Fastify is a modern, high-performance Node.js web framework. Unlike Express (which processes requests serially), Fastify is engineered for concurrency and speed: efficient JSON schema validation, smart routing, and streaming response support. It's the framework of choice for performance-critical applications (trading, real-time analytics, high-traffic APIs). Fastify's killer feature: built-in JSON schema validation and OpenAPI doc generation. Define a schema, Fastify validates incoming requests automatically and serializes responses efficiently.