Advantages of Node js

In this competitive world, companies need to have a system that is developed using all the critical aspects. The company’s software must be efficient and robust for which the use of the right tech stack is essential. One such effective technology is JavaScript. It is one of the leading client-side programming languages. With time, it has become the top cross-platform web application development tool for web development. Many different frameworks and environments work on JavaScript which has created a huge shift in web app development. For instance, Node.js. It comes with immense advantages. To learn more about Node.js and how advantageous Node.js development services are, let’s go through this blog.

1. What is Node.JS?

Node.js is a very popular runtime environment that is based on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript code. It was introduced by Ryan Dahl in the year 2019. It is an open-source platform that enables developers to create real-time web applications. Because of its features and non-blocking asynchronous architecture, Node.js has become very popular in a very short period. Giants like Uber, Netflix, Walmart, and eBay are using the benefits of Node.js for their web apps. 

2. Advantages of Using Node

As we all know, Node.js is continuously growing and gaining massive popularity for web app development, but now its capabilities have grown even more because it offers a variety of benefits for backend development. It is a great platform for real-time application development and managing huge amounts of information. 

Let’s discuss the advantages of Node.js in detail:

2.1 Scalable Web App Development

Node.js was built with scalability in mind. It allows multiple nodes to run simultaneously and interact with each other which is superior to other web backend development solutions. It has a cluster module that is responsible for load balancing for every CPU-intensive task. This is one of the main benefits of Node.js. You can run more than one node at a time and the cross-platform runtime environment will automatically balance the workload.

Node.js allows horizontal partitioning and divides your app into small instances. You can show various versions of the mobile apps to users based on their interests, age, location, language, etc. which reduces workload and increases personalization. Node.js child processes operate quickly and interact with each other to share the same origin.

2.2 High Performance

Node.js is popular for providing excellent performance and facing considerable amounts of data to process at the same time. It is a perfect choice for backend development that interprets the JavaScript code using Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js web app development engine helps to compile the code into machine code directly, making it easier and faster to write server-side code and implement it. 

The backend Node.js technology accelerates code execution and its runtime environment supports non-blocking I/O operations. As a single-threaded event loop, it uses multiple worker threads in the background to execute the asynchronous programming code and nonblocking which means the callback function is delegated to the event loop but executed by different threads.

2.3 Powerful Data Processing

Node.js is a backend development language and runtime environment capable of processing thousands of requests simultaneously. It is a perfect choice for efficient data-handling tools. Many backend development platforms use synchronous processing for handling requests where they each wait to process one by one. It refuses the traditional system and adopts an asynchronous structure for upcoming requests to process together with the first one. 

There are two approaches for software development: linear and event-based programming. A linear tool helps to execute algorithms in a queue regardless of users’ actions. Event-based programming doesn’t have a specific output order and there are useful background operations.

2.4 Control Flow Features

Node.js is a popular backend development platform because developers see asynchronous nature as both advantage and disadvantage of Node.js web app development. Whenever a function executes, the code sends a callback automatically. As the number of functions is increasing, so does the number of callbacks which is known as callback hell.

The control flow features of Node.js offer a way out. Using a web app framework can help you to map functions and sort through callbacks. It integrates similar functions automatically and finds necessary features by search or in a folder. 

2.5 V8 Engine

As we all know, V8 engines are the best engines out there which were initially developed for Chrome. But the Node.js development team readapted it to the javascript run time environment purpose. It is written in C++ to compile functions written in JavaScript into machine code for impressive speed and performance. Thanks to Google for investing much time and effort in its engine, V8 demonstrates performance enhancements every year and extracts the whole bag of benefits.

Node.js is the fastest cross-platform scripting language and event-driven model which provides excellent app performance; it is not a myth. The V8 engine used in implementing Node.js was originally developed for the Chrome browser. Node.js is a browser-specific JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine which uses a callback function to handle HTTP requests, with a non-blocking I/O model to achieve efficiency while remaining lightweight.

2.6 Concurrent Request Handling

With Node.js, handling multiple concurrent users simultaneously at a single go is possible. And this is one of the biggest advantages of Node.js. Its capacity to handle multiple requests at once for any type of complex and extensive web application has made it popular among Javascript developers. Besides, the majority of the eCommerce business prefer Node.js for their application because of this reason. 

2.7 Lesser Loading Time

Node.js comes with a caching module that helps in reducing the overall loading time. Developers are able to execute the code without any hassle. Besides, having a caching module helps the web app get a request easily and then transfer it to in-app memory. This enables the user to get results on web pages in a few microseconds without waiting much.

All these benefits of node.js contribute towards making node js a favorable choice of developers for their development projects. But on the other hand, there are certain disadvantages of node.js which will affect your decision of choosing node. These disadvantages of node js are as under. 

3. Disadvantages of Using Node

3.1 Asynchronous Programming Model

To get a scalable app the developer needs a technology that has an asynchronous programming model. But there are developers who may feel that it is a difficult programming model in comparison to the linear blocking I/O programming. Therefore,  there are fewer programmers choosing Node.js as their development framework.

3.2 Doesn’t have a Strong Library Support System

JavaScript does not come with a well-equipped library system compared to other programming languages. This results in developers being forced to take support of a common library for various tasks like processing the images, Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), handling database operations and more.

3.3 Unstable API

In Node.js there are frequent  API changes. API stands for Application Programming Interface and it keeps on changing. Every new API comes with backward-incompatible changes. This means that the developers will have to change the code in order to make it compatible with the latest version of the Node.js API.

4. Top 5 Popular Programming Languages Used For Backend Development

It is important to move wisely and consider all the available options for backend development. Here are the top 6 technologies to take into consideration to base your project.

4.1 PHP

PHP is a Hypertext Preprocessor that is mostly used for mid-sized projects and runs faster compared to ASP. It is a flexible server-side scripting language with huge community support and is best for backend development. PHP offers a variety of features and benefits that can interact with different database languages including MySQL. It is based on scripts and follows event-driven architecture, that is why real-time functionalities are not its forte.

It has perfect online documentation with a good framework of functions in place which makes PHP easy to learn. There are various forums and tutorials on PHP methods, so it becomes easy to find help if you need it.

4.2 Java(Runtime Environment)

Java is one of the most popular backend programming languages that can run on various types of computers having Java Runtime Environment installed. Some types of computers are compatible with a JRE including PCs running on Linux computers, Windows, Macintosh computers, and large mainframe computers as well as smartphones.

Java programming language is still a relevant platform that shows no sign of declining in popularity and it is worth learning. Most web developers and programmers pick Java as their first language for software development because its’ reasonably easy to learn and reliable.

4.3 Python

Python is a perfect platform for backend development with simple syntax and shortcode length. It is an extremely versatile and platform-independent programming language that helps to create customized software used on a wide variety of operating systems without an interpreter.

Developers can invest a lot of time they usually devote to getting to run the code or figuring out how it works tackling the meaningful challenges of their particular development project.

4.4 Ruby on Rails

Ruby is a backend development platform developed in the mid-1990s in Japan. It was designed by keeping humans and their productivity in mind. It keeps the code as comprehensive as possible and takes object-oriented programming to another level using first-class objects. Object-Oriented Programming focuses on objects and data, instead of focusing on the specific logic behind them. All these objects deal as units within a program and interact with each other.

4.5 Node js

Node.js is a JavaScript platform that develops server-side applications by following the single-threaded model with event looping and is mainly inspired by JavaScript with a callback function mechanism. Thanks to Node js and the advantages of Node js for the most powerful JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to access the file system and other development things in the browser.

Node.js is a single programming language which one may say has no learning curve and it is relatively simple and easy to learn with little knowledge of JavaScript and Object-Oriented Programming.

Node.js is cross-platform and highly extensible and there are numerous attributes of Node.js which means you can customize and further extend Node.js as per your project requirements. It also uses JSON and provides the scope of exchange of data to facilitate built-in APIs for creating HTTP requests, DNS, TCP, etc. traditional servers.

5. Conclusion

As seen in this blog, Node.js has a lot of advantages rather than disadvantages and it is because of its architecture, features, and active community support. This is why developers prefer to use Node.js in the maximum number of projects that fall in its requirement range. Besides, as Node.js has JavaScript, it can be used for both frontend and backend servers which is a big plus. So, if you want to take your client’s project to a greater height, Node.js is the best technology.