Everyone's familiar with JavaScript the most popular programming language
used as a client-side development tool in 95 percent of websites
But what about server-side programming?
Well, with the introduction of Node.JS, JavaScript has become an all-purpose full stack development language
So, let's discuss what Node.JS is and then explore its advantages and disadvantages
Node.JS is an open-source runtime environment for JavaScript
It's based on Chrome v8, an engine for chromium browsers
Node.JS allows your programs written in JavaScript to be executed on the server
First written in 2009 to create dynamic web pages before they're sent to a browser
It soon became one of the most used tools in back-end web development
Node is a part of popular MEAN and MERN, JavaScript centered technology stacks
that cover the entire web development pipeline
There are many frameworks built for Node
including such popular ones like Express JS, Meteor, Sails, and others
To source modules and ready-made packages you can use NPM,
an extensive package base that helps build with MEAN and MERN stacks
So, there are multiple reasons why NodeJS became a standard for enterprise companies like Netflix, Uber and eBay
To determine whether Node.JS fits your needs, let's look first at its pros and then we'll consider the cons
We'll begin with the strengths
Node.JS has opened the doors to JavaScript full stack development,
inheriting the merits of JavaScript programming as well as allowing engineers to use its libraries and features
Lightweight JavaScript achieves high performance with fewer lines of code when compared to Java or C
Also, the frontend and backend are easier to keep in sync, because of a single language used on both sides of the application
Developer-wise, it also became possible to share and reuse code.
With the help of node modules, which are basically independent chunks of code,
developers can use prebuilt modules or reuse their own
Node.JS is highly scalable and lightweight
That's why it's a heavy favorite for microservice architectures
In a nutshell, microservice architecture means
breaking down the application into isolated and independent services
It makes it easier to update and maintain the architecture as your services are decoupled
and you can add new or fix existing architecture without dealing with other parts of the application
Node.JS fits well for designing such architectures with the help of Node modules
which represent building blocks of Node.JS functions
Node.JS is considered fast thanks mostly to Chrome's v8 engine
It's used to compile JavaScript into machine code instead of using an interpreter
JavaScript community notes constant improvements in the engine, as Google continues to invest heavily in it
While its event-based nature makes Node.JS highly efficient for real-time apps
that require constant data updates, the non-blocking input-output model solves performance issues
The performance is enhanced by concurrent request processing which uses a single thread event loop
A non-blocking Input-output model allows for processing several requests at a time
This makes Node.JS highly efficient for processing multiple requests with less CPU usage
In 2015, a number of companies including IBM, Microsoft, PayPal, Fidelity and SAP
organized a Node.JS Foundation
It's an independent community aimed at facilitating the development of Node.JS core tools
Regardless of active corporate involvement, Node.JS is an open-source project
that gathered a vast community of developers providing
ready-made solutions and guides for each issue on Github.
With a growing community, you'll always have pathways to the solutions of your specific problems
Few programming languages can boast such a rich packaged ecosystem as Node.JS
Thousands of libraries and tools for JavaScript development are gathered on npm,
a default Node.JS package manager and marketplace
With the constant support of the Node.JS community, NPM focuses on encouraging users to add new packages
So, you have countless, ready-made solutions for specific issues
Since Node.JS inherits many JavaScript features, including its libraries,
frontend developers will likely learn it pretty quick
Also, considering the community support and the overall popularity,
Javascript has a fast learning curve for beginner developers
But all that said, Node.JS is not a silver bullet.
It also has drawbacks that you want to keep in mind
As we mentioned, Node.JS uses a non-blocking input-output model for processing requests,
so it's considered single threaded by nature
Node.JS is capable of processing several simple tasks
for instance, read database query – without blocking the main thread
Whenever there is a heavy-computation request,
Node.JS would set up a block on other requests on the thread, causing and overall delay
And that's considered a major drawback
In the latest updates, threading was introduced as an experimental feature
designed to process heavy computations
Using a worker thread module, developers are now able to
spawn additional threads for parallel processing to carry requests that block the event loop
Considering this, Node.JS may become suitable for processing CPU-bound tasks
and used for machine learning based calculations in the near future
NPM registry seems to be quantity, not quality driven
While core products prove to be stable and well-tested,
the rest of the NPM registry is poorly structured and badly documented
Of course, that's not uncommon for open source projects
The last point worth mentioning is
the lack of experienced JavaScript developers that work with backend
While JavaScript developers are the major group on the market, statistics show
that a typical Node.JS developer has two years of experience with Node half of their working time
Wrapping up, Node.JS is a powerful and lightweight tool for full stack web development
Most likely you would use it when building microservice architectures
or even cross-platform desktop programs with an electron framework
As with any tool, it has its weaknesses, like performance bottleneck for CPU heavy operations
But the project is strongly supported by the community
and enterprise giants are investing in its development
So when choosing a backend tool and
comparing such options as Python-based Django, PHP Symfony, or Ruby on Rails, also consider Node.js.