Are cookie-session and JWT tokens essentially the same thing in Express, or is there a difference between them?

When looking at the express documentation, you will come across a differentiation between express-session and cookie-session. The explanation provided is as follows:

There are two main ways to store a user session with cookies: either on the server or on the client side. The [cookie-session] module saves the session data on the client within a cookie, while a module like >express-session only stores a >session identifier in the cookie on the client side and keeps the session >data on the server, usually in >a database.

Considering this, could JWT tokens also be seen as storing all session data in a cookie? And if so, what distinguishes JWTs from the cookie-session module?

expresscookiesexpress-sessioncookie-session

Answer №1

One key distinction between express-session and cookie-session is how they handle storing session data.

The express-session middleware keeps session data on the server; it simply stores the session ID in the cookie, not the actual session data. This setup typically uses in-memory storage and isn't suitable for a production environment. For production use, a scalable session-store like a database is recommended.

In comparison, the cookie-session middleware utilizes cookie-based storage: it serializes the complete session into the cookie, rather than just a session key. It's best suited for situations where session data is small and easily encoded as basic values (as opposed to complex objects).

While JWTs offer an alternative method of managing session state on the client instead of on the server, they function primarily as a token with payload information such as user details and creation time (usually non-sensitive). JWTs are commonly used for authorization purposes and are transmitted to the server via a bearer token in the Authorization header. Browsers automatically include cookies in each request to the server when utilizing the cookie-session module, while bearer tokens must be manually added to the HTTP header for requests.

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