It is quite a challenge to select the suitable JavaScript library for application development— whether it is the back-end of the app or the front-end. Currently, Node.js and React.js are the leading JavaScript technologies.
It is quite a challenge to select the suitable JavaScript library for application development— whether it is the back-end of the app or the front-end. Currently, Node.js and React.js are the leading JavaScript technologies. Both are used for building diverse types of applications such as dynamic apps, data streaming, microservices, and more. React.js is used for building the front-end of the system. And, Node.js is used for creating the back-end of the applications. So, let’s find out how they are the leading choices for their respective capabilities.
What is Node.js?
Node.js is an open source JavaScript library to build the back-end of applications. It is brought into practice for accessing the database, addressing HPP related requests, and hosting APIs. Node.js is quite popular amongst the developer community because of its flexibility and robustness. Plus, it is lightweight because of its event-driven and non-blocking I/O model.
Many renowned organizations across the global such as LinkedIn, Netflix, Uber, Trello, PayPal, NASA, eBay, Medium, Groupon, Walmart, Mozilla, and more use Node.js. This speaks volumes about Node.js’ capability, reliability, security, flexibility, and scalability. In addition, Node.js is quite fast and can be easily deployed for developers.
Key Responsibilities
- Robust technology stack: Provide developers tremendous flexibility and robustness to build complex applications
- Speed and performance: Get high performance with its fast processing and event-based model
- Server development: Allow developers to make different servers like DNS servers, TCP server, HTTP server, and more.
- Unit testing: Node.js allows testing ready code with its unit testing called Jasmine.
- Scalability: Provide tremendous stability both vertically and horizontally
- Low-cost: Node.js is a free and open-source framework, thus help minimize development costs.
What is React.js?
React.js is an open-source front-end library to build customer-facing end or interactive UIs of websites and apps. It is highly flexible and dynamic, allowing front-end developers to create intuitive interfaces to create a seamless experience across multiple devices. Reacj.js is basically developed by Facebook and it is now used by many brands across the globe such Uber, Netflix, Twitter, The New York Times, and many more.
- Flexibility: Its flexibility, re-usable components enable you to solve any complex problem
- Performance: React is based on Virtual DOM (document object model), which drives higher app performance.
- Code stability: One-direction data flow in React.js guarantees code stability and faster speed.
- Simplicity: It is pretty simple to understand the code, and its component-based approach makes the code reusable.
- Mobile app development: Create rich UI for native apps supported by iOS and Android using the same pattern.
Node.js advantages and usages
- Extend it as you want
- Ideal for web development
- Scale horizontally and vertically
- Huge number of tools available
- Easy to learn and adopt
- Minimum complexity for code sharing and reusability
Ideal for
Node.js can be used for different business use cases, including:
- Building microservices—Node.js is fast and lightweight. You can use for building microservices involved with multiple APIs gateway.
- Creating data streaming apps— You can easily handle real-time data streaming requirements with Node.js. Whether you want to build a streaming app, live stream, gaming apps, or more, Node.js is just amazing.
- Handling API server— When you need to manage or handle many connections simultaneously, Node.js is ideal for an API service.
According to hosting tribunal, various reports show 1.4% to 2.2% usage of node.js among websites globally. Applied to the entire internet, this means Node JS powers at least 30 million sites, if not more.
React.js advantages and usages
- Faster virtual DOM
- Get server-side and front-end support
- Reusable code components
- Faster debugging with UI testing
- Get support for both Android and iOS
Ideal for
- Faster virtual DOM
- Get server-side and front-end support
- Reusable code components
- Faster debugging with UI testing
- Get support for both Android and iOS
You can completely rely on React.js for creating amazing UI of apps, including:
- Building dynamic apps— When you need to build an app where data is collected from different sources in real-time, alerts and notifications are generated dynamically, and event-based state change, React.js can handle smoothly.
- Meeting complex UI needs— React.js allows you to tackle complex UI requirements for creating immersive touch-points for different devices and enables you to handle complex structures that might be difficult to manage with the legacy approach.
- More than 1,300 developers and 94,000 websites use React.js.
The final remark
It is quite evident that mobile app development demands complete flexibility, greater scalability, and higher performance with stringent security. Given the growing demands, both Node.js and React.js have won the trust of developers as well as decision-makers. Even big brands which typically do not easily disrupt their back-end and front-end technologies are becoming more and more interested in migrating to node.js and react.js. These JavaScript libraries seem the future of app development.
