NodeJS Vs. ReactJS - A Complete Guide

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ReactJS and NodeJS are both widely used, sub-elements of JavaScript. They’re both high performing yet they’re technically too different. Both are temptingly advanced and equally popular among web developers across the globe. And hence, raises the dilemma of making the best choice for your next JavaScript web application project. In this article, we are going to focus on the distinctions of both platforms. At the end of the article, you would be able to identify both of them uniquely and will be able to make a better-informed choice for your next web development company.

Let’s have a quick look at nodejs vs reactjs.

1) NodeJS

NodeJS is an open-source and cross-platform runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside a browser. NodeJS is often used to build back-end services like APIs, web-apps, mobile apps, etc.

NodeJS Features

• It is easy to get started with, and an open-source framework.
• It can be used for prototyping and is perfect for agile development.
• Provides quick, efficient, and scalable services.
• Its source code is consistent. It has unit testing that allows testing ready code quickly.
• It has a large ecosystem of open-source libraries.
• It is non-blocking in nature and is asynchronous. This enhances the overall app performance
• It has built-in APIs that allow developers to make servers like DNS, TCP, HTTP, etc.

NodeJS – Use Cases

Currently, NodeJS is used by multiple companies including Netflix, Trello, Walmart, LinkedIn, Uber, etc.

• Netflix faced problems of conditional dependencies and app scalability which hindered the experience of 93 million of its users. To solve these issues, the company used NodeJS because of its speed and lightweight. And hence it was able to manage reducing its start-up time by 70%.
• Trello is a project management app and it uses NodeJS for server-side development. They use NodeJS for system updating.
• Uber, a carpooling service, finds NodeJS as one of the most crucial technological solutions.

Read more: NodeJS Development Trends

2) ReactJS

ReactJS is an open-source JavaScript library used for building single-page user interfaces. It is declarative, efficient, flexible, and allows users to create reusable UI components, it is used as a base in single-page, complex, interactive web projects, and react components are difficult to reuse. React is made up of multiple small components which can be nested within other components to allow the framing of complex applications.

ReactJS Features

• React components have reusable code that makes it simple to use and easy to learn.
• React library has JSX (JavaScript XML), that is HTML like syntax, which is processed into JavaScript calls.
• Its one-way data binding gives better control throughout the application.
• The virtual DOM uses the ReactDOM library that represents the UI. This library helps improve runtime performance, speed, and modularity.
• DOM has a smoother and faster performance due to virtual components.

 ReactJS – Use Cases

React can be used for everything from content-based websites to social media platforms.

• The dynamic elements of Facebook are built using ReactJS as it helps maintain user-interaction.
• Another successful example of React is Instagram. The app uses ReactJS for Google Maps APIs, geolocation, etc.
• Netflix is yet another example that uses ReactJS for their Gibbon platform, that applies low-performance TV devices instead of the DOM.

Read More: Why Top Companies Go With Node JS Development for Their App?

Comparison

ReactJS: React is built on what developers already know – JavaScript. Hence, it has an easier learning curve compared to others. It has a simple design, uses JSX (an HTML-like-syntax), a built-in library, and has highly detailed documentation. This makes the web-development process easier to implement and iterate.

NodeJS: On the contrary, Node is also quite easy to learn, but it is harder to implement.  Its asynchronous programming executes the non-blocking code which makes it difficult. However, this does not prevent the execution of a piece of code. It just makes it difficult.

#2 Microservices Architecture

Microservices architecture is a new approach to revolutionize scalable backends. It is an approach for the development of a single page app as a suite of small services. This allows different teams to work efficiently on separate features of a web-application.

ReactJS: Microservices enables a way to disintegrate a scalable frontend into smaller sections. So that multiple teams can work on these smaller portions until the code is ready to be deployed. Micro frontends in React are a more friendly and less bulky team.

NodeJS: Node also complements microservices architecture. It enables organizations to achieve agility, security, and high performance. Using microservices with Node allows developers to develop fewer complex apps. It also powers highly-scalable apps and handles thousands of concurrent requests without slowing down the system.

#3: Community Support

A vast community of dedicated developers is a must for any platform or framework.

ReactJS: ReactJS is undeniably backed by a large team of dedicated developers. Its frequent updates make developers work efficiently and hence make it a continuous learning platform too.

NodeJS: NodeJS is an open-source platform. Hence, its community is actively engaged in improving it and fixing bugs. It has a large community of developers with the best tips and tricks at their disposal when they communicate around the community.

Image Source: Simform

Planning to hire Dedicated Reactjs Developers?

#4: App Size & Performance

The app size and performance are two major aspects that impact the quality of the web app. It directly impacts customer satisfaction, which makes these parameters important to consider. 

ReactJS: React handles the frequent UI updates rapidly and efficiently. This is because of its Virtual DOM feature. Virtual DOM possesses the same properties as a regular DOM but it lacks the power to update the UI directly. For every UI update, ReactJS updates the Virtual DOM and compares it with the regular DOM. This way, it figures out the changes that need to be made to the regular DOM. Then, react updates the UI, upon analyzing these changes. Due to such a fast process, developers can face UI rendering related performance issues. 

NodeJS: NodeJS also has a positive impact on developers due to features like increased productivity, increased satisfaction, reduced development costs, and increased app performance.

Image Source: Simform

The reasons for this high performance is its asynchronous and non-blocking nature. Also, due to the fact that the NodeJS code is reusable, it is mainly useful for event-based applications that update data in real-time. 

PayPal serves as the biggest example that has benefited from the performance by using Nodejs. After implementing NodeJS, the company experienced a 35% decrease in the average response time, and its pages served 200ms faster.  

So, this was all about the distinctions of ReactJS as well as NodeJS. 

You Can Compare This Too: NodeJS vs Python

NodeJS VS. ReactJS: Here are some key takeaways

• Node provides scalability, speed, and better performance. This makes it more suitable for a variety of tasks. 
• The creation of lightweight web and mobile apps can be done using ReactJS.
• Both Node and React possess large, active, and dedicated community support. 

To sum up, here’s a table to give you a quick review.

Planning to outsource your next project to a Reactjs developer? 

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