You might hear your website development agency talking about something called Node.js. In fact it’s highly likely that you will, as it is the power behind some of the world’s most well known and widely used software applications. Node.js was downloaded over 25 million times in 2017 and continues to gain popularity as developers (and their clients!) see the benefits Node.js can bring to complex projects.
So what is Node.js?
Node.js is an event driven JavaScript runtime environment, based on the mighty Chrome V8 JavaScript engine. And if that means very little to you at this stage, you’ll still be very interested to hear that it’s been successfully used by global household names such as eBay, Netflix, Paypal and LinkedIn. As JavaScript remains one of the world’s most popular programming languages, more and more developers are finding out just how useful it can be.
Node’s high efficiency levels make it highly suitable for real time applications, especially those that are heavy on the client side of the process, processing multiple requests with ease with minimum memory, helping to keep applications nimble.
Why does this mean for you? In short, Node.js allows your software team to build highly scalable, high performing applications, fast. Node benefits from something called ‘npm’ which is the world’s largest software registry, allowing your development team to find out of the box tried and tested solutions to many parts of the development cycle, and all in a language loved and understood by the majority of programmers. This makes it easy for your agency to assign a skilled team, and means that you also benefit from increased future proofing, as maintenance and growth become easier with a larger development resource pool at your disposal.
Node’s history as the ‘go to’ framework for global tech companies allows you to feel secure that you’re investing in a long term solution for your cherished new business idea – with the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’ve built on a sustainable framework that won’t be disappearing anytime soon. You’ll never be dependant on one specialist to maintain it for you either, and the npm libraries should mean that changes and updates can be made effectively and, most importantly for you, economically.
Entrepreneurs and startups are big fans of software development agencies with expertise in Node.js, as they know that it’s capable of helping them to bring proofs of concepts to market at a fast pace, essential for new business ideas that need to get a reliable app to market in a hurry, without sacrificing build quality, security or speed.
The fact that your dev team are working in a tested environment also leaves them free to focus on the real creative of the project, as the majority of standard boilerplate code can be handled by existing library content. While this can help to reduce costs, it isn’t an excuse for scrimping on build and development costs, but rather it allows you to focus your budget and your team’s creativity on making your new web build or app the absolute best it can be, without sacrificing speed, security or usability along the way. And the more interested and excited the development team become, the more amazing ideas they’ll come up with for your new venture – these are the ideas that can make all the difference between a generic app and an app that’s an absolute showstopper. Which would you rather have?
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