Node.js : Pros & Cons

Web application development is always one of the exciting topic in IT.

A lots of server side scripting and programming languages have been evolved and emerge in this field over the time such as Java, C# , Python and PHP etc. (Well I couldn’t think about others at the moment as I haven’t used it so far). However not to worry, I am not going to write about them today.

Instead I would like to write about one of the latest platform Node.js; as now I am on quest to get myself familiar with node.js
What is node.js?

You will find lots of definition for this one, some might say its programming language, and others might say its framework. Well to be honest, I fell in first group and after reading lots of resource to clarify to myself, I reach to conclusion, that node is open source JavaScript-based platform built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 Engine to develop I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites, single-page applications, network applications and other web applications. This encompasses everything from TCP servers to asynchronous and synchronous file management and etc.

Well speaking in layman term it is JavaScript without browser. 🙂

• Pros of Node.JS –

1. 1. Node.js uses JavaScript, which is easy to learn the language.
   2. An open source runtime environment is offered by Node.js supports the caching of each module.
   3. The asynchronous event-driven IO assists concurrent request handling.
   4. The server as well as the client-side uses the similar coding piece resulting into an easy deployment of various web applications making them more effective.
   5. Node.js developer community is very active and vibrant with several codes shared by GitHub, etc.
   6. Since it’s a single threaded program, it offers several options for having a good grip over run-time executions like call-back methods and event loops.
   7. Node package modules (npm) has already become huge, and still growing.
   8. Streaming big files is also possible with Node.js.

• Cons of Node.JS –

1. 1. One of the biggest drawbacks of Node.js is that it isn’t consistent. It is several development firms feel that the API keeps enhancing at frequent intervals.
   2. If you want to enhance the scalability of Node.js, having an asynchronous programming approach is essential. But developers have a split opinion on this as several feel that this approach is quite complex than the linear blocking I/O programming. Additionally, it also makes the code messy.
   3. Unsuitable for large and complicated web applications as Node.js at present, isn’t supportive to both multi-threaded programming.
   4. Not really suitable for high intensive computational tasks.
   5. Essential use of callback ends up every time with a bulk of nested callbacks.

In nutshell –

Although there are drawbacks of using Node.js, several features of it will help in creating a range of networking and server-side web applications using JavaScript. And if you are a web developer, it’s important to study both the advantages as well as disadvantages of Node.js for using it at its best.