Is Node.js Still Relevant For The Startups in 2021?

Trends and subjects in the IT industry are changing at an incredible rate. What is experiencing a surge of popularity now is likely to be inefficient in a year. Should Node.js developers worry about that, and will this technology remain popular and in-demand this year?

As a top provider of Node.js developers for international projects, we took the liberty of analyzing industry trends and summing up what developers and businesses can expect in 2021. Let’s dig a little deeper into the numbers and data, and see what’s what.

Node.js: An Overview

Stack Overflow names Node.js among the most popular and convenient back-end development frameworks. Wikipedia used to define it as a library until recently. Statista shows that Node.js the most popular among developers worldwide as of early 2020:

Node.js is an alternative to the client/server model where the server responds only to a client request and closes the connection after each response. Two-way connection and interactive communication between the server and the user’s browser allows you to achieve high throughput while reducing delays.

What does it all mean? It means increasing the app efficiency by almost 50%, reducing waiting time by 35%, and, accordingly, cost-cutting. These are the factors that cause the constant growth of Node.js popularity — it’s perfect for startups, that have been mushrooming.

Popularity Reasons

Node.js has substantial benefits you can’t deny, no matter whether you work with it or went the other way. Among them are:

Cashing

Node.js includes the ability to cache: data remains in storage for potential future use. When you request data, it’s immediately available. This positively reflects on the app speed.

Availability for many Hosting Services

It’s a logical consequence of Node.js evolution, improvement, and refinement — we have an environment accessible to many hosting providers.

Lightness

The use of Google V8 JavaScript engine, built on C++, positively affects ‘ergonomic’ characteristics — adds a technology more speed and lightness.

Cross-Platform

The ability to develop apps on Node.js for both Android and iOS is a cherry on the cake.

Performance Benefits

Modern Architecture and Scalability

Microservices remain extremely popular as they allow iterative development and fast scalability of the software. Node.js propels communication among the parts of the applications (APIs of microservices) making it run faster. It allows scaling apps without decreasing speed or performance.

Less Time to Market

Node.js library counts 700,000 modules on the NPM. Using a ready-made module reduces development time — you do not need to write the code yourself. The bigger the number of modules is, the more time you can save. In the Node.js survey for 2018, 68% of developers and project managers confirmed, the use of this environment has the greatest positive impact on productivity.

Fast Playback

With every next year and every update, users expect faster and more functional apps. The speed of delivering back-end services is not just consistently high but continues to grow. Speed ​​increases = user satisfaction increases.

Open Source Community

An open-source technology means not only a possibility to use it for free but a collaboration with talented and dedicated developers worldwide. Thus, Node.js is not so much about money as it is about creating a strong and motivated community that constantly evolves and shares ideas. It creates a win-win situation for both sides.

When to Use Node.js

Real-Time Apps. Real-Time Apps (RTA) provide the ability to exchange text messages in real-time and require minimal delays. Among the most popular apps with this capability built on Node.js are Yahoo, LinkedIn, Uber. Their performance’s outstanding.

Data Streaming. Data streaming and downloading multiple files in parallel is also a reason to appreciate Node.js. To prove this point, let’s look at Netflix built on Node.js.

Servers API. The technology allows you to simultaneously support lots of parallel connections and easily convert JavaScript to JSON format.

DevOps Projects. Continual development and integration are the pillars of DevOps. Node.js enables you to create microservices quickly and easily for simultaneous building, running, and maintaining the app.

3 Common Mistakes in Work with Node.js

Among lots of them, we focus on three crucial and the most common mistakes in working with Node.js.

Using Console for Debugging

When you use console.log to debug, the server restarts and slows down the app. Using condole.log every time something goes wrong will render the code unusable. There is an entire Debug Library of better decisions. It was designed to help prevent the logs from getting printed out during the debug mode. All files and documents remain completely secure.

Not Testing Thoroughly

The app is not ready if it hasn’t been tested. Testing is a vital part of a development process that, somehow, remains neglected very often. Constant testing should be not even a habit but an integral part of the development process.

You can write tests with ready-made tools like Jasmine and Mocha.

Not Using Supervisor Programs

No matter where you run your Node.js code, it will benefit from a supervisor program. Quite often, when developers design and implement their apps, the code is set to fail fast. When an error occurs, it’s best if you don’t fix it. Instead, let the program crash and have your supervisor restart it. It’s a matter of seconds.

The supervisor program has numerous advantages. It not only restarts the program when it crashes but also does when files change. Using supervisors is one of the best Node.js practices. It makes the development process easier and brings you closer to the release day.

The most popular supervisor apps are Supervisor and Nodemon. Try them out and choose the most convenient one.

To Sum Up

Node.js in 2021 is a massive trend that is going to evolve and Node.js developers remain to be hugely demanded. And at Incora we are always seeking for talants, so if you are one of those, you can check out our vacancy page.