Introduction
Node.js is a free open-source server-side JavaScript environment. It runs on version 8 of the Google engine and enables JavaScript programmers to convert JavaScript to machine code, making JavaScript a multipurpose language.
The reason for the popularity when it comes to web app development is the Node.js advantages that developers and organizations could derive. Of course, just like any other programming language, it also has some drawbacks. Let’s walk through them and explore use instances that will help you understand how Node could add value to your project.
Know the Node JS Advantages and Disadvantages
When it comes to the most popular client-side programming language, JavaScript is the leader. Until Node.js was introduced in 2009, things that could be done with JavaScript on the server-side were just a concept. With the benefits of Node JS, various Node frameworks and package managers of Node (commonly referred as NPM) the web application development has become extremely cost-effective, super-efficient, and extremely simple.
Node.js has become the go-to for a lot of industries, which include healthcare, IT, and so on.
Benefits of Node JS
1. Real-time, High-Performance Applications
One of the Node JS advantages is that you could build supercharged apps, which display results in just a blink of an eye. Web apps that are Node.js powered benefit hugely from their ability to multitask. Unlike other platforms, Node has an event-driven architecture, single-threaded that could process several concurrent requests efficiently without clogging the RAM.
Furthermore, its non-blocking, event-loop I/O operations enable executing code at a pace that remarkably impacts the overall performance of an application. To further elevate the Node.js performance to ensure continuous advancements, Google introduced the V8 benchmark suite.
2. Easy to Learn Language
It’s much easier to adapt and learn Node.js for web app development because writing codes take less time. Based on a survey by StackOverflow, an impressive percentage of professional developers, 49.9 percent to be exact, go for Node.js as the most used technology. This answers why it is very popular.
3. Easy Scalability for Modern Apps
Node offers easy scalability because of its asynchronous and event-driven nature. This makes it ideal for high real-time and throughput apps. It’s one of the Node JS advantages that has made it popular in the web development world today.
The language enables the maintenance of long-running connections with only one thread with an event loop used to switch between listening for new data and handling current requests. It follows the non-blocking I/O, making it very fast, efficient, scalable, and high-performing. Furthermore, as a business grows, the platform could be adapted to fit the new requirements seamlessly.
4. Community Support for Seamless Development
With millions of developers contributing to the development community of Node.js, extensive support from experts across the globe to resolve even the most difficult problems is expected. NPM is a JavaScript package manager that’s the biggest package manager registry in the world, offering numerous readily available libraries and tools.
IBM also supports the ever-evolving technology and has expressed its plans to sponsor and talk during key Node events to drive growth. The vibrant community is backed by a lot of leading tech giants, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix.
All contribute to the massive Node.js advantages. The acceptance by tech giants, along with the developer community, ensures its growth and tech presence in the foreseeable future.
5. Reduces Time-to-Market of Apps
To any development team, time is gold, especially when time-to-market is one of the important benchmarks of performance and quality. Node, being lightweight, enables developers to accelerate the development speed overall. Furthermore, the team gets to use a ton of ready-to-use codes, libraries, and other GitHub resources, which, in turn, saves a lot of coding effort and time.
Node offers server-side and client-side JavaScript, which makes it faster and easier to manage code and data files. Additionally, its deployments help in getting feedback from the production environment to execution, which contributes greatly to shortening the market time.
The Drawbacks of Node JS
1. Lacks a Strong Library Support System
The lack of a strong library support system is a significant disadvantage of Node. This means that developers would have to rely on third-party libraries to help with tasks that are not included in the core library of the framework.
Furthermore, the lack of a strong documentation system makes it hard for new users to find relevant information, which could be used in developing web apps.
2. Unstable Application Programming Interface or API
One of the major problems that most developers encounter is the API, which keeps on changing frequently and remains unstable. There are instances when a new API appears having several backward-incompatible changes. Developers are faced with certain hardships while writing programs that need stable APIs.
3. Asynchronous Programming Model
The Asynchronous Programming Model of Node makes maintaining code difficult compared to the synchronous programming model. Synchronous programming is easy and simple to understand, where all processes are executed one after the other. Because ‘callbacks’ are used in asynchronous models, coping with situations like race conditions becomes difficult for developers.
Race conditions is an error that happens when an app is simultaneously performing two or more operations and an unexpected operation is done first. Thus, asynchronous programming is one of the significant drawbacks of Node.js
4. Reduced Performance with Heavy Computing Tasks
Despite the benefits of being a single-threaded and event-driven language, Node.js falls short when it comes to executing heavy CPU-based computing. When it receives a sizable CPU-driven task, it makes use of all its CPU strength available to accomplish the task.
This could lead to a decrease in the event loop, which further blocks the app’s interface. In 2018, Node.js introduced the ‘worker threads’ module, which enabled developers to execute several threads simultaneously. The solution, sadly, does not completely equip you to deal with CPU-bound computation issues.
5. High Demand with Less Experienced Developers
Despite the escalating demand, there are only a few experienced Node.js developers to match the market needs. There is a big misconception that JavaScript developers technically are Node.js developers as well. One should be well-versed with the JavaScript backend to learn Node.js.
Conclusion
When it comes to developing high-performing and scalable web apps, Node.js plays a stellar role. Developers love exploiting the Node JS advantages. However, the advantages are not all that the framework has. There are also Node JS advantages and disadvantages to keep in mind before using it for any project.
Overall, Node.js proves to be an excellent choice in the web development marketplace in the world at present.