The increased popularity of JavaScript has dramatically changed the face of web development today. Several years ago, it was even difficult to imagine things which we can do with JavaScript easily running in the browser as well as on the server. NodeJS is such a JavaScript runtime environment which is built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. It is fast, efficient and is a highly scalable web server for web applications. That’s why it has become the most preferred JS framework for all web developers.
The developed applications of Node.js are often buckled with MongoDB and Express.js that also use JavaScript. Express.js helps manage the middleware of a node application, while MongoDB is a non-SQL database based on documents.
Some of its major business applications are listed below:
- Easy to install and execute locally
- Multiple-platform compatible written code
- Rapid minimum viable product (MVP) delivery
- Fast and comprises of speedy native bindings
- High performance
- Tight coupling between client and server
- Compatible with open source packages and modules
- Cheap hosting
- Cloud scalability
- Node.js lightweight services
According to W3Techs, Node.js is used by 0.4% of all the websites whose web server we know. Flickr.com, Thesaurus.com, Dictionary.com, Healthline.com are some of the popular sites built using NodeJS web development.
As per SimilarTech stats, there are approximately 501,481 live websites and 156,658 unique domains present. Around the globe, United States is the top leading country using NodeJS web development and Russia is the second one. While India has approx. 3,302 websites using this framework.
According to BuiltWith, approx. 772,790 websites of the entire web are using AngularJS and 402,414 sites are using Backbone.js. The following diagram shows the usage of NodeJS for web app development.
As per the sources, Node.js is the largest open source platform that exists today, with over 15 million downloads per month and more than a billion package downloads per week. Contributions have also risen to the top, from now on we have more than 1,100 developers who built Node.js on the platform that it is now. Node.js also creates a ‘maintenance endpoint’ and uses tools that automatically detect vulnerabilities.
In this blog, we will discuss the top 10 benefits of using NodeJS for web app development.
1) Real-Time Web apps
NodeJS web development allows you to create real-time web apps at a lighting speed same like the amount of time required for making a very simple blog in PHP. Therefore, NodeJS is a clear winner when it comes to creating multi-user real-time web applications for chat apps and gaming apps.
The architecture driven by events serves both the client side and the server side that is written using JavaScript and, therefore, the synchronization process is fast and in an arranged manner. The event loop through the web socket protocol that works in TCP handles the multiuser function and avoids HTTP overload for web development.
2) Easy Coding
With NodeJS web development, it allows web developers to code in JavaScript for both the server and client. Hence, it makes it convenient for transferring data between the client and the server to coordinate the work well simultaneously. Data changes made to the server appear instantly on the client and the web page that displays this data automatically updates. Node.js satisfies all the needs of the development process and offers scalable and fast network applications.
In fact, MeteorJS, a popular web app development framework that was created via NodeJS supports the same codebase for the server and the client.
3) Fast Suite
NodeJS acts as a fast suite since it runs on the V8 engine developed by the Google. It uses JavaScript into native machine code and thus operates at a super fast speed. Node.js allows organizations to create fast and robust network applications that can address parallel connections with higher performance. It does not slow down work by chance, but web developers must be careful when writing the codes and applications will be put on the right track.
Node.js avoids all the problems related to the formation of independent threads and, instead, uses a single subprocess, that is, the event loop that handles all asynchronous I / O operations. The main actions in web applications, including reading or writing in the database, network connections or file system, can be done quickly with this set of applications.
Moreover, many big organizations such as LinkedIn opted for Node.js instead of Ruby on rails for the purpose of increased mobile traffic and reduced number of servers. This is used to make the applications 20 times swifter. PayPal is another great example of this.
4) Dynamic NPM
Since NodeJS is an open-source platform, it provides an edge with a shared repository of modules and dynamic tools. The number of modules that are more than 60000 in the NPM(Node Package Manager) has increased with the significant growth and is about to surpass the RoR platform (Ruby on Rails). Since NPM is robust and super fast, it helps to make the dependency management perfect. With the great popularity of Node.js, the community of nodes is strengthened day by day.
5) Data Streaming
In web app development, HTTP request and response are considered as the two separate events. Actually, they are data streams. This function can be used to the maximum with Node.js to create some of the best attributes, such as processing files at the time of loading, as this can reduce the overall duration of the process when the data is presented in the form of transmissions. The same can be implemented at the time of recording video or audio in real time.
6) Hosting
Hosting has a gained momentum after NodeJS is highly demanded by more and more number of web developers for their web app development project. PaaS (Platform as a Service) service providers like Modulus and Heroku are allowing node deployments officially without any problem.
7) Database Queries
NodeJS web development helps in solving all the database queries. Database queries for new NoSQL databases such as CouchDB, MongoDB carries the JavaScript framework. Web developers do not need to modulate the syntax differences when joining the Node.js and NoSQL databases. Node.js aces with web applications in real time as the format of stored data JSON allows you to operate without any obstacle in data conversion and mismatches, not as the Ruby on Rails platform that needs the same JSON format to binary models.
8) Productivity
NodeJS web development is consistently increasing the effectiveness of the current web app development process at different enterprises. The reason behind this is that all the NodeJS programs are developed using JavaScript which represents that the gap between frontend and the backend developers are split entirely. In order to remove this gap between the frontend and the backend web developers, many web development companies are combining frontend and backend teams together into a single unit. This will also go for a smooth workflow.
For an instance, PayPal has recently enhanced its developer productivity after employing NodeJS web development. It actually took a half number of NodeJS developers to build the app and consumed less time with maximum productivity.
9) Community Friendly
NodeJS provides a large open source community who delivers various outstanding modules that makes NodeJS applications shine everywhere. One of the popular ones is Socket.io, a module which can handle the constant communication between the client and the server that allows the server to send updates in real time to the clients. It works with the best technology used to form these links away from the developer, especially for specific clients.
10) Proxy Server
NodeJS web development is in charge with the proxy server. Node.js comes to rescue proxy different services that have different response times or to collect data from various sources. For an instance, if there is a server-side app which deals with third-party resources, saves videos or images, or collects data from various sources, then Node.js can be useful as a Proxy if the organization does not have the infrastructure for proxy or needs local development in such a scenario.
Conclusion:
As we know that nothing is perfect in this universe, there are some things that were not to the liking of some users, but the Node.js API is still changing and, as it matures, certain parts are more reliable than others. Nodejs has brought a great revolution in the world of development and the most popular option for several brands such as eBay, Walmart, Yahoo, etc. Node.js is really a blessing for a developer and should be used by all companies.
It now plays a critical role in the technology stack. You can take advantage of the benefits of Node.js and enjoy fast and scalable network applications by hiring top NodeJS development company like ValueCoders. It is a leading software development company in India having a team of expert NodeJS developers who have successfully delivered more than 4200 projects to 2500+ satisfied customers in last 13 years.