# Introduction

> Nitro is a full-stack server framework, compatible with any runtime and any deployment target.

Nitro gives you a production-ready server with filesystem routing, code-splitting, and built-in support for storage, caching, and databases — all runtime-agnostic and deployable anywhere.

## What is Nitro?

Create server and API routes inside the `routes/` directory. Each file maps directly to a URL path, and Nitro handles the rest — routing, code-splitting, and optimized builds.

You can also take full control of the server entry by creating a `server.ts` file. Nitro’s high-level, runtime-agnostic approach lets you use any HTTP library, such as [Elysia](https://elysiajs.com/), [h3](https://h3.dev), or [Hono](https://hono.dev).

### Performance

Nitro compiles your routes at build time, removing the need for a runtime router. Only the code required to handle each incoming request is loaded and executed. This makes it ideal for serverless hosting, with near-0ms boot time regardless of project size.

### Deploy Anywhere

Build your server into an optimized `.output/` folder compatible with Node.js, Bun, Deno, and many hosting platforms without any configuration — Cloudflare Workers, Netlify, Vercel, and more. Take advantage of platform features like ESR, ISR, and SWR without changing a single line of code.

### Server-Side Rendering

Render HTML with your favorite templating engine, or use component libraries such as React, Vue, or Svelte directly on the server. Go full universal rendering with client-side hydration. Nitro provides the foundation and a progressive approach to reach your goals.

### Storage

Nitro includes a runtime-agnostic key-value storage layer out of the box. It uses in-memory storage by default, but you can connect more than 20 different drivers (FS, Redis, S3, etc.), attach them to different namespaces, and swap them without changing your code.

### Caching

Nitro supports caching for both server routes and server functions, backed directly by the server storage (via the `cache` namespace).

### Database

Nitro also includes a built-in SQL database. It defaults to SQLite, but you can connect to and query more than 10 databases (Postgres, MySQL, PGLite, etc.) using the same API.

### Meta-Framework Foundation

Nitro can be used as the foundation for building your own meta-framework. Popular frameworks such as Nuxt, SolidStart, and TanStack Start fully or partially leverage Nitro.

## Vite Integration

Nitro integrates seamlessly with [Vite](https://vite.dev) as a plugin. If you’re building a frontend application with Vite, adding Nitro gives you API routes, server-side rendering, and a full production server — all built together with `vite build`.

```ts [vite.config.ts]
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import { nitro } from "nitro/vite";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [nitro()],
});
```

With Nitro, `vite build` produces an optimized `.output/` folder containing both your frontend and backend — ready to deploy anywhere.

Ready to give it a try? Jump into the [quick start](/docs/quick-start).