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Four classic JavaScript templating engines still have clear, documented roles in 2026: EJS, Handlebars, Nunjucks, and Pug. None of them is the right default for every project. The choice depends on how your templates are written, how much structure they need, who is allowed to write them, what your framework expects, and whether your interface is built from components. If your UI is a React component tree, React server rendering is an adjacent option, not a drop-in replacement for a template language.
What a templating engine does, and where React fits
A JavaScript templating engine combines a template with a data object and produces HTML or another text format. The engine supplies the template syntax and the rendering step. The template is usually a file or string, and the output is a finished string that a server sends to a browser or that a build step writes to disk.
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React solves a different problem. It renders a tree of components, and its server APIs produce markup from that tree. Both approaches can end in HTML, which is why they get compared, but the authoring model, the way state is handled, and the way interactivity is added all differ. The sections below treat React as a separate option.
The four engines at a glance
The table compares the four classic engines on the points that usually decide the choice. Where the official pages linked in this article do not state a value, the cell says so instead of guessing.
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| Engine | Authoring style | Structure and reuse (as documented) | Output escaping (as documented) | Node and Express integration (as documented) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EJS | Embedded plain JavaScript inside markup | Includes; compilation and caching | Not stated on the official overview page; verify in the EJS documentation before relying on it | Compatible with the Express view system; server and browser support |
| Handlebars | Mustache-like expressions with deliberately limited logic | Compiles templates into JavaScript functions; largely Mustache-compatible | Ordinary {{expression}} output is HTML-escaped by default |
Express’s guide lists Handlebars-compatible engines such as hbs |
| Nunjucks | Jinja-style blocks and tags | Block inheritance, macros, async control, extensions | Autoescaping listed as a feature | Node and browser availability; Express integration not stated on the project page |
| Pug | Indentation-oriented syntax | Not stated in the Express guide | Not stated in the Express guide; check Pug’s own documentation | Default engine of the Express application generator; Express invokes compliant engines through its view system |
Engine by engine
EJS: JavaScript inside the markup
EJS describes itself as an embedded JavaScript templating language that generates HTML using plain JavaScript. Its official site lists server and browser support, compilation and caching, includes, and compatibility with the Express view system, as described at https://ejs.co/.
EJS suits teams that want familiar JavaScript control flow inside markup and are comfortable treating templates as executable code. That convenience has a cost: a template can do anything your JavaScript can do. The project’s own warning is direct: “If you give end-users unfettered access to the EJS render method, you are using EJS in an inherently un-secure way.” The site also explains that EJS is effectively a JavaScript runtime, so callers must validate their inputs. In practice, do not pass request query objects straight into render options, and do not let users author templates that you then treat as trusted.
Handlebars: constrained logic and Mustache-style syntax
Handlebars describes itself as a simple template language that takes a template and an input object and generates HTML or other text. It is largely Mustache-compatible and compiles templates into JavaScript functions, according to the Handlebars language guide.
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Handlebars is a good fit when you want templates to stay more constrained than arbitrary embedded JavaScript, or when your team already knows Mustache syntax. Its escaping defaults are the most explicit of the four, but they are also the easiest to bypass, which is covered in the security section below.
Nunjucks: layouts, inheritance, and macros
The Mozilla-hosted Nunjucks project page describes block inheritance, autoescaping, macros, asynchronous control, extensions, and availability in both Node and the browser, at https://mozilla.github.io/nunjucks/.
Nunjucks is most relevant when template structure matters: a site with a shared base layout, many page variants, and reusable blocks or macros. Its Jinja-like syntax is an advantage for teams that already write Python or Jinja templates. Whether the project is actively maintained in 2026 is a separate question, covered in the verification section below.
Pug: indentation-based templates in Express
Pug uses an indentation-oriented syntax. Its main practical link to current Node practice is Express. The Express template-engine guide at https://expressjs.com/en/guide/using-template-engines/ says the application generator uses Pug by default, and it explains that Express invokes compliant engines through its view system.
Pug makes sense for teams that already use it or that start from an Express scaffold and are comfortable with its syntax. The default is a reasonable reason to keep Pug in an existing project. It is not, by itself, a reason to adopt Pug in a new project or to migrate an existing one into it. The default shows integration, not popularity.
Escaping and trust are separate decisions
Output escaping protects against some injection mistakes, but it is not a complete security model. Three points matter when you choose an engine:
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- Escape hatches exist. In Handlebars, triple braces and
Handlebars.SafeStringdisable escaping. Any helper or partial that returns raw HTML needs the same review. - HTML escaping is context-specific. The Handlebars security guide at https://handlebarsjs.com/guide/security.html makes clear that HTML escaping does not by itself make a value safe for JavaScript, CSS, URLs, or event-handler attributes. Each output context needs its own encoding.
- Who writes the template matters more than the escaping default. Executable templates, as in EJS, need a trust boundary: only trusted code should author them, and user data should flow in only as validated values.
When you evaluate an engine, write down three things: who can change templates, whether any data is untrusted, and which raw-output helpers the codebase uses. Those answers usually matter more than the syntax.
React server rendering: an adjacent choice
React’s renderToStaticMarkup reference describes it as rendering a non-interactive React tree to an HTML string. The reference states: “It will produce non-interactive HTML output.” That output cannot be hydrated, so it is suitable for static markup such as email bodies or pages with no client-side behavior.
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How to choose
- Small Express site with familiar JavaScript logic: EJS is a reasonable candidate. Make the executable-template trust boundary explicit before you ship.
- Reusable templates with restricted logic and default HTML escaping: Handlebars fits well. Review every raw-output helper and encode values for their actual context.
- Layout-heavy site that needs inheritance and macros: Nunjucks is a strong candidate, once its current release status checks out for your runtime.
- Existing Express project scaffolded with Pug: Keep Pug. It is a supported path, and migration is rarely justified by the default alone.
- React application: Keep rendering inside React, using its interactive server-rendering and hydration path. Compare static React markup with a template language only after explaining that the two solve different problems.
Verify before you commit
This article describes what the official documentation says each engine can do. It does not rank the engines by adoption, production usage, or speed, and it does not establish how active each project is in 2026. Several specific limits apply:
- EJS version: The npm package page at https://www.npmjs.com/package/ejs?activeTab=readme lists version 6.0.1. Package pages can lag behind the registry, so confirm the current version before pinning it.
- Nunjucks status: The project page is an older crawl. It documents capabilities but does not show current release cadence, so check the package’s release history and Node compatibility yourself.
- Mustache: No current official Mustache.js page or current package status was found. Treat Mustache as a syntax reference only, not as evidence of maintenance.
- Performance: No comparable benchmark data was found. Speed claims for any engine should come from your own rendering workload.
A practical check sequence:
- Run
npm view ejs version(or the equivalent for any engine you are evaluating) to see the current published version. - Open each package’s release history and confirm that the last release fits your support window.
- Check your Express version against the view-engine instructions in the Express guide, and confirm the engine you pick is compatible with it.
- Confirm the Node runtime you deploy to is supported by the engine’s current version.
- Benchmark the actual render path with your real templates and data, not a generic example.
With those checks done, the engine decision is usually clear: pick the one whose authoring style, structure, and trust model match how your team works.
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