Template engine for node.js

There is no best view engine. The criteria to a best view engine is based on the actual needs the template engine has to realize and the person(s) using it. A lot of people really love the Jade view engine, for example, but there are many that do not consider it good because they do not like the syntax. The priorities you should follow are simple:

1. Syntax: Do you like the syntax the view engine has for you?
2. Features: Does the view engine have everything you want it to do (e.g. includes, variables, filters)?
3. Learning: Is it hard to learn? If you have designers, do they understand it? Tooling?
4. Community: Is there a community, or someone reachable, that can help with problems?
5. Performance: Does the view engine compile and cache? If not, does this really matter?

Note that most view engines automatically fall to compilation and caching when you run node in production mode (NODE_ENV=production) Now you should just check out different flavours of view engines and decide on what you like best according to the criteria of your project (e.g. Jade, Handlebars, EJS, Gaikan).

Update: I looked at the benchmarks and decided to merge my own view engine into it (Gaikan). The fork can be seen at this address https://github.com/Deathspike/template-benchmark including the results. If you are completely for performance, this adds another valuable option, but I would recommend to stick to the priorities I listed above.