Node.js: Pros and Cons of the Server-side JavaScript
The worldwide usable JavaScript is getting popular everywhere now with the help of entering the world of the server side development. It came into the development world to make a noise and most importantly, making the back-end development away better.
If you think of learning this technology, using it or choosing for your project, the first step is always checking out its advantages and disadvantages and what you can expect from it. Here we bring to you the cons and pros of the lovely Node.js.
Pros of Using Node.js
Easy to Learn
Since nearly every front-end ninja knows this universal programming language, it is much easier for them to switch to using Node.js at the back-end. And for beginner JS developers it requires less efforts and time to learn and work with it.
Freedom in Building Apps
While Ruby on Rails is a framework that imposes rules and guidelines of developing software in a particular way, Node.js gives you much more space and freedom in doing it your own way. Node.js is completely unopinionated, meaning you start building everything from scratch. It can execute basic tasks, but gives you only the bare minimum from a fresh install, making it less restricted.
Fullstack JS
As before Node.js, Javascript was only used for client-side development, it was necessary to use a different server-side programming language. In practice, companies had to hire separate devs for backend and for frontend. With a growing popularity of Node.js, fullstack JavaScript became a reality and now it is possible to write both front-end and back-end of web applications in Javascript, making app deployment much easier and more efficient.
Open-Source Community
The Node.js developers community is a very active and vibrant group of developers who contribute to constant improvement of Node.js. Thanks to the cooperation of JavaScript programmers and their input to the community you get access to a ton of ready solutions, codes in Github and many more possibilities. Even though, it is still at a relatively early stage of development, the community is dynamically evolving and its members go the extra mile to provide others with best and reliable solutions
Multi-Request Handling
Node.js provides the non-blocking IO system that lets you process numerous requests at the same moment. The system makes simultaneous request handling much better than in other languages like Ruby or Python. Incoming requests are queued up and executed sequentially in a fast manner. In effect your app will take up much less system RAM, achieve high scalability levels and in a result will perform faster.
Cons of Using Node.js
Unstable API
One of the biggest disadvantages of Node.js is that it lacks consistency. Node.js’ API changes frequently, and the changes are often backward-incompatible. When this happens, programmers are forced to make changes to the existing code base to make it compatible with the latest version of the Node.js API.
More Development Time
The fact that Node.js is unopinionated can also be seen as a drawback by some developers. Ruby on Rails provides you with a lot of directions from a fresh install and guides you into their way of doing things, but with Node.js you basically need to write everything from scratch. It might result in a decrease in productivity, slowing your work down. However, if you cooperate with an experienced team of programmers who have internally developed a good processes for developing and maintaining code, you do not have to worry about efficiency.
Not Suitable for Heavy-Computing Apps
Node.js doesn’t support multi-threaded programming yet. It is able to serve way more complicated applications than Ruby, but it’s not suitable for performing long-running calculations. Heavy computations block the incoming requests, which can lead to decrease of performance . While Node.js is perfect for complex apps, in the case of software which requires some heavy-computing it might perform less effectively.
Immaturity of Tools
Even though, the core Node.js is stable, many packages in the npm registry (pre-installed node package manager that organises the installation and management of third-party Node.js programs) are still of poor quality or have not been properly documented. As it is mostly an open source ecosystem, numerous tools have not been supervised and so they might lack the quality and fail at meeting coding standards. The npm’s structure makes it harder to spot reliable packages. Therefore, you might need more experienced developers who can find tools that can be trusted.
IN SHORT
Node.js is still an immature environment in some aspects and it is possible that many programmers may find it not a good fit for their projects. However, in many cases Node.js proves to be much more efficient. Lots of big and popular industry leading companies have trusted Node.js in production of their applications and they’ve already experienced positive results. It is definitely worth considering this technology, of course, after consulting with the technology experts and making sure that this is what you need for your product.