To receive a POST request in Node.js, developers can use three popular frameworks: Express, Hapi, and Koa. For simplicity, they can reply with an SMS in plain text by setting the Content-Type header as text/plain. Ngrok is used to expose the local development server to Twilio, allowing it to receive HTTP requests. The chosen framework requires installing its library and middleware, such as body-parser, and writing a route that handles the POST request. Express, Hapi, and Koa each have their own way of routing and handling requests, but they all share similarities in using middleware and passing a request and response to callback functions or handler functions. By following these steps and experimenting with different frameworks, developers can build a web app that receives an inbound SMS webhook from Twilio and responds accordingly.