Ask IH : Which language/framework would you guys use in 2019 to build a REST API?

I use Go and a tiny web app framework I wrote for myself.

I am using Node.js/Express/Socket.io for the API layer for the Yuum App (https://yuum.io/). I would just use what you know best and feel the most comfortable with. I'm a huge Javascript person, so React, Redux, Node and Express are my sweet spots. I use Python w/Flask sometimes too.

The answer is it depends :)
If you are testing a new idea/product, I think you should use what ever you know the best, so you can build your product faster and test the idea.
Otherwise, unless you work on the product that has special requirements regarding its REST API, you should use the technology that people in your network/area use, as you’ll eventually need to scale your team or simply delegate maintenance to someone else.

For example, we started with Express.js API for our product, Vacation Tracker (https://vacationtracker.io), because the developer that worked on our MVP knew it good enough to deliver the initial version fast. Then, when we validate the idea, we switched to AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway, which keeps our cost really low and requires almost no maintenance. It’s still in Node.js and we slowly moved everything from Express to serverless, without spending too much time for the migration.

If we are starting from scratch today, I would skip REST API and use AWS AppSync to create GraphQL, because that approach would let me create our MVP fast and focus on more important things, such as figuring out how to find customers and talking to them.