Unarguably, JavaScript is one of the most popular languages. That is why developers have so many frameworks to choose from. Among all those frameworks, Reactjs and Nodejs are the two most popular frameworks. If we talk about the basic differences, then Nodejs is a back-end framework, whereas developers use Reactjs for developing user interfaces.
Both frameworks have their set of advantages and disadvantages. And developers often find it difficult to make a choice between the two. In this article, we will compare both frameworks to various parameters to help you make the decision. So, without any further ado, let us begin.
Reactjs vs Nodejs: The Ultimate Comparison
Learning Curve
When we compare the learning curves of both the frameworks, then Reactjs certainly has a steeper learning curve. This is more significant if you have used traditional MVC frameworks like Django or Ruby on Rails. However, it becomes easy to learn if you are familiar with Java or PHP.
In comparison, Nodejs is simpler and easy to use. Its learning curve facilitates automated hand holdings that boost up the developers’ speed. It also enables developers to build web applications with just JavaScript, unlike Reactjs. So, without a doubt, Nodejs has the edge over Reactjs.
Popularity
Reactjs has gained immense popularity in the last few years. That is why 1,408,233 customers use it for their front-end development. In addition, around 302,311 live websites use Reactjs, and 1,105,922 sites have used it in the past as per the study by BuiltWith. These stats are enough to tempt business owners to hire dedicated React js developers for their next project.
Nodejs is not far behind in popularity. However, it is not well-known since the market changes so quickly. Nodejs is the most popular in the United States, with more than 6.3 million websites using it.
Performance
If we talk about the UI of any application, then you have to consider DOM as a priority. Here, Nodejs delivers top performance if it utilizes virtual DOM for memory allocations. On the other hand, Reactjs may offer a deep learning curve along with the flexibility of changing feature options, but it can be challenging to work with. However, Reactjs has the upper hand when it comes to performance as its implementations happen flawlessly.
Community Support
Node is an open-source platform that offers top-notch technical resources, documentation, and project examples. Developers can also find many tutorials online. Stack Overflow, along with various other forums is another place where you can get a lot of Nodejs related assistance.
Reactjs has Facebook’s backing, which means that it has a hugely supportive community. This helps developers to resolve their queries and get support in a quick time. Reactjs has bigger, better, and faster community support. This is one of the major reasons why enterprises prefer to hire Reactjs developers.
Development Speed – Reactjs vs Nodejs:
Development speed is the total number of libraries that are accessible to developers in a particular framework. Here, the architecture of Reactjs supports ease of scalability. However, it is Nodejs which beats Reactjs hands down on ease of scalability with a vast library access.
Microservices
The concept of micro frontends enables developers to segment scalable frontends into smaller and manageable parts. Then a separate team of developers operate on these smaller parts as long as the code becomes ready for deployment as the sets of applications that are loosely coupled. React also minimizes direct coupling by allowing frontends to communicate indirectly. React is also suitable for those solutions that makes the process of data downwards and passing callbacks.
You can develop apps devoid of complexities by using microservices with Nodejs. This great combo can also manage thousands of concurrent requests without compromising with the speed of the system . It can also charge up highly-scalable apps. Nodejs based eCommerce apps can also leverage microservices to empower their multiple services along with updating and scaling them separately. Cadenza is a perfect example of it. It is a subscription-based eCommerce platform that migrated its Nodejs app to microservice-based architecture from MEAN stack. This move helped the company to overcome many severe challenges like:
- Continuous app crashes
- API integration
- Massive costs
Use Cases – Reactjs vs Nodejs:
Reactjs is best suited for single page applications. However, you should not choose it for complex apps, otherwise it can be an overkill. So, if you are going to hire Reactjs developers for your single page application then ensure that it’s not too complex and large in size.
Additionally, to build complex apps, it’s mandatory to use Reactjs with another tech-stack. It is because Reactjs only caters to the UI of an application.
You can use Nodejs to develop data streaming features. This feature can process the files when they are uploading. You can achieve this for real-time video and audio encoding.
You can also use Nodejs for developing real-time apps like chat rooms. These chatrooms have intense data flow, high traffic capacity, and are lightweight.
Conclusion
Both the frameworks have their own USPs and benefits. The choice between the two completely depends on your project requirements. So, I would advise you to go through your project requirements thoroughly and identify key challenges. After that choose a framework that can overcome those challenges in a better way. Once you make a decision, only hire dedicated React js developers or dedicated Nodejs developers.
Good Read: 11 Most Practical Data Science Skills You Should Know in 2022
Summary:
Developers often are in a dilemma when it comes to choosing between Reactjs and Nodejs. To clear out this confusion, we have come up with this writeup where we compare both the compare on various key parameters.
Author Bio: Maulik Shah is the CEO of BiztechCS, a reactjs development company from India. Maulik likes to explore beyond his comfort zone. When it comes to writing for the blog, his contribution is priceless. No one else on the team can bring the deep industry knowledge to articles that he has. However, his door is always open and he is generous with sharing that knowledge.