A rapidly growing software development industry owes its success to the advancements in technology stacks to a large extent. With a number of options available, choosing the right technology for web application has become one of the most important and complicated tasks.
Node.JS has grown significantly in popularity in recent years with developers relying on Node.JS development services to churn out winning apps. If recent stats are any indication, Node.JS is proving to be the most effective backend development technology today with over 30,000 websites in the U.S. already based on it. Node.JS is powering the backend of some of the biggest online marketplaces including AliExpress and eBay. At the same time, it is being used by websites like Netflix, PayPal, etc. which attract a heavy traffic.
Node.JS provides a unique set of advantages that make it the most effective backend technology opted by not only start-ups, but global brands and businesses as well. Businesses hire Node.JS developers today to develop enterprise and B2C applications. It is the default choice for backend technology, which is powered by JavaScript and is a great way to not only speed up development and make more time, but also unify code in a cost-effective manner.
What is Node.JS?
By definition, Node.JS is a JavaScript framework – a runtime environment for running JavaScript code on the back of a browser, or outside of it. It has drastically changed the face of web designing and has been successfully used by developers and specialists all over the world since more than two decades.
Earlier, JavaScript, despite having many great frameworks and libraries, lacked a thorough backend platform that could compete with other established languages. Node.JS changed that as more and more businesses started looking for Node.JS development companies to solve various issues.
Research has backed the claim that Node.JS, when used for backend, can enhance an application’s performance. This belief is so deeply entrenched that a number of programmers changed their codes’ language to Node.JS.
Technology giants like NASA, Twitter, Microsoft, etc. are a few names that switched to Node.JS early on.
What is Node.JS used for?
Node.JS is basically used for writing code to build applications in JavaScript. The runtime environment includes software that allows programmers to write and edit code for future applications and run them. Node.JS is a server framework, which provides license-free technology. It is suitable for various platforms.
Why is Node.JS the Preferred Backend Technology?
The backend of any app is the most significant part constituting it and, therefore, developers pay a lot of attention to it. It is built using the most advanced technology and the best solutions to ensure it works properly.
Node.JS presents multiple benefits for backend development. While PHP, Ruby, Python, and .NET are popular frameworks for backend development, nothing comes close to the usefulness of Node.JS.
JavaScript had always enjoyed great favour among the developers community, and Node.JS backend framework has only increased it multi-fold. With the help of Node.JS development services, it is now possible to build both server-side as well as client-side applications using the same code. Additionally, frameworks like Electron help create even software for desktop.
Node.JS is great when developers need real-time working while managing large amount of information. Since HTTP requests and responses are essentially a series of large files, Node.JS can easily collect and visualize data through dashboards. GraphQL, for instance, can be used for this purpose. Node.JS has made GraphQL a standard (although it can work with various other languages as well).
The backend development with the help of Node.JS is very concise as it offers a number of features, which are not possible to get with other event-based environments. Also, Node.JS offers the following features, which are hard to find with other frameworks:
- It is very fast
- It allows data to be kept in native JSON
- It has a large community of supportive developers
- It is Linux Foundation sponsored
- It provides excellent hosting options
- It is suitable for the development of software using various platforms
How Node.JS Enhances App Performance
While Node.JS has a long string of advantages, some of the most notable ones include the lower cost of development and improved developers’ productivity that it offers. However, the list of advantages does not end with this only.
Node.JS plays a vital role in enhancing an app’s performance greatly for every project. A number of reasons contribute to this:
- Node.JS is able to succeed at multi-tasking as it is non-blocking and offers async functions.
- Node.JS helps speed up the server activity as all processes are handled in one thread and not queued up.
- Node.JS makes use of the V8 Chrome engine, which is considered the fastest one for JavaScript.
An applications’ performance is a sum total of a number of factors and Node.JS covers most of these factors in a manner that promotes better performance. The applications built using Node.JS are highly scalable and give better results.
Owing to its obvious advantages, many giants in the tech industry depend on Node.JS for backend development. They have been able to upgrade their performance, and improve their popularity.
The long list of companies that converted to Node.JS for their backend development confirms that it can be used successfully for small projects as well as for enterprise-grade applications development.
According to statistics, Node.JS developers are the most sought after in the market. Node.JS is relatively easy to learn for developers who are well-versed with JavaScript. When hiring a Node.JS developer, it is important to remember that Node.JS is a relatively new technology and there is much more that can be explored in the language at present.