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Is Node.js Overrated? Let's find out what the community said

Is Node.js Overrated? Let's find out what the community said

Sandeep Panda's photo
Sandeep Panda
·Mar 17, 2016

Node's growth has skyrocketed in last few years. The community is growing and seeing adoption from big companies like Uber, Netflix, NY Times, Medium, LinkedIn and other big players.

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But the massive growth also has some downsides. Beginner developers who are just getting started with programming tend to believe that Node is best for every possible scenario, which is not true. On the other hand, there are also a group of developers who hate the idea of running JavaScript on server. Most of the times they come with a notion that JavaScript is bad, Node apps don't scale up easily etc etc.. In short they think Node.js is overrated.

Last year (November) we had a poll : Is Node.js Overrated? Out of 331 developers, 38% said that they believe Node is overrated while 62% said it's not.

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I thought it would be interesting to outline some of the important comments and summarise the discussion. It'll also help developers make the right decision without getting overwhelmed. So, let's see what our community members said.

Jan Vladimir Mostert wrote :

Is it overrated? No - use the right tool for the job. Does the media make a lot of noise about it, Yes, they do.

@JanVladimirMostert has a really nice point. One needs to examine carefully what they need and then make a decision i.e. use the right tool for the job.

Also Jan feels that for long-term maintainability, portability, Java / .NET is certainly a better option.

NodeJS is certainly better at quickly getting stuff out and just about anyone can write JavaScript, so your development cost will be lower in the short term. To be a Java developer, you need many years of experience, experience which is getting more and more difficult to get unless you spend a lot of time on your own studying Java and getting the certifications - I don't know any companies hiring junior Java developers, so on the job experience is almost becoming non existent.

For long-term maintainability, portability, Java / .NET is certainly a better option.

You can read Jan's whole comment here.

Kleo Petrov wrote :

On the point - is NodeJS overrated - no. Is NodeJS overhyped - yes!

@Kleo believes Node.js is not overrated, but overhyped. Here is what he said further :

NodeJS is just a tool (so original, right!) and used properly can make great things. More and more big companies are using it. Node's merge with io.js was the best thing that can happen to the project. Writing Javascript on the front-end and back-end looked strange at first, but with time, developers found it's quite powerful (and cool). I have some concerns though about matureness, compatibility and maintainability. Mainly, because of Javascript's current "changing" state.

NodeJS will continue to gain momentum and popularity. It's on the right track. It will just take some time to be mature enough to be more widely used.

Tibor Udvari wrote :

I think NodeJS is as fitter as Java for the requirements of today. I think so, because the companies have not so much time for waiting a software solution as in the past. With a smaller, faster development cycle we can react for the failures and business changes.

You can read Tibor's (@tudvari) full comment here.

Vasan Subramanian wrote :

I don't think Node.js is overrated (where are the ratings, BTW?). I completely agree with @Jan. Use the right tool for the job at hand.

@vasan agrees with Jan. Clearly, he feels Node.js is not overrated. He also wrote :

I think Node.js is at a similar stage as Java 1.0 or 1.1. It has promise (I realized the pun later, honestly, unintended), but it also has its place.

Renato Perini wrote :

I agree it's over-hyped (over-rating it would be too much, after all). Only kids would write a serious backend using JavaScript. In fact, startups write in these languages as long as they're startups. If they go past this stage, they generally move to Java, at least for the backend.

@mjordan79 believes Node is over-hyped. According to him JavaScript is not meant for serious backend stuff. Personally, I don't agree with it, but I would love to know your thoughts in comments.

Justin Njoh wrote :

I think there is a lot of hype around Node - just as there is about NoSQL, Big Data, and the latest trendy javascript framework/library. However the vision of a single language that can be used in the front-end and back-end for web applications is a pretty powerful and seductive one in my opinion. Node development is pretty much in its infancy and I hope it keeps growing and maturing.

I agree with Justin (@lisol) on the point that using a single language on both client and server can be pretty powerful.

Chandan Gurjar wrote :

Node JS rocks when it comes to io. Club it with Nginx and you get scalable systems. IMHO NodeJS/Nginx lets you get most out of your hardware. My experience is limited to using it for io based operations and dude it rocks. The only glitch i see is that it is hard to write object oriented equivalent code.

Chandan (@cgurjar) also acknowledges that there is no single tool to rule them all :

In this world, alas there is no single tool for all different problems and we need to acknowledge it.

I agree with it.

Speg wrote :

I don't think node is over (or under) rated. It sits in a pretty comfortable spot in my mind. Quick to get up and running, performant for most tasks, a good standard library that covers most daily tasks, and a popular package manager for everything else.

I think the verdict is still out on how it will scale out to really large applications, but I think the passage of time will settle that, along with some help from TypeScript and friends.

Josh Marinacci wrote :

Yes, the hype machine got into full gear a few years ago and tried to say Node was the answer to everything. But that happens with every technology that gets big. Node does solve a certain class of problems, namely streaming blocking IO, very very well. Things that would have taken hundreds of lines of C code can be turned into 10 lines of Node. For a certain class of problems is really is a silver bullet. Just don't try to shoot things that aren't blocking io werewolves.

@joshmarinacci is right. Node is not the answer to everything, but it's the answer to a certain class of problems. :)

Mark McDonnell wrote :

Yes.

But that isn't to say "Node is bad".

As someone much smarter than me said: "Pick the right tool for the job"

I agree with it.


My Take

I think Node.js grabbed the attention immediately because the idea of running JavaScript on server seemed very powerful and interesting. But one shouldn't be in false assumption that it's great at everything. For instance, it is good for a website like Hashnode, but it may not be very good for an app that performs CPU intensive tasks.

I have also interacted with some developers (and non-developers) who discard the idea of running JS on server without thinking twice. Some of them even claim that Node doesn't scale well. The worst part is that these developers have never run a production Node.js web app. I think it's high time developers accepted the fact that Node.js is perfectly fine for doing backend stuff. But one should also know that it's not good for everything.


Do you think Node.js is overrated? Let us know your thoughts in comments below.

Cheers