When comparing Sails.js vs Adonisjs, the Slant community recommends Adonisjs for most people. In the question“What are the best node.js web frameworks?” Adonisjs is ranked 2nd while Sails.js is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Adonisjs is:
If you are already programming in PHP with Laravel, you will have no trouble starting development with Node using Adonis.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Transparent support for Socket.io
Sails.js is built with a focus on building real time communication apps such as chat or multiplayer games, so naturally it has Socket.io extremely well supported.
Pro MVC architecture
This could be a huge plus, if you prefer to build your apps using the Model View Controller architecture. Using Sails.js you'll find the task of separating the business logic from the user interface and keeping the interactions between them in a separate layer, extremely easy.
Pro JSON API generated for free
Exposes public JSON API for free. No additional routing to be defined. Makes it pretty easy to access data from anywhere.
Pro ORM that can be plugged into any database, or even custom web service
Sails.js uses Waterline ORM at its backend which means you can store your data in any datastore that you like; all you have to do is make a change to the Waterline adapter, this will allow you to store your data in MySQL/Redis or any other kind of database.
Pro So easy to deploy and lift
Pro Great documentation and structure
Clear documentation and easy to understand. The file structure gives you a way to understand where you can start to develop when you encounter a new Sails project
Pro Based on Laravel PHP Framework
If you are already programming in PHP with Laravel, you will have no trouble starting development with Node using Adonis.
Pro Similar to Rails
Pro Built-in modules for everything
There are built-in modules for everything: Auth, Social Auth, mailing ect
Pro Easy to learn, especially if you're already familiar with Laravel
Pro Has websocket support out of the box
Pro Very good documentation
Pro Option for full-stack or api standalone implementation
You can choose to use the full-stack version or if you wish to build a RESTful API you can choose to use the api standalone version.
Cons
Con Poor ORM
The built-in Waterline is not well designed and is not suitable for production environments. Populating more than 1 level deep is a nightmare, there is no transaction support, new features/bug fixes are not implemented anywhere near a timely manner (the most requested feature 'deep populate' has been lingering in their github issues list for over a year and a half now).
Con No NOSQL integration
Only used ORM, not ODM.