There's all these other "frameworks" on top of node you can use to emulate rails, of which Express is the most popular. But I am talking in terms of tools to use when I'm building a database backed REST app. Node.js was hot so I took some time building apps entirely using node--some with express, some with other "more advanced mvc" frameworks--but they're all mediocre at best compared to Rails. I am not comparing node with rails. I'm saying node is not good for building web apps because all you have is all these inferior web development frameworks. Either you need to write too much boilerplate code, or learn to use half baked frameworks that will get nowhere as much traction as rails