What are the advantages of a website built with node.js, and is it possible to create a website entirely on this framework?

Node.js is one of the most popular Java programming language frameworks. It is most widely used for the back-end development of websites and applications. However, this does not mean you cannot use it to create the client side.

Node.js and Python – the rival partners

If you type in a Google search query: “website built with node.js” and then: “websites built with Django” (Django is a popular Python framework), you will be surprised to find the same international corporations with billions of turnover in both lists. In particular, Netflix, NASA, Uber, and Reddit will be there. However, there is no paradox here. Each of these solutions is a leader of their kind. Both are approximately equally popular among developers. About 1.9% of the sites on the World Wide Web use node.js, and nearly 1.3% of the world’s Internet resources prefer Python. Both of these frameworks have a lot of undeniable advantages, but both are not without certain drawbacks. Therefore, experienced experts choose not to arrange an elimination race for node.js and Python but to creatively combine them, compensating for the shortcomings of both approaches and achieving synergy by adding up their advantages.

Although, let’s first take a closer look at why node.js is so attractive to IT specialists. Notably, 47.12% of programmers worldwide in 2022 named it their favorite tool. By the way, Django mentioned above, according to the same survey, is popular with 14.65% of developers.

The best of a kind!

Here is a short but far from the exhaustive list of the most impressive facts about node.js:

• Using this framework gives a guaranteed performance boost to any resource or application by up to fifty percent. In particular, after switching their platform to node.js, PayPal immediately reduced the response time by thirty-five percent!
• The use of this technology can reduce the cost of developing applications or websites by fifty-eight percent.
• Developers using node.js report a sixty-eight percent increase in productivity with this framework.
• CEOs of companies that have migrated resources and products to node.js claim it has improved their customer experience by thirteen percent.
• The Node.js architecture is ideal for scaling and even radically changing the products created in it without high costs. This quality is especially relevant, for example, for startups that, after studying the feedback, need to change their business model quickly. In addition, the flexibility of this framework makes it one of the leaders among solutions for complex enterprise applications.
• The above quality makes node.js an excellent tool for building MVPs.
• Node.js has a low entry threshold for new developers since it is based on Java language, popular and well-known in the professional community.
• Node.js developers are among the most in-demand and highly-paid IT professionals worldwide. Experienced experts who master this tool earn up to $150,000 per year.

What are the main technical advantages of node.js over its closest competitors?

As noted, node.js is relatively easy to learn for programmers familiar with the Java language. This framework has clear and logical code and flexible cross-platform architecture. In addition, it:

• Ideal for developing the backend of any project, allowing you to create the entire product using only JavaScript. In addition to saving development time, this solution enables developers to match the server and client parts perfectly;
• The node.js’ architecture allows you to seamlessly integrate third-party modules and libraries into products created with it, as well as original elements written by developers;
• Node.js is extremely light on resources, which allows it to be used in microservices and the Internet of Things;
• Since node.js uses the V8 JavaScript engine that powers Chromium, the backbone of the Chrome browser, Google engineers are especially interested in the ongoing development of this tool. In addition, this fact makes products built on node.js especially Google-friendly;
• Node.js uses an event-driven asynchronous programming model with non-blocking I/O. This architecture ensures multitasking and performance of products created using this framework since, in order to perform a new task, you do not need to wait for the previous one to finish, as is implemented in Python.

What is the advantage of using node.js and Python together?

As clearly follows from all of the above, node.js is an utterly self-sufficient tool, and any website or application can be based entirely on it alone.

• However, using node.js and Python together opens up additional perspectives. For example:
• Python, particularly its Django framework, is much better protected from hacker attacks, such as interventions into SQL databases. Node.js products require additional security measures.
• Python is built to work with Big Data and is excellent at handling vast amounts of data. At the same time, node.js has record-breaking performance, although it is not so good at extensive calculations.
• Django is subject to strict rules, so any new employee who joins the project can easily understand its logic and immediately join the development team. Node.js is highly flexible, so any programmer can easily modify it to suit their needs. On the one hand, this gives a particular specialist almost unlimited freedom. Still, on the other hand, it complicates the subsequent involvement of employees unfamiliar with the starting conditions of the process.

Summing up

As the saying goes, “our faults are an extension of our virtues.” However, it is also true in reverse. As you can see from the above, node.js and Django are excellent and absolutely self-sufficient tools for developing almost any project and resource. At the same time, each of these solutions may be ideal for some tasks and not so good for others. Picking the right tools accurately and creatively combining them when needed speaks about a developer’s highest qualification and guarantees incredible success.

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