4bf" stroke-width="1.5"/><line x1="340" y1="130" x2="340" y2="163" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="3,3"/><rect x="155" y="160" width="150" height="30" rx="6" fill="#a855f7" opacity="0.3"/><text x="230" y="180" text-anchor="middle" fill="#a855f7" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">Message Bus / Events</text><line x1="210" y1="130" x2="210" y2="158" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="3,3"/><line x1="470" y1="130" x2="470" y2="175" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="1" stroke-dasharray="3,3"/><line x1="305" y1="175" x2="470" y2="175" stroke="#94a3b8" stroke-width="0.5" stroke-dasharray="3,3" opacity="0.3"/></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">Microservices architecture: independent services communicate through an API gateway and event bus.</p></div>

Error Handling

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { HTTPException } from "hono/http-exception";

const app = new Hono();

// Global error handler
app.onError((err, c) => {
  if (err instanceof HTTPException) {
    return c.json({ error: err.message }, err.status);
  }
  console.error(err);
  return c.json({ error: "Internal Server Error" }, 500);
});

// 404 handler
app.notFound((c) => {
  return c.json({ error: "Not Found", path: c.req.path }, 404);
});

Rate Limiting

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { rateLimiter } from "hono-rate-limiter";

const app = new Hono();

const limiter = rateLimiter({
  windowMs: 60 * 1000,   // 1 minute
  limit: 100,            // 100 requests per window
  standardHeaders: "draft-6",
  keyGenerator: (c) => c.req.header("x-forwarded-for") || "unknown",
});

app.use("/api/*", limiter);

Database Integration

import { Hono } from "hono";
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
import { pgTable, serial, text, timestamp } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
import { eq } from "drizzle-orm";
import pg from "pg";

// Schema
const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: serial("id").primaryKey(),
  name: text("name").notNull(),
  email: text("email").notNull().unique(),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").defaultNow(),
});

// Database connection
const pool = new pg.Pool({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL });
const db = drizzle(pool);

const app = new Hono();

app.get("/api/users", async (c) => {
  const result = await db.select().from(users);
  return c.json(result);
});

app.get("/api/users/:id", async (c) => {
  const id = Number(c.req.param("id"));
  const result = await db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.id, id));
  if (result.length === 0) {
    return c.json({ error: "Not found" }, 404);
  }
  return c.json(result[0]);
});

export default app;

Deployment

Bun

// src/index.ts
import app from "./app";

export default {
  port: process.env.PORT || 3000,
  fetch: app.fetch,
};
bun run src/index.ts

Docker

FROM oven/bun:1-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json bun.lockb ./
RUN bun install --production
COPY src ./src
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["bun", "run", "src/index.ts"]

<div style="margin:2.5rem auto;max-width:600px;width:100%;text-align:center;"><svg viewBox="0 0 600 200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="width:100%;height:auto;"><rect width="600" height="200" rx="12" fill="#1a1a2e"/><rect x="0" y="0" width="600" height="28" rx="12" fill="#2d2d44"/><rect x="0" y="12" width="600" height="16" fill="#2d2d44"/><circle cx="18" cy="14" r="5" fill="#ef4444"/><circle cx="34" cy="14" r="5" fill="#f59e0b"/><circle cx="50" cy="14" r="5" fill="#2dd4bf"/><text x="300" y="18" text-anchor="middle" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="system-ui">docker-compose.yml</text><rect x="0" y="28" width="35" height="172" fill="#1e1e32"/><text x="25" y="48" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">1</text><text x="25" y="66" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">2</text><text x="25" y="84" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">3</text><text x="25" y="102" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">4</text><text x="25" y="120" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">5</text><text x="25" y="138" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">6</text><text x="25" y="156" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">7</text><text x="25" y="174" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">8</text><text x="25" y="192" text-anchor="end" fill="#94a3b8" font-size="10" font-family="monospace" opacity="0.5">9</text><text x="45" y="48" fill="#a855f7" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">version</text><text x="100" y="48" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">: &quot;3.8&quot;</text><text x="45" y="66" fill="#a855f7" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">services</text><text x="105" y="66" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">:</text><text x="55" y="84" fill="#3b82f6" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> web</text><text x="80" y="84" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">:</text><text x="55" y="102" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> image</text><text x="110" y="102" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">: nginx:alpine</text><text x="55" y="120" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> ports</text><text x="102" y="120" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">:</text><text x="55" y="138" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> - &quot;80:80&quot;</text><text x="55" y="156" fill="#2dd4bf" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> volumes</text><text x="118" y="156" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace">:</text><text x="55" y="174" fill="#e2e8f0" font-size="11" font-family="monospace"> - ./html:/usr/share/nginx</text><rect x="365" y="164" width="2" height="14" fill="#6366f1" opacity="0.8"/></svg><p style="margin-top:0.75rem;font-size:0.85rem;color:#94a3b8;font-style:italic;line-height:1.4;">A well-structured configuration file is the foundation of reproducible infrastructure.</p></div>

Benchmarks

On a simple JSON response endpoint:

Framework
Requests/sec
Latency (p99)

|-----------|-------------|---------------|

Hono (Bun)
120,000
0.8ms
Elysia (Bun)
115,000
0.9ms
Fastify (Node)
55,000
2.1ms
Express (Node)
15,000
8.5ms

Hono on Bun is 8x faster than Express.

At TechSaaS, we use Hono for lightweight API services that need to be fast and portable. Its multi-runtime support means we can develop locally with Bun and deploy to Cloudflare Workers or Docker without changing code.

Need help building APIs? Contact [email protected].

#hono#api#typescript#bun#web-framework

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