Reasons to Choose Node.js for Product Development

Did you know that behind the enhanced web experience of global brands like Netflix, PayPal, GoDaddy, and Walmart lies a powerhouse called NodeJS?

As per NodeJS Foundation Survey, 98% of Fortune 500 companies are harnessing the power and capabilities of NodeJS to drive scalability, agility, and business growth in the digital realm. Moreover, NodeJS powers 2.7% of websites on the Internet, which is easily around 30 million sites.

In this blog, we will explore the world of NodeJS, and its impact and find out the reasons of why it is the go-to choose for both established businesses and upcoming startups alike.

NodeJS - The Real Value

It's a known fact that the primary goal of any business is to serve the customers with value products or services with agility, efficiency, and profitability.

This becomes more critical, as modern-day business owners are increasingly seeking tech solutions that help them deliver innovative, agile, real time and scalable products that are in sync with the discerning market demands.

This is where NodeJS has a significant role to play. Let’s find out how.

What is NodeJS?

Introduced to the world in 2009 by Ryan Dahl, NodeJS has played a phenomenal role in modern web development. It is a cutting-edge, future-proof tech stack that extends the ability to make product development a delight for businesses.

NodeJS is not a library or a framework. It's also not a language. NodeJS is a single-threaded, open-source runtime environment for developing fast and scalable apps. It is a powerful tech-stack that aids in creating web applications in real time basis that are lightweight, faster, agile, and scalable.

Some notable features include single thread event-driven architecture, non-blocking I/O model, asynchronous call back function, Google V engine, etc.

Node.JS Features

• Single Threaded
  NodeJS uses a single thread to handle all the requests. This makes it efficient to process large amounts of requests at a single time.
• Asynchronous And Non-Blocking
  All the requests in NodeJS are handled asynchronously. This means the users don’t have to wait after requesting data. It's also non-blocking, which means it can process multiple things simultaneously without blocking the other processes.
• Written in JavaScript
  NodeJS uses JavaScript, one of the most widely used web development languages in the world. The good thing about JS is that most programmers already know a bit of JavaScript, and hence learning NodeJS is an easy task.
• Node.JS Architecture and Microservices
  One thing that separates NodeJS from other web development languages is microservices. NodeJS supports microservices where large codebases can be divided into small parts. This is especially useful for legacy apps where the codebase is too large to be handled as one piece.

Now that we have explored NodeJS and its features, let's look at the top reasons to choose NodeJS for frontend and backend development.

6 Reasons to Choose Node.js for Product Development

#1. Cost Effective

One of the factors behind product failure is often lack of funds. There is an increasing trend of a decline in funding According to CBinsights, global funding fell to 34% from 2021 to 2022. In fact, the last 6 months of 2023, the funding is not even a third of 2022.

These numbers highlight the harsh reality that funding, as we witnessed in the past decade, will soon be negligible. This entails that businesses must be proactive and agile to build capabilities to develop products within strapped budgets.

The good news is that Node.js is cost-effective in several ways. Here’s how.

• Firstly, it uses a single programming language, JavaScript, for both backend and frontend development. This saves you from having to hire multiple developers for multiple languages.
• Secondly, NodeJS has a V8 engine that compiles JavaScript code directly. This means you don't need extra resources to run the code.

Lastly, Node.js is all about high performance. Case in point are a few examples like when LinkedIn migrated from Ruby to NodeJS, they cut down servers from 30 to only 3.

On the other hand, NodeJS powered GoDaddy with the Super Bowl ad campaign, handling 10,000 requests per second with zero downtime. All this while utilizing just 10% of the hardware.

#2. Faster Time to Market

Time is priceless, especially when developing new products that must be market-tested. According to CBinsights, after analyzing 101 startups, 10% fail because of mis-timing the product launch. It's why developing Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and releasing it as quickly as possible is so vital.

A study, conducted by Harvard Business Review, showed that one of the key success drivers for companies was to build prototypes of their new product before moving to build the entire system.

The good news is that NodeJS supports rapid prototyping, so you can quickly create a minimum viable product ready to launch.

#3. Platform Compatibility

In a digital world where everyone uses more than one device, cross-platform compatibility is a basic need. NodeJS is cross-compatible and runs seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

By unifying all platforms, NodeJS removes the need to write code for multiple platforms, saving you time, money, and resources.

#4. Scalable

Developing a product is hard enough; shifting it to another tech stack because of scalability issues is the worst nightmare.

That's why it's important to choose a technology that can accommodate your needs at various stages. Fortunately, with Node.js, you don't have to worry about scalability. It's scalable to its core.

Moreover, thanks to load balancing and the ability to handle many concurrent connections, Node.js is excellent for microservices architecture.

Walmart replaced its legacy system with NodeJS and microservices and witnessed 20% growth instantly. Through this change, the organization saved 40% of its computing power and reduced costs by 20%.

#5. It comes with excellent community support

Why does community play a key role? Because developers need support and feedback. Node.js fosters a developer-friendly ecosystem with a vast community and a rich library of modules and packages.

This means you can use pre-built components to build your product. NodeJS GitHub profile has many ready-made elements like Admin Panel to help you get started with development.
Moreover, a thriving community also deters devs from reinventing the wheel and making use of current resources in the best way.

#6. Low Complexity

Creating a product presents its fair share of challenges, and the last thing we want to do is make it even more complex by using obscure language.

This is where Node.js truly shines, capturing the hearts of developers around the globe. Node.js offers a range of invaluable features, such as cross-platform compatibility and the formidable V8 engine, which simplifies the development process considerably.

If you still have doubts regarding NodeJS, we have compared it with other popular development languages like NodeJS vs Python. 

NodeJS vs Python for Product Development

When comparing NodeJS vs Python for product development, NodeJS is the clear winner as it is a full-stack language, unlike Python, a server-side language.

Moreover, Python is not capable of handling large, scalable projects. Whereas, NodeJS has scalability at its core, and apps can be scaled both horizontally and vertically.

Closing Thoughts:

NodeJS fits the bill for developing scalable, high-performance products. Whether you want to build networking tools, microservices, web servers, or real-time chat apps, NodeJS will not disappoint you.

However, as we venture into this world of endless possibilities, the true challenge often lies not in the technology but in assembling a capable team to bring your ideas to life. Finding and nurturing talent with the right expertise can be a daunting task.

This is where Clarion Technologies steps in. With over two decades in the tech arena and having worked with varied businesses across geographies, we understand that success hinges on having the right people on board.

From meticulously vetting developers for your projects to making sure seamless quality deliveries, we exist to make your journey smoother and more efficient.

Keen to get top-notch NodeJS developers on board for your project? Let’s connect.

FAQs

1. Is Nodejs suitable for big projects?

Yes, scalability is at the core of NodeJS, hence, it can easily scale as your project grows.

2. What are some trusted Nodejs development companies?

Clarion Technologies is one of the few trusted NodeJS development companies.

3. Does NodeJS pair well with microservices?

Microservices have become an integral part of development today for easily scaling projects. Fortunately, NodeJS architecture design pairs well with microservice architecture. So, you can easily use NodeJS for microservices.

4. NodeJS vs. PHP, which is faster?

NodeJS is faster than PHP and other web development languages like Python.