What Should You Know About the Future of Node.js?

Node.js is one of the most demanded frameworks in the world. Nearly 54.1% of developers use it to create highly scalable and top-notch web applications.

Uber, Trello, and other renowned apps were built with Node.js. Simple code sharing, large development community, mild learning curve, and fast performance are among the main benefits of this technology.

So, what future awaits Node.js? To know the answer, read our article!

What Is Node.js?

Node.js is a cross-platform, and open-source JavaScript runtime environment used for backend development. It lets software engineers write command-line tools to create dynamic web pages before sending them to a web browser. Another advantage of Node.js is its asynchronous processing model that helps to build seamless microservice architecture, video streaming services and real-time chats.

Node.js was invented by Ryan Dahl, a US software engineer, in 2009. During his speech at the world-leading event for developers – ‘JSConf’, he outlined that the goal was to get server-side JavaScript off the ground and create an event loop for it.

5 Core Features of Node.js

Node.js has a strong capacity to handle several requests and instant responses. Also, this technology contains the next 5 features that makes it a suitable option for web app development:

1. ASYNC hook is a main module in Node.js that has an API to track asynchronous resources – objects with a callback – in a Node’s app.
2. Node Package Manager (NPM) is the instrument that publishes the open-source projects written in Node.js. Also, it ensures package installation, dependency and version management.
3. NODE_Report contains a diagnostic summary about development and testing to store data for problem determination. It has native stack and JavaScript traces, resource usage, heap statistics, and other components.
4. Single-threaded model is the system that processes, prioritizes multiple tasks and executes them in the asynchronous way.
5. NODE_OPTION ensures that command lines can be implemented in the environment variable – a dependency that runs a code.

The Key Benefits of Node.js

Node.js is an excellent option for building social media, single-page, and other app types with top-notch performance. Besides, this technology has the following benefits for web app development:

Robustness

Node.js is a robust technology that ensures simple code sharing, fast performance and speed to create scalable network applications.

Scalable for microservices

Node.js is an excellent choice for building microservice architecture thanks to a rich database of JavaScript modules.

Event-based model

Node.js has event loops that execute non-blocking I/O operations and accept callback functions – processes aimed to run a code in the meantime.

Will Deno Replace Node.js?

Deno is another brainchild of Ryan Dahl. It was initially released on May 13, 2020. Deno is a runtime for TypeScript and JavaScript. Similar to Node.js, It uses V8 – an open-source JavaScript engine created by The Chromium Project for Chromium browsers and Google Chrome.

Deno has such 4 benefits over Node.js:

1. Security. Since Node.js allows developers to access the file system and environment variables, there is a high risk of running a code. This way, Deno has command-line arguments with the features of enabling and disabling access to various security functionalities.
2. Support for TypeScript. Typescript has become one of the most popular tech stacks among developers across the globe. About 25% of them use it in their work. Deno offers support for the aforementioned technology in contrast to Node.js.
3. No more modules and NPM. Deno handles dependencies with importing modules from GitHub, Skypack, jsDelivr, and so on.
4. Simplicity. With Deno, there is no need to set up a package.json file or any other external code pieces like in Node.js.

It’s difficult to state whether Deno will take over Node.js in the future. But the first creation of Ryan Dahl, has the following benefits over his new one:

• Node.js has asynchronous I/O models in back-end development.
• Node.js has proved to be more battle-tested and stable for server-side JavaScript development.
• Node.js has a bigger development community than Deno thanks to its 11-year existence on the market.

What Tech Stacks Can Take Over Node.js

Node.js was one of the most popular technologies among software engineers in the beginning of 2020. About 18.1% sought for it across the globe.

But Node.js has competitive technologies in web development that are the following:

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is one of the most used frameworks in the globe. Up to 21.9% of developers opt for this technology.

Similar to Node.js, ASP.NET is implemented for web app development. Among the key features of this framework, there are facilities for handling requests, sessions, and a login security model.

The main differences between ASP.NET and Node.js are:

1. Processing models (ASP.NET gives a programmer to choose a processing model, whilst Node.js forces to implement an asynchronous processing style).
2. Programming languages (ASP.NET relies on C#, while Node.js uses JavaScript).

Thanks to the simple learning curve and strong asynchronous processing model of Node.js, it must be difficult for ASP.NET to replace it in the future.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot is an open-source Java-based framework. Like Node.js, this technology is used for building microservice architecture. The other useful features of Spring Boot include production-ready elements for metrics, health checks, simple configurations, etc. Also, this framework is multi-threaded and helps developers write a non-blocking and asynchronous code.

Spring Boot and Node.js are both used in web development. But they differ in the following aspects:

1. Node.js is supported by Javascript, while Spring Boot uses Java as a programming language.
2. Node.js is a lightweight and fast framework in contrast to Spring Boot.
3. Node.js is a good choice for building apps in computing, whilst Spring Boot has dependencies like deployment of binary file sizes.

Since Node.js is widely used in the computing field (its growth amounts to about $264 million in 2020), it’s less likely that Spring Boot will take over it in the near future.

Flask

Flask is a microframework used by back-end developers to create web applications. The core features of this technology are Werkzeug – a library for Python, and Jinja – a template engine that lets developers generate custom web templates automatically.

Both Node.js and Flask are used to develop microservice architecture. But these two technologies have such differences:

1. Node.js implements Chrome V8 Engine for compilation (this process is known as Just in Time or JIT).
2. Node.js uses JavaScript, whilst Flask – Python as a programming language.
3. Node.js relies on modules rather than objects to create web app services in contrast to Flask.

Flask hasn’t been yet used in long-term projects like Node.js. Therefore, it’s hard to state whether this framework will outperform it in the future.

Django

Django is an open-source and Python-based framework. Its core functionalities encompass an object-relational mapper (ORM) for mediating data models, a system for HTTP requests, and others.

Django and Node.js are implemented in web development. So, the core differences between these frameworks are:

1. Node.js is a run-time JavaScript environment, while Django is a web framework.
2. Node.js supports JavaScript as a programming language, whilst Django uses Python.
3. Node.js implements an event-driven model in contrast to Django that uses Model Template View (MTV) to handle the processes of data validation and interaction.

Django and Node.js have big development communities. Additionally, both of them are easy to learn and ensure high software performance and scalability. But Node.js is an excellent choice if you want to build a web app with strong client-server processing. Thanks to this feature, Django won’t replace it soon.

The Future of Node.js

There are 6 core reasons why Node.js won’t disappear in the near future:

1. Such renowned companies like PayPal, NASA, Netflix, eBay, LinkedIn, etc. used Node.js to develop web apps.
2. 43% of developers implement the aforementioned technology to build enterprise applications.
3. Tech giants as Google and Microsoft invest their resources in Node.js development.
4. Node.js is widely applied in state-of-the-art tech areas like data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
5. Node.js works well with server-side (where app data is stored) parts of the web application.
6. Node.js is suitable for building real-time apps thanks to its capacity to exchange data between the server and the client fast.

Scale Your Business With LITSLINK!

In our article, you find out what Node.js is, its benefits and the main reasons why it won’t fade away in the future. Excellent performance and high scalability are among a few advantages of the aforementioned technologies over ASP.NET, Django, Flask, Spring Boot, and many others.

So if you want to build a high-quality web app to nail your business, reach out to LITSLINK for Node.js consulting, and our seasoned software experts will find a high-end solution for you!