Which Kind of Application that Nodejs is the Best Fit for?
As a decent robust solution, Node.js has been the best choice for web application development. Having an excellent influence on software development, Node.js is now being viewed as a high-end and best-fit tool for real-time data-intensive applications. However, there are some interesting questions about Node.js. Most of them are about which kinds of applications that Node.js is the best for. To clarify, is Node.js suitable for all types of projects or only suitable for some specific applications?
What is Node.js?
Definition
First released in 2009, Node.js is a formidable ecosystem built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. It is a robust, fast, and scalable runtime environment for command-line tools, web applications, and real-time chat application development. Specifically, Node.js has a set of exceptional features such as an event-driven approach, serverless architecture, asynchronous I/O, etc.
Written in C, and C++, Node.js utilizes the storage for better data-intensive task execution. Additionally, Node.js’s core accelerates its productivity and better processing speed. Therefore, it is cross-platform and free-to-use, allowing developers to develop faster and more independent web applications.
Learn more: How to Choose NodeJS Libraries for Your Real-time App Development?
Its Influence on the Market
According to StackOverflow’s survey, Node.js has acquired the first top spot with over 51% vote of over 33,913 developer responses for 2 years. Additionally, it was used to develop over 50% of developed projects as of 2020.
Last but not least, thanks to its remarkable contribution, Node.js is the best choice and most reliable technology for heavy-traffic websites, such as Netflix, PayPal, Groupon, eBay, and AliExpress.
Read more about HDWEBSOFT’s Node JS Development.
Who are Its Competitors?
In the software industry, the movement is unstoppable and one solution can have several competitors or alternatives. So does Node.js. Let’s have a look at its competitors as follows.
Erlang/Elixir
Erlang, a garbage-collected runtime system, is a universally useful, simultaneous, functional programming language. As for performance, Erlang was born to do better than Node.js in resolving concurrent issues. In a word, Erlang is your best choice to optimize concurrency solutions.
However, it is irreplaceable Node.js due to its universality. Furthermore, Erlang is only mentioned when it comes to specific events.
Go/Golang
Go, just like Erlang, is considered a worthy competitor to Node.js since it has several outstanding features compared to Node.js. However, Node.js prevails in the market due to its popularity.
PHP/Laravel
PHP is an easy-to-use web development that enables innovative website development and extends web application development capabilities.
As in technology, PHP/Laravel and Node.js are two distinctive solutions. In fact, they have their strengths. Specifically, PHP has a great advantage in rapid development. On the other hand, Node.js has excellent performance on flexibility and is more suitable for big projects.
Read more about HDWEBSOFT’s PHP Development Services and Laravel Development Services.
Python/Django
Python, a multi-purpose object-oriented programming language, has gained great fame for its ability to develop rapidly. Besides, Django is a free and open-source Python-based web framework.
In comparison, Python and Node.js have differences that are suitable for dissimilar usage scenarios. Experienced developers excel in identifying which cases suit each tool. Furthermore, Python and Node.js rarely hinder and step on each other.
Read more about HDWEBSOFT’s Python Development Services and Django Development Services.
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby, released under the MIT License. It is a model–view controller framework that provides default structures for a database, web service, and web pages.
Similar to PHP and Python, Ruby on Rails and Node.js live together well. Furthermore, they are more supportive than antagonistic.
Read more about HDWEBSOFT’s Ruby on Rails Development.
.NET framework/ASP.NET
Developed by Microsoft, ASP.NET, a server-side web application framework, allows developers to create dynamic websites, applications, and services.
It is difficult to state how Node.js and .NET compete with each other. In fact, .NET is a huge app platform that is used to develop complex enterprise apps with enormous and cumbersome software systems. In a word, .NET and Node.js can support each other in software development. Generally, engineers will develop apps on .NET at first, then Node.js for specific service components that Nodejs handles well.
Java
Java is a programming language that is focused on providing a simple, platform-independent, object-oriented programming language.
Like .NET, Java, and Node.js are more reciprocal than antagonistic. In enterprise apps, Java is the foundation, and Node.js plays a more supportive role.
Project types that Node.js is the Best for
As mentioned above, Node.js is the most suitable feature for a fast real-time application/project development with a vast traffic drive such as Yahoo, Linkedin, and Netflix. Let’s have a look at the types of projects that Node.js is the best for.
Chat Application
Chat application, the Node.js best-fit application, is the most typical type of real-time and multi-user application. In a word, it is the sweet-spot app that represents Node.js’s notable features. Furthermore, its high traffic running capacity, data-intensive application, and cross-platform availability allow a stable performance, and great scalability and benefit both users and developers.
REST API
Node.js provides great data transmission capabilities on object BDs with REST API. Furthermore, it is time-saving since it eliminates multiple conversions thanks to utilizing a uniform information serialization design across the customer, server, and data set. In other words, Node.js can store data without mismatches or conversions.
Queue Processing
Besides real-time applications, Node.js is the best choice for applications that have queued databases. The data queue infrastructure allows for apps without firm confirmation. In a word, it is essential to identify clients’ behaviors before mapping the process and starting to write the app.
Data Streaming
Developers can take advantage of – data streaming Node.js to develop some interesting features. Thanks to its ability of online streaming, it allows real-time editing and proxying among different data sources.
Proxy
Node.js allows proxying different data sources, response times, and services to handle massive amounts of simultaneous connections. Additionally, it is a valuable tool with non-existent proxying infrastructure for client-side solution development while using dedicated proxy services for other interaction handling in the production period.
Brokerage – Stock Trading applications
A real-time feature for a website is well-suited for a trading website to track stocks, price comparisons, and technical analysis.
Project types that Node.js is not the best choice
Heavy Server-Side Computation
Even though Node.js performs well for high-traffic apps and proxying among different data sources, it is not the best choice for heavy server-side computation. In fact, all incoming requests to Node.js would be annulled during CPU-intensive operations. In a word, it will block all notable benefits of Node.js and make it useless.
Conclusion
Aside from its proposed effectiveness, Node.js has gained popularity due to its massive open-source and cross-platform JavaScript-based ecosystem. As mentioned above, developers can utilize Nodejs-based solutions for real-time apps and high-traffic capacities to develop suitable applications/projects. It is essential to identify clients’ behavior and app signatures before writing and developing apps with a Nodejs base.
