What is Node.js?

What is the use of Node.js?

The runtime environment is used in server-side programming, especially for building high-performance cross-platform applications. Node.js comes with an array of open-source frameworks, packages, and tools to streamline development, enabling e.g. reusing code for faster implementations. The NPM (Node Package Manager) is constantly growing and provides solutions for faster development. The runtime environment allows for the time-efficient development of fast web applications capable of handling large traffic in real-time.

Node.js applications

The use of Node.js is popular across real-time applications handling large amounts of requests simultaneously. From data streaming and single page applications to IoT systems and microservices – Netflix, Uber, Twitter, Yahoo, and Groupon benefit from the scalability and speed of JavaScript Node.js. As a result, their products deliver the best performance and website experience to millions of users worldwide.

The benefits of Node.js

Why to use Node.js? To take advantage of its features for developing web apps, which include:

• The event-driven nature: allows the high performance of real-time applications
• Cross-platform: applications built with Node.js can be deployed using any operating system
• Asynchronous communication: greater flexibility and better use of computing resources due to a non-blocking, event-driven I/O model
• Lightweight: resources are allocated on the server when needed and not in advance
• Frontend and backend: Node.js enables using the same programming language for the whole project, saving time during development
• Single-threaded: Node.js is able to handle numerous clients without multiple threads, reducing performance costs
• Scalability: thanks to load balancing, Node.js is highly scalable and allows efficient handling of data-heavy workloads