Node.js Development Business Guide

So, what is Node.js? Is Node.js a library? Is Node.js a framework? Going to answer these questions below!

Node.js is an open-source cross-platform runtime that is used to run web applications outside of the client browser.

The fact that Node.js is open source means that it is free to use and is constantly being improved and updated by the global developer community.

Some still use the phrases “Node.js framework” or “Node.js language/Node coding language”. However, it is important to understand that Node.js is neither a framework nor a library, but a runtime.

The runtime (sometimes abbreviated as RTE) contains a web API that a developer can access to generate code and a JavaScript engine that parses that code. This makes it lightweight, flexible, and easy to deploy, and all the features will help you optimize and speed up your application design.

Insightful Node.js Stats

• Amazon, Netflix, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and PayPal all use Node.js.
• 43% of Node.js developers use it for enterprise applications.
• 85% use it primarily for web application development.
• Significantly, after deploying Node.js, the average response time on the PayPal site decreased by 35%.
• Not only that — Node.js can increase application performance by 50%.
• It also reduces development costs by 58%.
• Unsurprisingly, this is the top choice for startups.

One of the easiest ways to measure the impact of Node.js is the number of companies that use it and how many customers they serve.

Many wonder, “is Node.js frontend or backend technology?” Let’s answer this once and forever: it's for building the web backend and server-side of web apps. 

Node.js has proved itself useful for developing applications that make use of the ability to run the JavaScript backend framework, both on the client as well as on the server-side.

According to a survey done by the Node.js Foundation, whose mission is to enable widespread adoption and help accelerate the development of Node.js, web applications are the top use case, with a share of 85%. But as the examples below illustrate, they are not the only ones.

Real-time chat applications

Live chat is an online communication tool that allows you to transmit text, video, or audio messages in real-time from sender to recipient. They are widely used in social media applications and commercial sites and, as a result, are an important part of many industries.

Node.js provides all the basic functionality to create real-time chats of any complexity. In particular, Node has a powerful Event API that makes it easy to create "emitters" that periodically generate named events that are "listened to" by event handlers. This feature simplifies the implementation of server-side events and push notifications, widely used in instant messaging and other real-time applications.

Marketplaces and e-commerce

Currently, the safest option is to launch a platform with multiple marketplace vendors. And given that we already have many outstanding role models in this field, we can take a few pointers by observing their performance and carve our own niche in this field.

The following are the reasons why e-commerce developers prefer Node.js as a programming environment for building an online store:

• Fast execution: Works with Chrome V8, a JavaScript engine. This engine analyzes the script and converts JavaScript code directly to machine code, optimizing execution. This feature greatly simplifies the digital marketplace developers’ job.
• No waiting period: The concurrency feature makes it time-sensitive. If the server's response is delayed, it just moves on to the next request. And when the response is ready, the server sends it to the client simultaneously.
• Cost-effective: Node.js can be used both server-side and client-side, which makes the owner's job easier and saves a lot of resources.

Complex single-page apps

Single Page Applications (SPA) are a popular approach to web development that puts an entire application on a single page to provide a comprehensive user experience similar to a desktop application.

SPAs are widely used these days to build social media apps, online drawing and text tools, and more. A classic example of a SPA is Gmail, with its consistent presentation and smooth refreshing of new incoming messages.

Finally, Node.js is good for SPAs because it is written in the same language (JavaScript) as many popular JavaScript frameworks (Ember, Meteor, React, Angular) used to create SPAs.

Since both Node.js and browsers use the JavaScript web framework, there is less context switching between them, and developers can use the same data, language structures, and modular approaches on both the server and client-side. This results in faster development and better maintainability for your SPA.

For this reason, Node.js is popular on several social sites like LinkedIn and Medium.

Streaming apps

Application streaming allows you to download portions of an application on-demand without overloading the server and local computer. Initially, only certain parts of the application that are required for bootstrapping are loaded. The rest can be downloaded in the background if necessary. When an application is fully loaded, it can run without a network connection at all.

As a bonus, streams do not require caching or temporary data — just an open connection to Node game development stream application data from one location to another.

Browser games

And what about Node game development? Node.js games are fun, easy to create, and even children can learn to program. JavaScript is a very popular programming language that is used by almost every website on the internet. Adding Node.js to a web application can spice up animations and interactions that make browsing and playing games even better.

With the speed of the internet increasing and computing hardware becoming more sophisticated, it should come as no surprise that more game developers have been creating new content using JavaScript in the past decade.

Many popular online games have been created using Node.js. Some examples include::

• Tower Building. The game allows players to stack blocks to create a very tall tower. This is a fantastic game worth watching because not only does it include a QR code that you can use to play on your phone, you can also browse, fork and clone the GitHub repository to see how the game was created.
• 2048 is an addicting game in which you can move tiles around the grid using the arrow keys. The idea is to merge the tiles until they are equal to 2048. 
• Polycraft is a 3D game that can be played in a browser. Polycraft is full of adventure, exploration, base building, gathering, crafting, and even battles. This is a great example of how you can ditch 2D games with Node.js.

Microservices

In recent years, microservice architecture has become extremely popular in many major applications like Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, and eBay, which have evolved from monolithic applications to a set of microservices.

These benefits have been successfully leveraged by PayPal, which has been using Node.js to support its microservices architecture since 2013. 

IoT

The IoT (Internet of Things) is a network of devices such as sensors, beacons, actuators, and other elements embedded in electronics that allow them to send and exchange data. The Internet of Things can be composed of thousands of such devices, making it difficult to manage requests and data flow from and between devices.

Since 2012, Node.js has become one of the preferred solutions for enterprises and organizations looking to develop IoT systems, as it can handle multiple concurrent requests and events sent by thousands or even millions of devices on the network without sacrificing speed or performance.

The avalanche of requests and data from IoT devices does not block Node.js servers due to their event-driven architecture and asynchronous processing suitable for I/O intensive operations on the IoT network. This makes Node.js a fast application layer between these devices and the databases that store data from them.

Real-time collaboration tools

Real-time collaboration apps offer a variety of software solutions for collaborative viewing, project management, video and audio conferencing, application sharing, document co-authoring, and more. Popular and successful examples include Slack, Trello, and Google Docs.

As with real-time chats, the event-driven asynchronous architecture is great for collaboration tools. In these applications, many events and requests occur simultaneously. For example, multiple users can edit the same paragraph, comment, post, and attach media from different devices. Changes to one piece of content can only be applied after a cascade of events, where each step depends on the previous one.

By sending push notifications to the client, Node.js also instantly updates the collaboration environment so that all users have a single and consistent view of the application. This is why the Trello project management app team uses the Node.js stack. The Trello engineering team decided that Node.js is great for distributing multiple updates instantly and keeping a lot of open connections thanks to its non-blocking event-driven architecture.

Many ask - why use Node.js? A survey of Node.js users shows that this technology had a positive impact on the respondents' businesses — mainly by increasing programmer productivity/satisfaction and lowering development costs. But what are the reasons for these findings?

Reminder: The ability to use JavaScript to write both front-end and back-end is at the heart of many of the benefits of Node.js.

Easy learning curve

Knowledge of JavaScript gives custom software developers a good start with Node.js. Of course, you need to know the principles of backend development, but knowledge of the programming language will greatly simplify the task.

Large community

Node.js, being an open-source project, encourages support and contributions to improve and implement the platform. This is the mission of its Foundation — to continuously develop and improve Node.js. This way you can be sure that, on the one hand, Node.js is always getting better, and on the other hand, there are already a lot of reusable resources.

Reliability

Turning to web development using Node.js enables full-stack JavaScript developers to keep your application fast and performant.

Scalability

This is a real gem of the Node.js IDE, as it allows you to create applications that can easily grow with your business. Node.js works great on systems using a microservice architecture or containerization, where scalability and flexibility can be achieved quickly and easily.

Freedom to develop applications

Node.js is completely open-minded, which means you can build everything from scratch and adapt every detail. It can do basic tasks, but only gives you the bare minimum of a fresh install, allowing you to add functionality from there with fewer restrictions.

Great ecosystem

Search npm (Node.js Package Manager) for 650,000 free code packages that you can reuse with Node.js.

These are just a few of the benefits of Node.js as a development environment. In addition, the popularity of Node.js has spurred the creation of a whole line of frameworks designed to simplify web development. 

Every user can choose the best Node.js framework for their needs.

While we have discussed the great things that Node.js brings to web development, we should also touch on the disadvantages of Node.js, since nothing is perfect.

Single-threaded processes

By its very nature, Node.js can only process one command at a time, but blocking other processes can be avoided by implementing an asynchronous mechanism that allows you to perform several simple tasks at the same time. However, a complex calculation that requires a lot of processing resources can block the thread and cause delays.

Poor quality of open source tools

Yes, we mentioned npm as an advantage of Node.js, but it also has a downside. While the number of modules and packages available in the registry is large and there is definitely a lot to choose from, some packages can be either substandard or poorly documented. This has nothing to do with the quality of the main Node.js code, but the additional tools can sometimes be substandard.

Unstable API

One of the biggest disadvantages of Node.js is the lack of consistency. The Node.js API changes frequently, and these changes are often backward incompatible.

When this happens, web developers are forced to make changes to the existing codebase to make it compatible with the latest version of the Node.js API. Obviously, this can create additional work that distracts from the goal of improving your application.

Not suitable for heavy computing applications

As we already know, Node.js does not yet support multi-threaded programming. Ruby developers are well aware that Node can serve more complex applications than Ruby, but is not suitable for long-running computations. Heavy computation blocks incoming requests, which can lead to poor performance. While Node.js is ideal for complex applications, in the case of software that requires heavy computation, it can be less efficient.

In this chapter, we are going to talk about how Node.js relates to JavaScript and other JS frameworks.

NodeJS is an open-source cross-platform JavaScript runtime that allows you to run JavaScript on the server-side. Node.js allows JavaScript to run outside of the browser, comes with many modules, and is mainly used in web development.

JavaScript is a scripting language. It is usually shortened to JS. It is a high-level programming language that uses the concept of OOP but is based on prototype inheritance.

Fond of JS? Why not see what JavaScript conferences and events are out there?

ReactJS is an open-source JavaScript library for building single-page user interfaces. It is declarative, efficient, flexible, and allows us to create reusable UI components. It is used as a foundation in single-page, complex interactive web projects, and responsive components are difficult to reuse. 

React's virtual DOM algorithm is time-consuming and imprecise code to write. React developers build an app consisting of several components, each of which is responsible for rendering a small, reusable piece of HTML. Components can be nested within other components, allowing complex applications to be built from simple building blocks.

AngularJS is an open-source web application development framework developed by Google. It provides support for the development of dynamic and single-page web applications.

Vue.js is an open-source progressive JavaScript framework used mainly for building user interfaces and single-page applications. It was created by Evan You, and funded by the Patreon community for Vue developers. 

It is compatible with most modern technologies and has gained a lot of popularity due to its smooth learning and scalability. VueJS follows the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architectural pattern where the ViewModel has a Vue instance and the View and Model are bound in two-way data binding. 

It uses a virtual DOM and Vue is easier to learn in terms of API and design compared to AngularJS. Routing and state issues were handled in ReactJS exactly the same way Vue handles them with linked libraries.

Express is a small platform that works on the functionality of the Node.js webserver to simplify its API and add useful new features. It makes it easy to organize your application's functionality with middleware and routing. It adds useful utilities to the Node.js HTTP objects. This makes it easier to render dynamic HTTP objects.

You can find a broader list of options here - The Best Programming Languages to Use in Your Backend

Python, created by Guido van Rossum, is a high-level interpreted object-oriented language with dynamic semantics and simple syntax, which supports functional and structured programming.

Scalability

Node scalability is easier to achieve due to its asynchronous structure, but Python performs better for complex data-intensive projects.

Learning curve

Python is easier to learn in the early stages, but it gets more complex in the later stages. Knowing JavaScript in advance will speed up learning Node.

Application cases

Node.js is best suited for microservices and small platforms: real-time applications, chat rooms, instant messengers, and content channels. Python is more versatile — it is suitable for large projects and allows you to integrate AI and work with big data.

Memory intensive processes

Node.js supports multithreading for CPU-intensive tasks. Python is slower but can do more complex operations.

Node.js vs. Python performance

Although Node.js coders can integrate fewer technical stacks than Django developers, both platforms have nearly the same performance.

ASP.NET is an open-source web application framework originally released by Microsoft in January 2002 as part of the main loop of the .NET system. It is built on the Common Dialect Runtime (CLR), allowing you to use any dialect of .NET, including C# (object-oriented), F# (utilitarian to begin with), VB .NET (legacy of Visual Basic, widely used by nearly ten million programmers between 1991 and 2001) and, as rarely as possible, C++, as well as executing Python and Ruby through the command-line interface.

Platform support

Node.js runs on multiple platforms, and this attribute makes Node.js an attractive platform. Node.js is officially supported on Windows, Linux, macOS, SmartOS, FreeBSD, and IBM AIX.

.NET, which until 2018 was solely based on the Windows platform, has undergone a huge transformation and now works on both Linux and macOS after the NET Core update.

Scalability

Node.js is ideal for distributed systems. Microservice-based software allows components to scale autonomously, which prevents the application from being destroyed due to its weight. As more and more enterprises choose to develop software based on microservices, Node.js has gained immense popularity among companies like eBay, Netflix, Twitter, Uber, and others.

.NET Core is also a very scalable platform. It fits equally well into a microservices architecture.

.NET Core vs. Node.js performance

Thanks to the asynchronous model, Node.js applications are very performant without being too heavy compared to other solutions. According to Node.js.org, 48 percent of companies reported improved application performance when migrating to Node.js.

However, other tests show that .NET Core/ASP.NET Core has better performance than Node.js.

There is no final victory here, as it depends on the structure and purpose of the application.

Stability, reliability, and safety

ASP.NET developers are definitely the winners in this category. The security and robustness that the platform provides make it a great option for building robust C# software. 

But is Node.js safe? Node.js is more reliable for complex enterprise software developed with TypeScript than it is on its own.

Speaking of security, why not give Backend Security Best Practices. Ensure the Safety of Your Product a read? 

Ruby is an object-oriented language that summarizes important features of other languages, and Rails is an application framework built on top of the Ruby language.

Flexibility

Node.js is very flexible and can do things out of the box, but you have to write some code and install some modules.

Ruby on Rails is not a flexible framework and forces you to follow its way of working out of the box. You have to build your application in a specific way.

Setup

Node.js gives nothing but a fresh install. Rails, on the other hand, gives you a lot more than just a fresh install, which includes generators.

Development process

Node.js takes longer as you need to find modules and follow the instructions to integrate them.

Ruby on Rails seems to be faster as you can accomplish some tasks like database migration with just a few commands.

Learning curve

The learning process is somewhat easier than with Rails. It is flexible and understandable for developers with or without experience. While it's easy to learn Rails, you may need to know and understand attributes such as objects, classes, Ruby level methods, and so on, which are important and time-consuming.

Talent pool

Depends on the market: for example, finding Node.js MedTech developers in the US is fairly easy, and in some regions of Europe, it can be difficult. However, be aware that the Node.js developer salary also ranges from region to region.

It can be difficult to find Ruby on Rails developers with good experience. The popularity of each technology depends on the market, but finding an experienced developer is always difficult.

Pricing

The cost of developing your application using Node.js is generally higher because it takes longer. On the contrary, you tend to pay less for Rails because it helps you develop your project faster.

PHP is an acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. Although PHP is a server-side scripting language, it is also used as a general-purpose scripting language. PHP scripts have a .php extension and can contain JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and even plain text.

Speed

Node.js is one of the few asynchronous development environments out there. This, being the main difference, gives Node.js an edge over other languages. Asynchronous means that it does not need to wait for the successful execution of a module before loading the next one. This implementation dramatically reduces the downtime of the web application and provides a better user experience.

Like most languages and technologies from the pre-2K era, PHP runs on synchronicity. This means that each module and function is executed in the order specified in the code. If one function or module fails, subsequent ones are not started until it is completed.

Performance

Both PHP and Node.js use timely compilation. However, if performance is at the top of your priority list, Node.js is the best technology to provide it.

Ecosystem

PHP has a large ecosystem, while Node.js has a richer ecosystem with a wider variety of projects, frameworks, and modules. For this reason, Node.js also wins this round.

Java was developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and later taken over by Oracle. Java is an object-oriented language with much of its syntax inherited from C++, and its concepts remain the same with some changes. 

All Java comes bundled with a JDK called the Java Development Kit, which is enough to run a Java program. Code written by Java developers is converted into bytecode that can be run on any machine, regardless of the operating system, as long as it has Java, and this is one of the biggest advantages of the language.

Performance

Java is slower than native languages because it uses compilers. Also, its garbage collection feature, while very useful in some cases, requires a lot of memory. In contrast, applications written in Node.js never buffer, outputting data in chunks and speeding up execution. However, Just-In-Time compilers can slightly improve Java performance.

Stability

Node.js is built around API interaction. Because APIs change frequently, they often cause stability problems for applications built in this environment. Java is known for its very stable interfaces thanks to its rigid, time-tested framework.

Scalability

Java lacks intrinsic scalability, although its lack can be improved by integrating third-party applications such as NCache (for distributed cache). The event mechanism in Node.js allows servers to respond in a non-blocking manner, which makes them highly scalable. The scalability of Node is one of its main features.

Hiring Node.js developers is easy due to the fact that Node.js is part of the JavaScript stack, the most popular web technology currently in use.

Since Node.js tends to be a specialized topic when viewed in isolation, the quality of the developers tends to be slightly higher than if you were hiring in more general terms.

This technology is rather popular so you can count on having a wide variety of developers to choose from. However, as in any business, it is quite hard to find real experts.

Node.js developer profile

What does a Node.js developer do? The main focus of Node.js specialization remains the management of data exchange between users and the server. In addition, developers are working on issues like creating application logic, ensuring near-perfect performance, and ensuring that the system is careful about handling user requests.

In addition, since third-party tools are used during the development of any application, Node.js roles involve integrating various tools into applications.

What hiring options are out there? 

As our experience suggests, there are several hypothetical scenarios that you can face: 

1. Hiring a single dev for the team;
2. Scaling an existing team significantly;
3. Putting together a team providing Node.js development services (plus designers, project managers, etc.) from scratch.

But where do they find additional manpower?

Where you should look 

Job boards

This option won’t suit those who want to hire a Node.js development company. Job boards allow you to reach a large number of software developers with minimal effort, but you should expect to receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications from candidates who may not be suitable for the position.

Social media

LinkedIn is great for research. Here you can not only check your candidate’s Node.js developer resume but also actively search for those that meet your requirements and contact them. Developers also love to share knowledge on blogs.

Freelance platforms

Freelance platforms like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, or Fiverr are another place to find Node.js developers.

The main advantage of freelance platforms is that you can see the rating and experience of each freelancer and it is relatively easy to decide which one suits your needs. Unfortunately, freelancers often don't have time for large and complex projects.

Tech talent marketplaces

With tech talent marketplaces such as Ideamotive, which conducts a backend developer interview instead of you, you gain access to a network of leading industry experts. Ideamotive pre-selects Node.js developers for you. Such a service is ideal for quickly finding high-quality developers.

Software development agencies

Software development agencies allow you to hire a Node.js development team who can work exclusively for you, helping to bring your vision to life. You can easily add one or more developers to your team.

Unfortunately, you have to be content with the employees available in the Node.js development company right now whereas, in the same marketplace, you can opt for skilled devs from any corner of the world.

What skills and knowledge should Node.js devs have?

Software developers always have a wide range of responsibilities, and Node.js developers are no exception. Be sure to learn all of this before preparing Node.js interview questions.

Thus, Node.js specialists are responsible for the following tasks:

• Sticking to agile methods
• Writing clear code
• Front-end development
• Security implementation
• Detecting performance problems
• API Integration
• Database configuration
• Staying up to date

Finally, we would also like to mention the required soft skills:

• Active learning
• Commitment
• Engineering thinking
• Analytical skills
• Teamwork skills
• Decent knowledge of English

Also, note that the Node.js developer skills mentioned are specific to Node.js developers. However, there are some competencies that all software engineers should possess. Thus, a qualified software engineer should be well versed in object-oriented programming and design, algorithms, encryption fundamentals, and be familiar with and follow code style standards.

Pricing

The first question that is raised when trying to hire a Node.js developer is the price. Here we provide a rough estimate of the junior Node.js developer salary and hourly rate as well as the ones of mid and senior devs, to help you choose the right approach.

Also, it's worth noting that outsourced devs and freelancers work on an hourly basis, while full-time developers prefer a monthly salary. That's why we provide hourly Node.js development rates for both freelancers and outsourcing companies and annual wages for full-time employees.

Let's start with the hourly wages for freelance developers (as per the GoodFirms platform).

Hourly pay for outsourced teams

Hourly outsourcing rates may vary, so take a minute and check the following estimate based on research from GoodFirms and Clutch.

In-house Node.js developer salary

Finally, we would like to mention the annual fees for in-house developers. So, here's a rough estimate of the average Node.js developer salary across regions as measured by PayScale.

Here we’ll have Node.js explained with examples. Each of the sample Node.js applications we are about to list have used one of the best qualities of Node.js and has produced measurable and positive results.

Trendsetter apps use Node.js for obvious reasons — the ability to handle heavy loads and serve a large number of users. Isn't this what industry leaders expect?

Netflix - moving from a monolithic app to distributed instances

When you hear the word streaming, you most likely think of Netflix. This company has gone from a DVD store to the world's largest streaming service and in-house production. How do they serve millions of users simultaneously?

With an elegant combination of Java and Node.js on the server. All APIs for different platforms (including iOS and Android, desktop operating systems, and various TV platforms) were previously run by a monolithic Groovy application. Node.js allows you to create restify instances and run them in separate Docker containers. As a result, applications run faster and are scalable with improved version control. Development time has also been greatly reduced. Today, its app is one of the greatest examples of Node.js Android development.

You can learn more about their work with Node.js in these presentations:

PayPal - pages are served 200ms faster

PayPal's journey to Node.js began with an experiment: two teams of backend developers had to develop the same application prototype. The Java team consisted of five developers, while the Node.js team had only two developers. Surprisingly, the Node team beat their competitor and proved that this technology can speed up development. This is how Node.js became part of the main PayPal stack.

As a result, PayPal is able to handle twice as many user requests per second, and pages respond 34 percent faster, which averages 200ms. PayPal is also one of the most used financial applications for the iPhone and currently serves 286 million financial accounts worldwide.

Uber - one of the first 3 companies to use Node.js in the development

Uber was one of the first companies to innovate taxi services — and one of the first to use Node.js in production. The main reason for this choice was the already mentioned asynchrony, the ability to process large amounts of data almost instantly, clean code, and the cost of its implementation.

Tom Croucher, site Reliability Engineering professional at Uber shares:

“The majority of these [systems] were written on Node from, I would say, the first year or so of the company, so pretty early.”

Moreover, the essence of this Node.js application example is a driver-passenger matching system. They needed an event-driven environment, short but powerful code, and the ability to handle huge loads. These are the features that Node.js has to offer at the same time. At the moment, Uber can handle 2 million real-time calls per second.

The combination of JavaScript in the front-end and back-end made it possible to create a universal (isomorphic) web application for Uber users.

LinkedIn - the backend of a Node.js-based mobile application

LinkedIn needs no introduction, nor does Node.js backend. Like most of the apps on this list, they faced a growing number of mobile users and decided to update their mobile server with Node.js (it was previously based on Ruby-on-Rails). 

As a result, the new LinkedIn mobile app can handle double the traffic with just four instances instead of the 15 required prior to migration.

Another requirement for the mobile application was uninterrupted work with the platform API and the database. In terms of performance, Node.js has outperformed the legacy Ruby on Rails backend.

“It was fast by all standards,”

LinkedIn’s mobile development lead Kiran Prasad told VentureBeat.

“I’ve worked at startups and big companies like Yahoo, and yeah, it was fast.”

Trello - a simple, flexible interface at your fingertips

Trello is now one of the most popular project management tools for Agile teams. Its intuitive interface and real-time task management changes are attracting companies from a wide variety of industries as well as individuals. Node.js has been the core technology of Trello since day one. The team originally set out to prototype a single-page application and chose Node.js because of the fast development process and reusability of the code.

But Node.js can handle more complex tasks as well. Trello's functionality looks simple to the user, but the server does a tremendous job. Real-time updates are also important — a feature that is perfectly implemented with the event-driven approach in Node.js.

Groupon - reduced page load time by 50%

Groupon is a kind of aggregator that collects discounts for various goods and services in one place. It was originally based on Ruby on Rails. After several acquisitions, PHP and Java were added to the stack. The product grew and became difficult to maintain. Groupon was looking for a solution that would bring all services together using a single technology. And Node.js turned out to be the right choice.

The migration process took almost a year. Today, it is a platform where pages load 50% faster as all operations are handled by a single server. In addition, Node.js made the web application more stable. Before the migration, Groupon released an attractive Starbucks deal that was so popular that the site was shut down. This has never happened with the Groupon Node.js website, although more popular suggestions have been offered.

Twitter Lite - fast and powerful progressive web app

Twitter has a goal of reaching every person on the planet, but slow, unreliable, or expensive internet connections in many regions made it difficult to achieve that goal. But then a solution was found: Twitter Lite - a progressive web application.

PWA with React in the front-end and Node.js in the back-end made Twitter available to everyone: the application works in any browser on any device (no restrictions, only for Android and iOS smartphones). Service Worker caches content and makes it possible to use the application even if the connection is lost. As soon as the internet is available again, the new content will be downloaded and stored in the cache.

The creators managed to make the application easier, but more powerful at the same time. The initial download of the application on slow 3G networks takes up to 5 seconds, and this is also an excellent result.

GoDaddy - 10x fewer servers

GoDaddy is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. It currently has over 77 million registered domains, which is about 20 percent of the total number of domains in the world. Just imagine how many visitors GoDaddy has to serve every day.

The service was originally built by .NET developers, which limits you to a monolithic architecture. Looking for ways to move towards modularity, the GoDaddy team chose Node.js, a technology backed by a strong community of module publishers.

Currently, almost the entire team is made up of full-stack JavaScript developers who can work on both the frontend and server-side. Also, the move to a microservices architecture has reduced deployment time to less than one minute. An outstanding result!

Also, in 2016, the GoDaddy Website Builder platform was ported to Node.js. One of the changes was the move to the Cassandra database. As a result, the number of servers required to host sites has decreased 10 times.

Speaking of Node.js deployment, it's crucial to use the world’s very best practices: best Node.js unit testing framework, best Node.js Rest API framework, best Node.js development environment, and so on.

Here is a short guide on how seasoned backend freelancers speed up the Node.js development process.

Node.js best practices

#1. Parallelize things

When starting to build a Node.js app, you sometimes make internal API calls and get different data. Here are some hypothetical options:

With this information, developers create separate middleware for each function. Once they have done this, they attach it to the route of the toolbar. However, using this advice, we also ran into difficulties. One function must wait for the previous one to complete, which slows down the process a little.

So we've found a way to speed up the Node.js development process. We're just parallelizing things. And it works because of the asynchronous nature of the environment.

#2. Asynchronous

Experienced full-stack developers prefer to use the asynchronous approach in Node.js web development because it avoids blocking threads. At the very least, you should try it in the performance departments.

For example, synchronous code is acceptable if we are writing a script to work with a database, and not a system to handle parallel tasks.

What is the distinguishing feature? The difference is whether you are writing long executable code or a small script with a short lifetime. In general, remember one good rule of Node.js from the pros:

Always write asynchronous code.

#3. Just cache this

When dealing with data that doesn't change too often, we just cache it to speed up the Node.js development process. You can see an example below.

If posts from your blog are not coming out very often, cache the array of posts and clear it after a while. This can be done using the Redis module. 

So let's start by checking the messages in the Redis cache. After that, you can deliver an array of messages or get content from the database and only then cache it. After a while, you should be able to clear the cache and create new content.

Knowing that some parts of the code can only be run once, such an implementation will be useful.

#4. Don’t ignore gzip compression

This is another factor that affects the performance of your application. You know that it takes a lot longer for the browser to load resources if we don't use compression middleware.

#5. Lowercase is King

Of course, we like to encourage file names to match class names. However, you need to use lowercase files. Myclass.js and myclass.js work equally well on some operating systems, but it is on Linux, for example. An easy way to shorten your Node.js development time is to use lowercase letters.

#6. Group your application

Be aware of the time constraints on Node execution, which is a huge waste of resources. Even if you only need to run one process on very small hardware, cluster support, for now, will give you flexibility in the future.

#7. Coding sustainability

It is important to take care of the environment in which you live, sorting waste and planting trees. Use this approach everywhere because environmental awareness also affects your project. If you want to speed up your Node.js development process, don't litter your application with configuration files. Our choice is environment variables.

#8. Steer clear of garbage

Don't rely solely on the Node. Sometimes it waits for the last moment to free unused memory. Don't worry about leaking and if memory usage starts to increase, just include flags in your Procfile.

#9. Refresh stack

Regularly updating to the Node latest version can improve application performance and improve developer productivity. The various ES6/7 features will provide a more robust stack even without the need to install transpilers.

#10. Look deeper

When speeding up coding in Node.js, remember that you need to tackle the root of the problem, not the surface. Perhaps you have a weak machine, a flaw in a part of the code, or automatic scaling is not implemented. First, identify the problem, and after researching, you can determine the next steps. Also, take care of registering the behavior of the application, which will help you understand the problem.

However, there is another option: hire experienced and reliable remote developers.

Choosing the best Node.js host

There are more hosting providers for WordPress or other PHP applications than Node.js. It is always difficult to find a reliable and secure platform.

There are technically two of the most preferred ways to host a Node.js application.

1. Managed - you focus on the application code and the infrastructure is maintained by the service provider.
2. Cloud Virtual Machine/VPS - you get the OS of your choice and you install, deploy and manage everything yourself.

Let's explore some of the most prominent hosting providers!

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables you to deploy a highly available Node.js web application using the AWS Elastic Beanstalk service. It is a containerized system that makes it easy to ship packaged applications to AWS as a Platform as a Service (PaaS).

You have complete control over the server that runs your application, and you can also run multiple applications on the server, which means lower operating costs.

Pros: 

• Great value for money 
• Extensive support in the form of forums, plans, and documentation

Cons: 

• Quite a steep learning curve when it comes to AWS, especially for those who have never used it before, and even more so for those who have never been in charge of administering their own server before

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a cloud provider that mainly specializes in providing excellent support for containers, analytics, big data, machine learning solutions, and Google Kubernetes Engine.

Pros: 

• Google Kubernetes Engine is the easiest way to get into Kubernetes
• Lots of big data tools
• Great out-of-the-box machine learning solutions

Cons: 

• Since GCP is the youngest of the three major platforms, it may lag behind in terms of availability and number of data centers, but is unlikely to stay that way with Google's resources.

Heroku

Initially supporting only Ruby on Rails, Heroku has since added support for a wide variety of languages ​​and frameworks, including Node.js. Heroku offers seamless integration with many third-party services (such as SendGrid and Redis) and supports multi-region deployments.

Pros: 

• Heroku offers a free tier and is very easy to get started with (even for novice developers) 
• There is excellent supporting documentation available
• An extensive list of plugins and services that can be added instantly

Cons: 

• Once you leave the free tier, Heroku starts to get quite expensive pretty quickly
• While Heroku starts up quickly, larger applications tend to result in slower deployments

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform that enables developers to quickly build, deploy, and manage powerful websites and web applications. It is a robust Node web development platform with great flexibility and high availability in many regions.

Pros: 

• A nice free plan that lets you host up to 10 apps in each datacenter
• It's also very easy to scale your Node.js application up or down in Azure, or just enable autoscaling to allow Azure to scale according to traffic

Cons: 

• Deployment can be slow, so if you need fast turnaround times for your project, this may not be the right fit for you.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is a VPS provider that offers some additional features and products targeting Node.js app development. During their simple setup process, you can use the one-click Node.js setup process, which will install and prepare everything for you in a newly created blob.

Pros: 

• Pricing - VPS is generally cheaper to set up
• The user interface is simple and DigitalOcean provides many one-click images to get you up and running faster

Cons: 

• Requires more knowledge and engagement than cloud providers.

* By “Pay Per Use” we mean that you pay based on the actual resources you use, rather than a specific set amount each month.

If you look at the runtime and framework usage reported by programming teams, you can see that Node.js remains one of the most coveted technologies for backend developers. Node's continued support from a rich developer community makes it a technology that will last for several years. Today backend development with Node.js has become one of the most profitable solutions.

What the developer community thinks of Node.js

Consider facts from Stack Overflow, GitHub, and Statista. All data sources were collected from at least 1.7 million people from over 136 countries.

• Stack Overflow named Node.js the sixth most requested framework in 2021 (33.91% of votes).
• The State of JS overview points to Node.js as the most commonly used JavaScript runtime.
• Statista respondents voted Node.js as one of the most popular frameworks in 2021.

What does the Node.js job market look like today?

To see if Node.js really has a future, it's a good idea to take a look at the job market. What are the trends in Node? Are companies looking for Node.js developers? What are the candidates?

Well, for starters, the Node.js job market clearly shows that Node.js is a popular commodity. According to HackerRank, the demand for Node.js developers is roughly double the supply. 

To make matters worse, the problem is not only the quality but also the quantity. It takes quite a long time for a Node.js full stack developer to develop as it is a technology that can be mastered after a thorough study of JavaScript and learning server-side development with other technologies such as PHP and Python.

Another way to demonstrate how desirable Node.js developers are in the job market is to look at salaries. The salaries of Node.js specialists are noticeably higher than that of most other programmers. According to payscale.com, this is about 30 percent higher than PHP developers' earnings.

Further development of the technology/Node.js 2022

Node.js started out as a technology that simply made JavaScript available on the server. Over the years, it has evolved into a robust platform that empowers companies to create innovative, interactive, high-performance web applications. The developers behind the platform, as well as the community, keep coming up with new features. The active community also ensures that everyone has plenty of learning resources.

In recent years, we've seen a trend emerging for Node.js alternatives to give Node a way to make money. One of them is Deno, a server-side platform that uses TypeScript (a superset of JavaScript) as its main language. Interestingly, Deno was actually created by one of the early developers of Node.js. But while it has some promising results, it still lacks most of the features of Node, as well as all the benefits of having such a powerful community.

Note that you should choose Node if your team can work with it. While Facebook is backed by React, which has many more repositories, Netflix and PayPal's huge user base depends on Node.js.

Node.js is a groundbreaking technology that marks the beginning of a new dimension of quality once companies adopt it. Unsurprisingly, giants such as Netflix, Twitter, Uber, PayPal, and NASA have moved to its asynchronous runtime with its event loop handling many requests.

Tech leaders have already chosen their best Node.js framework for microservices, now it’s your turn to start a Node.js project!

If you have an idea and want to implement it — hire a Node.js developer from a battle-proven JavaScript development company! 

Get more confidence in Ideamotive’s expertise, have a look at our case study — Microamp Solutions: design and development. Our back-end development case studies and success stories show that top IT talent loves working with us as much as our clients do! Otherwise, you can join our Talent Network!

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