NodeJS has gained popularity in recent years because it provides developers with an easy way to build scalable server-side applications, making Nodjs ideal for small and large organizations. It has also been a major force in the development of server-side JavaScript. It’s fast, light, and easy to use, and it offers rich support for several different languages.
NodeJS development trends are expected to be huge over the next few years and will continue to be widely used for web applications and server-side apps. Developers need to pay more attention to a variety of areas where NodeJS can help them make their products more efficient. That can be done if you know the benefits of NodeJS and how to leverage them for your project. And here in this article, we are going to help you realize exactly why you should use NodeJS. But first, let us look at what NodeJS is.
What is NodeJS?
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient. It was created by Ryan Dahl, who also created Node Package Manager (NPM), a tool for dependency management in JavaScript code.
Because of its open-source nature, Node is used by many top companies. Its architecture allows for easy integration with web applications and desktop apps (including Linux, macOS, and Windows) using asynchronous I/O APIs such as the EventEmitter library or libev.
Node is not an application server like Apache HTTPD or Nginx, but rather provides an environment in which to build full-featured network applications (web server, database server, and many others) without having to compromise on developer productivity or portability across platforms.
Why Use NodeJS? Main Things to Consider
Fast-processing for web-tasks
Node.js is fast, lightweight, and easy to use, which means it can handle lots of simultaneous connections. This means that Node.js can handle your server’s processing load with ease, without slowing down the user experience on your site or app.
The reason behind NodeJS being fast is that JavaScript was created with the idea of being easy to read and write, so it has a lot less overhead compared to other programming languages such as Java or C++. So, NodeJS can run on low-powered machines without slowing down your application speed.
Node.js uses an event-driven I/O model, where a “single thread” handles all network requests, making it lightweight and efficient. Node.js also provides evented IO with non-blocking I/O (NBIO). Node.js uses an asynchronous I/O architecture that allows developers to write code that takes advantage of multi-core processors by handling multiple processes simultaneously.
Flexible for building APIs and microservices
Node.js gives you the flexibility to build APIs and microservices that can be easily scaled as your business grows. This makes it a great tool for building applications that need to scale over time, as well as ones that need to increase their functionality and performance over time as well.
Scalable technology for microservices
NodeJS is a scalable technology that can be used for microservices. The microservice architecture uses small, loosely coupled services to handle complex business logic and data. These services communicate with each other through an API.
It can also handle the complexity of running multiple services on the same server. It’s popular in developing web apps, where you might have several separate applications running on one server.
NodeJS can handle millions of connections at a time. The operators can easily run a NodeJS application on multiple servers and it will be able to manage all the connections from the application.
NodeJS comes with a built-in HTTP server, making it easy for developers to build an application that can handle thousands of users simultaneously.
Rich ecosystem: Node.JS libraries and tools
Web app development becomes easy using NodeJS because it comes with a rich ecosystem. NodeJS libraries are open-source software that can be used in your projects without restriction. You can use these libraries to build web servers or any web application that requires a database or HTTP request handlers.
NodeJS libraries are very popular in the developer community as they reduce the efforts needed to develop web applications. For example, if you need to build an API for your business application, then using a library like Express makes it easier for you because all the code related to creating an API will be written in one place with less effort than writing all the code from scratch.
Strong corporate support
NodeJS has strong corporate support and is used in large-scale projects. The project has the support of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. The NodeJS ecosystem is also expected to grow further with the arrival of other companies such as IBM and Alibaba.
The NodeJS Foundation, which was formed to help develop the NodeJS platform, is also backed by IBM, Dropbox, PayPal, and others. The NodeJS Foundation also announced in November 2016 that it had raised $15 million from investors including Red Hat and Microsoft Ventures.
Many other companies worldwide have donated to the NodeJS Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial support for the project. It has also contributed to the development of other projects such as V8 JavaScript Engine, which is an open-source project created by Google.
Seamless JSON support
The most important advantage of using NodeJS is that it supports seamless JSON support. This feature allows you to create your JSON parsers without the need for a third-party library. It also provides an easy way to convert between different data types like numbers and strings, which is useful for performing calculations on large amounts of data.
NodeJS is popular with developers who want to use JavaScript in their projects, but don’t want to learn any other language. You can write JavaScript code in your browser or on the server side and then have that code run on both platforms seamlessly. Since it’s JavaScript, all data is just a string inside a function call. This makes it easy to convert from one format to another without any code changes required in either the client or server-side apps.
Large developer community and gentle learning curve
The NodeJS community is large, friendly, helpful, and very active. So, it’s easy to get help when you need it.
The nodeJS developer community has lots of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) available for you to use in your projects. There are also many books available online about using NodeJS for server-side development. The learning curve on this platform is gentle, so even someone who knows nothing about JS can quickly get up to speed with NodeJS.
NodeJS has an easy learning curve because of its simple syntax, which makes it easier for beginners to learn how to use it properly. It also allows developers to write code using JavaScript instead of using C++ or Java as most other programming languages do
Conclusion
I hope after reading this article, you understand how simple yet effective NodeJS truly is. It has many powerful features to offer that could come in handy during your development process. It is important to mention here that all of these feature richness of NodeJS is thanks to its Node Package Manager. It might pique your interest to know that NPM is one of the largest software registries with over 1.3 million code packages. And the best part about it is it’s completely free to use.
You know what this means right? The developers will be empowered with tons of resources to build a top-notch application with less time and money. Now, tell me do you still have any doubts about using NodeJS for your project?
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