Among the developers recently server side frameworks became hugely popular because of the ease of development and other performance attributes. Among all the server side frameworks Node.js became the most favorite among startups worldwide. Choosing a programming platform depends on several aspects including speed, learning curve, scalability, ease of coding, community and professional support and several other factors. In all these parameters Node.js come as the champion among the server side languages and no wonder that startups will show convincing preference to it. Let us discuss here on the 5 impeccable reasons that Node.js is preferred by most startups.
1. Scalability
For many startups, their entire server-side mobile software stack is fully built in Node.js. The main reason in most cases is the scalability. Even many big names in the recent past preferred to build their stacks on Node.js. eBay, LinkedIn and Groupon are some of these notable companies. According to many Node.js shown unmatched performance in maintaining live server side connections while always delivering robust capacity to handle multiple services. eBay in 2013 while building server-side stacks for mobile devices considered Node.js to be more capable in respect of scalability.
2. Development speed & reduced response time
For any startup hitting the market with the first app requires a lengthy process comprising a huge number of A/B tests. In this respect, Node.js can help you accelerating the process in more ways than one.
First of all, Node is extremely lightweight, without any compilation, JARs or separate app servers. The only thing you need to do is to write the code. Obviously, this allows simple deployment and consequently you ensure a faster response time. As a whole, this helps development to become effortlessly customer-driven.
Besides ensuring faster response time, Node.js also offers an array of great tools to add to the development speed. Many of these tools are capable of delivering an array of innovative features. In addition to that, there is an NPM or node package manager that offers some really helpful libraries allowing the developers to incorporate an array of elements in their coding. As a whole, this helps to create more value with little effort.
Node.js over the years also groomed itself as one of the popular platforms for some well-known SaaS providers including biggies like Uber and trendier ones like Slack. A majority of them allow integrating your backend code to their API. This allows boosting your node backend with more features and performance attributes.
Lastly, in the recent times, some giants like the PayPal and Walmart are adopting to Node. All of them agree on one point, that Node.js helped to reduce the response time at least by half while nearly doubling the number of requests. Besides this, they all observed almost zero calamities while developing with hundreds of million online users.
3. Node.js offers low learning curve and ease of coding
Being a relatively new player in the tech scene in comparison to older Java or .Net frameworks often needed to be learned from scratch by most developers. This seems to be a challenge to many but thanks to its surprisingly low learning curve for most developers it takes not more than a few weeks before actually master the framework.
It does not have any steep learning curve. Most important of all, while using Node.js as the principal framework you have the ease of sharing the same language both on frontend and backend side. This makes the developer free of concerns regarding switching between frontend and backend. The end result of this is really massive for any brand. It allows twice as fast speed with fewer backend people to maintain the server. Secondly, because of writing the same code for both backend and frontend one needs to write at least one-third of less code. Lastly, the entire platform requires much fewer files compared to the language that is deployed separately for frontend and backend.
Node.js is also known to encourage micro-services architecture which has become the trend in modern software and app development. Node.js has been adapted by stalwarts like Netflix or Amazon and also by startups because of its stupendous support to micro-services architecture. Often this support allows lean user-specific software development. Some of the key helpful attributes of this micro-services architecture support includes:
- Minimizes the coding time as it requires much fewer codes.
- It boosts startup speed allowing faster feedback.
- Easy writing codes with less involvement of risks.
- Fast-paced and often concurrent A/B testing.
- It is equipped to scale up as the customer base grows.
4. Robust community support
Thanks to the above-mentioned reasons and many other developer friendly aspects the popularity of Node.js is continuing to grow at rapid speed. From the robust open source community consisting of a huge number of promising startups to big service providers and software companies including PayPal, Walmart, eBay, Microsoft and Linkedin, a good portion of quality developers from diverse environments are adopting to this framework. Lastly, Node.js is increasingly being preferred by a huge pool of talented developers including many of the senior developers who openly admitted the potential of the platform over many others. The robust community of users and developers consisting of biggies and the promising band of startups made Node.js is popular in the recent times.
5. Full mobile compatibility
Node.js is best suited to development for mobile platforms. At a time when mobile web is increasingly replacing mobile specific native apps and becoming the sole avenue of accessing the web, the high speed, performance and adaptability made Node.js the preferred platform for web development. Thanks to Node.js developers now can build critical functions of a responsive website in just days.
In the present scenario, the information complexity, diverse design elements and feature set coupled up with the increasing volume of mobile traffic aggravated the probability of server crashes. Addressing all these aspects naturally drags on the development process for weeks. Node.js comes as a handy solution to this. Ensuring fewer lines of script, high-speed development, robust feature set and compatibility Node.js can add value to the development process. Number of apps can be created in a short span of time thanks to this framework.
In startups where productivity is a big concern and development speed is a serious criterion to keep up with the demand and emerging situation, Node.js proves to be crucial. Besides ensuring productivity this coding framework also helps emerging IT companies in elevating their overall quality parameters. Many rising development companies after switching to Node.js could develop several apps within the same time frame.
Keval Padia is a Founder & CEO of Nimblechapps. He is in the field of Web Application Development. His vision is to become the best Android Application Development Company, which can transform people’s idea into fully functional application at a very affordable price.
