What is Node.js?

What is Node.js?

Node.js or Node is an Open-Source and cross platform run-time environment for executing JavaScript code, outside of a browser. Quiet often we use node to build back-end services also called API’s or Application Programming Interfaces. These are the services that power client applications like a web application running inside of a web browser or a mobile application running on a mobile device.

These client applications are simply what the user sees and interacts. They are just the surface, they need to talk to some services sitting on the server or in the cloud to store data, sent emails, and push notifications keep up workflows and so on.

Node is ideal for creating highly scalable, data-intensive and real time back-end services that power our client applications. Now you might ask what are the other tools and frameworks out there for building back end services such as Django etc. So what is so special about node?

Well! Node is easy to get started and can be used for prototyping and agile development. But it can also be used for building super-fast and highly scalable services. It is used in productions by large companies such as PayPal, Uber, Netflix, and Walmart and so on.

In fact at PayPal they have built one of the Java and Spring based applications using Node and it is found that the node application was built twice as fast with fewer people in 33% fewer lines of code and 40% fewer files and more importantly they doubled the number of request per seconds while decreasing the average response time by 35%.

So Node is an excellent choice for building highly scalable services.

Another reason for using Node is that the Node applications use JavaScript. So if you are a front end developer and know JavaScript, you can reuse your JavaScript skills and transitions to a full stack developer and get a better job with better pay.

You do not have to learn a new programming language. Also because you can use JavaScript on the front end and on the backend your source code will be cleaner and more consistent. So you can use same naming conventions, same tools and the same code base practices.

And finally another reason for using node is that it has the largest ecosystem of Open-Source libraries available to you. So for pretty much any features are building blocks you want to add to your application,there is some free open source library that you can use. So you don’t have to build these building blocks from scratch and instead you can focus on your application.

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