IT industry is such a fast-paced environment where any technology can become obsolete just in a snap. But, every creation has an origin that can never be taken out from it. JavaScript is that origin that initiated the Web development that we see today, and Node.js is the most promising progeny of JavaScript. There are many reasons why Node.js is so popular amongst developers and IT companies.

In this blog, I will try to familiarize you with at least 5 of these reasons if not more. But before that, we need to understand the core function of Node.js development.

What is Node.JS?

Node.js was initially built for the server-side platform to build server and network applications. But later understanding it’s multi-storied functionality, Node.js is now used as a link between front-end and back-end; also, Node.js is currently the fastest server-side web application development platform with the ability to run across distributed devices. The platform is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.

Unlike existing conventional web response paradigm where only the client initiates communication. Node.js replaces WebSockets with revolutionary push technology. This, in turn, enables a two-way, real-time connection between the server and client allowing them to exchange valuable data.

Node.js is much prosperous socially and profitable technically than its existing counterparts like PHP, Python, and ROR. Companies that use Node.js have unanimously agreed on the benefits of opting for Node.js development, whether it be industry giants like Microsoft, Walmart, PayPal, or comparatively newer companies like Groupon and Netflix.

Now, without wasting time let’s go through the reasons why Node.js is so popular these days?

1. Node.js is fast (really fast!!!)

As mentioned earlier, Node.js is powered by Google’s Chromium V8. V8 compiles and executes JavaScript into native machine code which makes this process very quick. Besides this, Node.js has a magical event loop; it means Node.js has an asynchronous way of execution which is useful to execute several tasks simultaneously. When an application has to perform I/O operation, it sends asynchronous tasks and a callback action to the event loop and then continues to perform the rest of the program. When the sync is completed the event loop automatically returns to the task at hand.

Walmart, one of the companies using Node.js development decided to move its entire mobile traffic through the Node.js application on one of the busiest of shopping days, Black Friday.  The CPU utilization of their servers didn’t even cross 1% even with 200,000,000 online users.

2. JavaScript is omnipresent

We talked earlier about JavaScript being there at the inception of web development, so every developer in the world (at least the decent ones) will know at least a little about JavaScript coding. Such a JavaScript programmer has enough knowledge to migrate to Node.js development. This makes Node.js a very good candidate for new developers to opt for when deciding what language to learn.

Becoming a Node.js developer will definitely be a very promising step for new developers. Node.js can handle all the stress if a company decides to change their logic built for the browser to the server.

3. One language for all

There has always been a bridge between front-end development and back-end development that has been a roadblock to superior functionality. The front-end and back-end development both generally needs understanding of separate languages to build the application, whether it is PHP or Python for back-end or HTML and CSS for front-end web technologies.

Node.js development has fixed this problem. Node.js developers have the freedom of only having to learn JavaScript for working on both, client-side and server-side. So, developers can interact using JavaScript across all layers of the web app development. With Node.js, the people required to build an application has almost halved.

Node.js development was mainly used to build web apps using Node.JS, but using its whole ecosystem; Node.JS mobile apps are also possible to build.

4. Perfect for Real-time Application

Node.js is a perfect fit for applications where you'd need event-based servers and non-blocking driven servers. As mentioned before, it runs on JavaScript giving you the freedom to share some code between server side and client side. This makes Node.JS a very useful platform to create real-time applications like chatting platforms, online gaming app, live-tracking, etc.

Any application where live data transfer between browser and server is required works on Node.JS platform. Many well-established companies are using Node.js development for their real-time mobile app platform like PayPal, eBay, LinkedIn, etc.

5. Node Community Support/NPM

There is a very large and intellectual community that is working on making Node.js better every day. Node.JS communities have a large number of code packages and modules, which can be used to build web applications. Node Package Manager (NPM) is an online archive where open source Node.JS projects are published.

NPM provides packages of re-usable codes which can be assembled as per your project requirements. With around 650,000 reusable codes NPM hosts the world’s largest collection of Node.JS projects.

Conclusion

I hope this blog satisfies your query on why Node.js development is so popular? There are still many amazing achievements of Node.js development worth mentioning but due to the limitation of time to read and space to write, I’d like you to visit Most Popular Node.js frameworks in 2018 to know more about what Node.js has to offer you.

If you are thinking about building a mobile or web app and are struggling to decide whether Node.js is the right platform to build your project or not, then contact Node.js experts, they will help you fully.