When you're developing in Node.js, you're likely to run into these terms - "monolithic" and "modular". They're usually used to describe the different types of frameworks and libraries; not just HTTP frameworks, but modules in general.
- Monolithic: "Batteries-included" and typically tightly coupled, it tries to include all the stuff that's needed for common usecases. An example of a monolithic web framework would be Sails.js.
- Modular: "Minimal" and loosely coupled. Only includes the bare minimum of functionality and structure, and the rest is a plugin. Fundamentally, it generally only has a single 'responsibility'. An example of a modular web framework would be Express.
In software development, the terms "tightly coupled" and "loosely coupled" are used to indicate how much components rely on each other; or more specifically, how many assumptions they make about each other. This directly translates to how easy it is to repla
