NodeJS, the JavaScript runtime environment, has grown in popularity since its initial release in 2009, and it appears that this trend will continue.

For years, many well-known brands, such as PayPal and Yahoo, have favored NodeJS due to the numerous benefits it provides.

What drew NodeJS to the attention of the startup community and made it one of the most popular technologies in recent years? Let's find out: 

NodeJS… 

.. is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment and library that is used to run web applications outside of the client's browser. Ryan Dahl created it in 2009. NodeJS is used by developers to create server-side web applications, and it is ideal for data-intensive applications due to its asynchronous, event-driven approach.

Advantages of using NodeJS

Hosting is simple and easy. One of the primary reasons open-source software development firms choose NodeJS for web development is the platform's ongoing implementation of new features and capabilities that assist those who provide PaaS (platform-as-a-service) offerings in reducing wait times. 

It is convenient. Users of NodeJS can now host web applications that require less processing power. Furthermore, NodeJS is faster than competing frameworks. 

Application in real time. NodeJS allows you to quickly create high-performance apps. NodeJS web apps allow you to perform multiple tasks at the same time. Its single-threaded, event-driven design allows you to process multiple concurrent requests without affecting RAM. 

SEO-friendly. SEO is critical in the development of web apps. The NodeJS backend rendering increases the visibility of websites, allowing search engines to effectively optimize React Projects. Because of its excellent speed and performance, NodeJS has been chosen as the best framework for improving SEO strategies.

At least 30 million websites use NodeJS. According to W3Tech research, NodeJS is used on 1.4% to 2.2% of websites worldwide. This means that NodeJS is powering at least 30 million websites, if not more, across the internet.

Technical Assistance. Another reason why experts prefer NodeJS for web development is the parent team's long-term support. As is customary, the code is maintained for the next 18 months following the release of each new version of NodeJS. Rather than adding new features, this time is spent fixing bugs and gathering user feedback for future releases. According to reports, 62% of developers prioritize long-term platform support.

What Types of Apps Can Be Created With NodeJS?

• Single-page applications such as the company’s portfolios.
• Social media platforms (LinkedIn use NodeJS)
• Chat and Messenger Apps
• Streaming Channels such as Netflix
• Ecommerce apps such as Walmart
• Blogs
• Online Payment systems such as PayPal
• APIs
• Mobile apps

NodeJS in the Future 

There are a couple of main reasons why NodeJS will not go away anytime soon:

• NodeJS has been used to create online apps by PayPal, NASA, Netflix, eBay, Linked In, and other well-known companies.
• Google and Microsoft are both heavily investing in NodeJS development.
• NodeJS is widely used in cutting-edge technology fields like data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
• The web application's server-side (where the app data is stored) components work well with NodeJS.
• NodeJS is well suited for developing real-time apps due to its ability to quickly transmit data between the server and the client.

You've probably heard of and used the following NodeJS-powered apps:

LinkedIn

Despite the fact that many people regard LinkedIn as old-fashioned and out of date, it is still the most popular business-oriented social network and a useful tool for finding a job. LinkedIn has 467 million users from more than 200 different countries. Microsoft paid $26 billion for LinkedIn in 2016.

LinkedIn chose an asynchronous eventted system to replace their synchronous Ruby on Rails mobile app, which required clients to make multiple calls for a single page. As a result of its scalability and performance efficiency, they decided on NodeJS. And NodeJS met their expectations.

Ebay

eBay is a global marketplace that provides consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer internet sales services. It currently has 183 million active users and is available in 37 countries.

The giant's main issues were scalability and massive traffic. eBay engineers considered various solutions to these technical challenges and, after lengthy internal debates, decided on NodeJS.

Netflix

Netflix is the world's leading provider of streaming media and video-on-demand content, such as movies and television shows. More than 190 countries have access to the service. In 2013, Netflix expanded into film and television production, online distribution, and original programming production. Netflix had over 109 million streaming subscribers worldwide in the third quarter of 2017.

Netflix had a stable and full-featured application, and they wanted to make it modular and lightweight, reduce complexities, and specifically power user interfaces, while leveraging their existing infrastructure. As a result, they decided to migrate the entire user interface to NodeJS.

PayPal

PayPal is one of the world's largest and most trusted payment, sending, and receiving services. The platform enables its users to interact virtually with one another without revealing their debit or credit card information. PayPal has over 200 million active accounts as of November 2017.

Surprisingly, NodeJS was not the default technology for Paypal from the start. According to @paypaleng, their initial concern was the division of teams into those who code for browsers (using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and those who code for server applications (using Java). As a result, the primary impediment was the boundary between the browser and the server.

Wrapping up, NodeJS is an excellent tool for creating scalable, high-performance web applications. If you are unsure about the backend technology for your next project and still have questions about the pros and cons of NodeJS, Innovation Feel is here to help. Our team understands how to select the best JS modules and frameworks for a specific web app concept - just give us a call or text and we will be with you shortly.