Node.js Backend & API Development
APIs that validate their inputs, survive failure, and document themselves.
The backend is where products succeed quietly or fail loudly. I build Node.js backends with the habits that matter in production: typed request/response contracts, validation at the boundary, meaningful error responses, and logging that lets you diagnose a problem without guessing.
Most of my API work pairs Express or Next.js route handlers with MongoDB, and almost every real product needs the same core pieces — authentication, file uploads, email, payments, scheduled jobs — wired together reliably and documented well enough that a mobile or frontend team can integrate without asking questions.
If you have a frontend team that needs a serious API, or an existing Node service that has become scary to change, that is exactly the work I do.
What you get
- REST APIs with Express or Next.js route handlers, typed end to end
- MongoDB data layer: schemas, indexes, aggregations, migrations
- Authentication: JWT, sessions, hashed credentials, refresh flows
- Payment integration: Stripe checkout, webhooks and subscription logic
- File uploads to Cloudinary or S3 with type and size validation
- Rate limiting, request validation and structured error responses
- API documentation your other developers can actually use
Tools I work with
How we work
Contract
We define endpoints, payloads and error shapes before implementation — the API is a promise, and it is written down first.
Core services
Auth, data access and integrations are built as isolated modules with validation at every boundary.
Failure drills
Timeouts, retries and degraded states are tested deliberately — a webhook that fires twice should not charge twice.
Document & hand over
Every endpoint documented with examples, environments separated, secrets in config — ready for your team to extend.
Common questions
Express or Next.js route handlers — which do you recommend?
If the frontend is already Next.js, route handlers reduce deployment surface and are my default. A standalone Express API makes sense when multiple clients — web, mobile, partners — consume the same backend.
Can you integrate Stripe for subscriptions?
Yes — checkout, customer portal, webhook handling and the multi-tenant subscription patterns I have written about in my journal. Tested against real webhook events, not just happy paths.
My API is slow — can you help?
Slow Node APIs usually come down to missing database indexes, N+1 query patterns, or blocking work on the event loop. I profile, measure, then fix — and leave the query patterns documented so it stays fast.