Awesome Node.js Backend Open Source Applications

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A curated list of open-source backend applications built with Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
Use these projects to learn real-world architecture, find contribution opportunities, or bootstrap your own product.
Feel free to Contribute — PRs are always welcome!

Contain

• REST / GraphQL / gRPC APIs
• Micro-services & serverless examples
• CMS & e-commerce backends
• Boilerplates & starter kits
• DevOps & observability tools
• Real-world clones & SaaS backends
• Queues / event-driven systems
• …and more!

Legend

• 🔥 new / trending / cool
• 👴 classic / legacy
• ✅ production-grade
• 🚀 exceptionally awesome

note : Node and dependency versions listed in each project’s package.json or docs may evolve.
perfect combo : 🔥 ✅ 🚀

Happy Exploring 🤘

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Startup / SaaS Clones

• Strapi – Headless CMS with GraphQL & REST APIs 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Parse Server – Open-source backend for any app 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Wiki.js – Modern wiki engine powered by Node & PostgreSQL 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Appwrite – Self-hosted BaaS: auth, DB, storage, functions 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• NodeBB – Real-time forum platform (Socket.IO + Mongo) 🔥 ✅
  • Discord
    • Rocket.Chat – Self-hosted chat, Slack/Discord alternative ✅ 🚀
  • Medium
    • Ghost – Professional publishing platform 🔥 ✅ 🚀
  • Trello
    • Focalboard – Open-source project management kanban 🔥 ✅ 🚀
  • GitHub
    • Gitea – Lightweight git service (Go backend but TS/React frontend) ✅ 👴

Awesome Apps

• KeystoneJS – TypeScript CMS & API framework 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Directus – Database-first headless CMS 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• RedwoodJS – Full-stack JS/TS app framework (GraphQL API) 🔥 ✅
• Supabase – Postgres-powered Firebase alternative (mix of Go & TS services) 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Hoppscotch – Open API/GraphQL client 🔥 ✅ 🚀

Analytics

• Ackee – Self-hosted, Node-based analytics 🔥 ✅
• Umami – Simple web analytics with Next.js API 🔥 ✅ 🚀

Background Jobs / Queues

• BullMQ – Redis-based queue for Node (successor to Bull) 🔥 ✅
• Agenda – Lightweight job scheduler for MongoDB 👴 ✅

Boilerplates / Templates

• TypeScript Node Starter – Auth, Passport, Mongo ✅
• NestJS Boilerplate – Auth, Prisma, GraphQL 🔥
• Fastify Starter – Opinionated CLI & template 🔥
• Docker
  • node-docker-good-defaults – Production-ready Node Docker example ✅

CMS / E-commerce

• Medusa – Headless commerce engine 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Payload CMS – TypeScript self-hosted CMS 🔥 ✅
• Reaction Commerce – GraphQL/Mongo storefront 👴 ✅

DevOps / Observability

• PM2 – Advanced Node process manager 👴 ✅ 🚀
• OpenTelemetry-JS – Metrics/tracing SDK 🔥 ✅
• N8N – Node-powered workflow automation 🔥 ✅ 🚀

GraphQL Backends

• Hasura GraphQL Engine – Instant realtime GraphQL over Postgres 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• Graphile Engine – Schema-first GraphQL server for Postgres ✅
• Apollo Server – Spec-compliant, pluggable GraphQL server 👴 ✅

Micro-services / Event Driven

• Seneca – Toolkit for micro-service patterns 👴 ✅
• Moleculer – Fast Node micro-services framework ✅ 🚀
• KafkaJS – Modern Apache Kafka client for Node 🔥 ✅

Queues / Messaging

• RabbitMQ Node Client – Promise & callback AMQP 👴
• SQS Producer – Simple Amazon SQS wrapper ✅

Databases / ORM

• Prisma – Next-gen TypeScript ORM 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• TypeORM – ORM for TypeScript & JavaScript 👴 ✅
• Sequelize – Promise-based ORM for Postgres/MySQL 👴 ✅

Security / Auth

• Keycloak-Node Adapter – Keycloak auth middleware ✅
• Passport.js – Authentication for Node 👴 ✅
• OS Key-Auth-Server – Identity & user management (Go core, TS SDK) 🔥 ✅ 🚀

Testing / Quality

• Jest – Delightful JS testing framework 🔥 ✅ 🚀
• SuperTest – Super-agent driven API testing 👴 ✅

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Contributing

1. Check for existing entries / PRs.
2. Follow the format:

* [project-name](URL) – Short description ending with a period 🔥 ✅ 🚀

3. Add projects to the correct category in alphabetical order.
4. PR title: “Add project-name” and include why it’s awesome.

See full guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md.

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License

Content licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Each linked project retains its own license.