Javascript is a popular programming language in the software development market. You may know Node.js and React.js as these are the two most adopted technologies. Both of these technologies are used in web app development and both have inbuilt benefits and some disadvantages. Most of the developers struggle to decide which one is better. One of the main differences between Node.js and React.js is- Node.js is a back-end framework and React.js is used for creating user interfaces. If you are also confused to choose best between these two, then you must go through the below differences between Node.js and React.js. Before diving to the Node.js vs React.js, let us see each one in short.
Nodejs is an open-source runtime environment to run JavaScript code outside of the browser. Most of the developers and business owners get confused and think that it is similar to React.js. In fact it is completely different from React.js and is used for different purposes. Node.js is used for developing back-end services like APIs for web or mobile applications. It is used used by popular companies like netflix, Paypal, Uber and so on.
1. High Performance-
Most of the organizations choose Node.js because it offers high performance. It is made upon Google Chrome’s V8 runtime, written in C++ and is super fast. Both Node.js and V8 are regularly updated with security, performance optimizations and support for cutting edge JavaScript features. Walmart reported a great experience after use of Node.js when they shifted to Node to increase Black Friday sales.
2. Lightweight-
All Node.js apps use basic event-driven architecture. Means everything executed on it, including each single operation, is called as a progression of asynchronous callbacks. This allows Node.js to effectively run single-threaded apps unlike other web technologies where new string is produced as per the request by the client. This makes apps lightweight and makes the foundation for non-blocking I/O feature in Node.JS.
3. Fast-
Node.js is powered by JavaScript and V8 versions. V8 offers the capacity to execute and compile JavaScript with speed as it compiles JS codes into native machine code. Also, Node.js has the event loop- single string playing out all the I/O activities in a synchronized way. And this makes Node.js more fast.
4. Single Language For All Layers-
All functions incorporate two languages- one on the server-side and other on client-side. But Node uses Javascript for both. In this manner, web developers need to interact in a single language over all layers. Also, this can be reused again and again for future communications.
React.js is a JavaScript library launched by Facebook and maintained by a community of developers. Generally it is used to develop the front-end of web and mobile app and works on Model-View-Controller architecture. Developers uses React as a base for creating single-page applications and then they use different libraries to give extra support to their web apps.
1. Fast And Cost-Effective-
React.js has lots of reusable components that help app developers to create and maintain app easily and effectively. Also, react powers react native, that is a reliable cross platform app development framework. Such relationship helps organizations to build a solid mobile presence along with the web while using React.
2. Stable-
Most of the technologies get outdated after a few years. React.js has been a stable innovation with growing competition. Popular enterprises like Facebook and Instagram uses react.js, so the chances of getting outdated are almost negligible.
3. Reusable Component And Virtual DOM-
Reusable components of React.js enables developers to reuse the components to build different apps with similar functionality. It reduces the development efforts and ensures that components perform seamlessly. It helps to make data structure cache memory inside a memory unit, that enables you to update the browser DOM effectively.
Node.js-
Nodejs is easy to learn but it needs more efforts to implement web apps with it. Asynchronous programming that executes the non-blocking code makes it difficult. But this doesn’t prevent the execution of part of code, so sometimes it is difficult to program.
React.js-
React.js has an easier learning curve as compared to others, so developers don’t need to spend a lot of time re-learning the programming language. Simply, React.js is built on what developers already know Javascript. Because of its simple design, use of JSX and highly detailed documentation, React.js is the best library that makes web development easy to implement and iterate.
Node.js is an open-source, means its community are actively engaged in improving languages and bug fixing. A large community is an advantage because lots of developers have best tips and tricks at their disposal when they communicate around the community.
React.js–
React.js is created by Facebook and backed by a huge team that regularly supports it. Frequent updates is best thing about React that makes developers work efficiently without breaking the application. Airbnb, Paypal, Uber uses React in their production.
Because of increased productivity and satisfaction, reduced development cost and increased app performance, Node.js has a positive impact on many users. It possesses asynchronous and non-blocking nature due to event-loop features. Code of Node.js is reusable, which is useful for event-based applications that update data in real-time. Many companies experienced 35% decrease in average response time and their pages served 200ms faster. Event-driven architecture is a major factor that improves Node.js performance.
It is efficient to handle frequent UI updates because of virtual DOM feature. Though virtual DOM possesses the same properties as regular DOM, it lacks the power to update the UI directly. For every UI update, react updates Virtual DOM and compares it with regular DOM on regular basis. This way, it figures out what changes should be made to the regular DOM. Now this whole process is so fast that sometimes developers face UI delivering related performance issues. But, there is a workaround to solve almost every single performance issue in React.
Node.js supplements microservices since both as a tech stack empowers organizations to achieve agility, security, and better performance. Using microservices with Node, allows to develop apps without complexities. This amazing blend can also power highly scalable applications and handle a huge number of concurrent request without hindering the system.
Using microservices in node.js based ecommerce app empowers multiple services and lets them update and scale separately. A subscription based ecommerce platform, migrated its Node.js app from MEAN stack to microservices-based architecture. Microservices architecture based on Nodejs allows it to overcome challenges like API integration, continuous app crashes and huge costs.
Switching a microservices architecture pattern, Cadenza got an opportunity to integrate several features of their app to independent services. Also it, dispenses long-term commitment to any tech stack. This also helped them to reduce the cost
Each team is responsible for a separate set that primarily serves different content. Micro frontends in React are friendly and less bulky team. For example, ecommerce platform built with React.js can be divided into different features which can be handles by separate teams like shopping, frontend, devops and backend team. In advanced steps, the teams can be divided at a detailed level. React allows micro frontends to communicate indirectly by reducing direct coupling.
Node.js is used to build some data streaming features. For instance, there is a possibility to process the files when they are still being uploaded. When data comes to stream, it can be processed online without any interruption. This can be done for real-time audio or video encoding.
Chatrooms- High traffic limits, lightweight and extreme data streaming are necessary to build continuous apps like Chat rooms. These requirements can be satisfied by using Node.js.
React is most appropriate for single-page applications, selecting it single-handedly for large or complex applications might be a needless excess. For building complex applications, using Reactjs with another tech-stack is necessary as React just caters an application UI.
Selecting the best technology for development is an important task as it drives your software product to the success. You must consider the project requirements before choosing technology. The above comparison, Nodejs vs react.js will surely help you to select the best one.