Rarely do we think of what technology was used to build our favorite mobile apps. And that’s okay. We don’t spend much time questioning such routine things in our lives. But when it comes to developing your own project, it is essential to stay aware of the latest trends on the market to choose the right tech stack.
But with such a rich diversity of options on the market, it is often challenging to choose the core technology for your product. There are numerous back-end tools such as Xamarin, Apache Cordova, and .NET that have proven to be effective in building user-friendly, responsive and appealing applications. But Node.js still remains to be a leader with nearly 50% of developers in the world choosing this tech for their projects.
In our article, we expand on the use of Node.js and discover what app types you can build with this technology. So, keep reading to satisfy your curiosity about this highly popular framework!
Contents
- What is Node.js?
- Why Should You Use Node.js?
- 8 App Types You Can Build With Node.js
- Create a Node.js App With Us!
What is Node.js?
Node.js is an open-source environment that operates in JavaScript runtime environment. It lets developers write server-side scripting to build highly dynamic web pages. Thanks to the event-driven and non-blocking I/O (Input/Output) model, programmers can create highly scalable real-time applications.
So, how was Node.js invented?
The story of its creation goes back to a US software engineer, Robert Dahl. He wanted to find the alternative technology that could process numerous concurrent connections in applications. Neither Apache HTTP Server nor Ruby on Rails could solve this problem. Thus, the developer probed new ways to overcome this challenge, which eventually led him to the creation of Node.js.
Why Should You Use Node.js?
Node.js has become a key to creating highly scalable web apps that can handle multiple user requests simultaneously. It’s also interesting to know how this open source platform works under the hood. Node.js functions as a single process without generating a new thread per each user request. Also, it executes an I/O (Input/Output) operation by providing access to a filesystem or a database. By doing this, Node.js creates a backbone for web apps to ensure better support of concurrent connections at one time.
What benefits do you get with Node.js?
Here are some of them:
- Enhanced responsiveness;
- Robust framework;
- High scalability for microservices architecture;
- Fast web app development;
- Rich ecosystem;
- Smooth JSON support.
8 App Types You Can Build with Node.js
According to the survey report of 2018 devoted to the application of Node.js in various industries, 85% of respondents indicated that they implemented this server-side technology for web app development because it has the reputation of being a powerful and robust open-source platform.
Although Node.js is primarily used to build awesome web apps, its applications are not limited to a single use case. Real chats, single-page apps, streaming platforms, online payment systems, remote collaboration tools, and other applications can be added to the list of the top Node.js applications.
We are not going to beat about the bush, thus we handpicked 8 best types of Node.js apps for your next project!
1. Real-Time Chats
Thanks to the powerful capabilities of Node.js like Event APIs and I/O opera, developers can use this technology to build chat apps of any complexity. Besides, this open-source platform uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) to ensure clients’ HTTP requests with servers.
And it’s not the only benefit that Node.js brings to the table.
Developers can create real-time chats with lower latency and faster data connections with this open-source environment.
2. Social Media Apps
Developing a top-notch social media app is such a challenging task today! With so many competitors on the market, you should work hard to make your product stand out. To outpace the rivals, your product should have an impressive performance, be interactive and scalable.
To build a social media app with strong back-end infrastructure and fast load balancing, you do need Node.js. This technology will help you create highly scalable and performant applications.
Let’s see what social media apps were successfully built with this open-source platform:
This renowned social media app designed for professional networking has more than 690 million registered users around the globe. LinkedIn does require high-quality performance to handle all the requests and users’ activity on the platform. To achieve this goal, developers implemented Node.js with the aim to improve data processing
Twitter Lite
To create a back-end infrastructure for this Progressive Web App (PWA), Twitter’s developers used Node.js for a reason. Impressed by the superb functionality of this open-source platform, Twitter Lite could process multiple user requests at a blink of the eye.
3. Single-Page Apps (SPAs)
If your goal is to build the best of breed single-page app like Gmail, Medium, or Google Maps, Node.js must be a surefire solution for you. Seamless back-end development and data processing requests are the main qualities that make Node.js popular among coders.
Equipped with this server-side technology, you’ll have a fast loading single-page app that your users will enjoy. What is also great about building your SPA with Node.js is that data is updated flawlessly in the event loop. This way, new data requests on a single-page app shouldn’t be refreshed several times.
4. Ridesharing Apps
Once you’ve decided to build your ridesharing app with Node.js, you are sure to get a reliable back-end infrastructure. This open-source platform ensures effective error detection, fast single-threaded processing and seamless code deployment.
All these benefits served as the main reason why software engineers from a renowned company – Uber – went all in with Node.js to create a ridesharing app that connects drivers and passengers.
And they loved it! Node.js helped them manage concurrent connections on the fly.
5. Internet of Things
Smart homes, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, healthcare, and many other areas benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT) a lot. Invented in 1999, this term opened a unique window of opportunity for the tech world.
But how do all these smart solutions work? Let’s see.
Imagine that you’re on your way to the important business meeting, and your car notifies you about traffic jams so that you can avoid them and choose an optimal route instead.
When companies decide to build such smart IoT devices as autonomous cars or smart city platforms, they often include Node.js in their tech stack. And here are the reasons why they do it:
- Node.js is an all-in-one solution for generating multiple data transactions that come from transmitters, sensors, wearables, beacons, and so on;
- This technology ensures smooth data transmission in building IoT apps.
6. Streaming Services
If you bear in mind an idea for a highly scalable and interactive video streaming service, Node.js is an excellent match for you. Even software engineers from Netflix were impressed with the powerful capabilities of this open-source platform that helped them bring the end product on the global market.
The famous English proverb says, ‘ you reap what you sow’, and Netflix’s developers followed this principle. Their hard work and commitment to the highest standards brought fruitful results. As for now, Netflix has over 182.2 million subscribers across the globe.
7. Remote Collaboration Tools
We hope that such global disasters as the novel coronavirus outbreak won’t happen in the nearest future one more time. And what if it will take place again? It’s hard to answer this question as we don’t know what the future holds for business. But what we can do is to develop new software solutions to improve employees’ performance while working remotely. Equipped with such tools, it would be easier for companies to overcome challenges and step in the new era of teleworking.
So, highly scalable apps will gather momentum, and you do need to know what technology is the best to build a remote collaboration tool.
Sure, Node.js is one of them.
Trello is a perfect Node.js app example. This server-side technology helps developers create real-time remote tools that handle intensive data exchange at lightning speed.
8. Online Payment Services
Every online payment system must be highly scalable and capable of processing multiple financial transactions simultaneously. That is why developers should pick up a suitable technology to achieve this goal. And Node.js seems to be a good option to build a top-tier online payment service.
PayPal was the one of the first financial companies that used Node.js in app development.. This online payment system is considered to be the most popular in the world. In 2019, PayPal had up to 305 million global users and its audience continues to grow with each subsequent year.
Create a Node.js App With Us!
As you see, Node.js has numerous advantages for software development including high scalability, fast data processing, and improved responsiveness. Also, you can use this technology to build a wide variety of app types like remote tools, SPA, ridesharing apps, payment systems, etc. PayPal, Netflix, LinkedIn, Node.js to bring their business on the global scale, so can you!
Do you want to join them as well? Reach out to LITSLINK, and we will help you scale your business with our Node.js development services!
