Total Views: 1105
Table of Content
Blog Summary:
This blog is a comprehensive analysis of the two most popular JavaScript frameworks for web development, Next.js and Node.js, to help the owners understand and choose the right technology. It will guide them through the major differences between both in terms of scalability, performance, features, and drawbacks to share their digital products.
Table of Content
Building web applications requires a robust front end and back end for better performance and scalability. Organizations must choose the right tech stack to ensure the front end and back end of an app are in sync to send and receive network requests at the right time.
This blog is a comparison between the two most popular JavaScript-based tools, Next.js Vs Node.js.
JavaScript remains the most widely used programming language, with 63% of the developers choosing it as a tool, technology, framework, or runtime environment.
Next.js is a JavaScript framework and is popular among 16.7% of developers in 2023. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that ranked second among the most popular technology tools in the JavaScript tech stack.
With Node.js, you can run and execute code on servers, and Next.js is a resource that uses Node.js to handle and execute functions. While this comparison of Next.js vs. Node.js is for two completely different scenarios, they are both powerful technologies that can be used together and excel at their purposes.
Next.js is an open-source framework developed by Vercel for crafting server-side React applications. It provides an extensive set of tools and features for building scalable web applications, helping developers in organizing and structuring the code.
The architecture of Next.js is built on top of Node.js through rendering, which converts the written code into user interfaces. Next.js, alongside React, helps build hybrid web applications easily by rendering the parts of code to the server or client side.
Next.js aims to pre-render each page by generating an HTML version in advance for better performance. It has two rendering forms:
Server-side Rendering (SSR), which generates HTML at build time and is reusable at each request, and Static Site Generation (SSG), which generates HTML on each request.
It lets you choose your preferred rendering form to build hybrid apps. You can use SSG with no extra configuration while caching with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
Next.js has built-in CSS that can be imported from any JavaScript source, which reduces code overwriting and time.
Next.js has automatic code splitting and TypeScript support, making it easier to build API routes along with the pages and simplifying backend development.
Next.js has modern JavaScript features that older browsers might not support. Hence, it’s important to consider the target audience to ensure they select the right browser.
Next.js provides only basic page-routing alternatives, which is only convenient for building simple applications as complex apps require more coding.
Next.js is an extension of another JavaScript framework, React, which requires highly qualified programmers who might find it challenging to work with data fetching and caching.
Enhance web platforms with SSG and TypeScript support for faster page loads and SEO.
Improve the performance of SPAs with faster initial loading, API routes, and automatic code splitting.
Build interactive dashboards for custom web applications for e-commerce with robust code management and maintenance through SSR and APIs.
It is an excellent front-end library with thin API routing for SaaS products to handle complex business logic.
Nike is one of the prominent e-commerce stores that utilize Next.js to transform their user experience across various platforms and touchpoints. Moving towards the Direct-to-Customers (D2C) approach enabled Nike to exceed its expectations of 30% of the total e-commerce sales from the 2023 revenue.
Reduce coding and development times and enhance user experience with faster loading times.
In traditional synchronous programming, an I/O operation, like making a network request, generally blocks the program until that specific operation is completed.
When multiple I/O operations occur together, like requesting a file, sending an email, or requesting a webpage, they create a sequence of operations. This can result in bottlenecks and resource waste as the program has to wait for each operation to complete.
Node.js implements non-blocking I/O operations that enable an app to continue executing a program’s background tasks even while waiting for the I/O operation to complete.
This feature doesn’t stall the program, as it utilizes asynchronous callbacks, allowing the I/O operations to continue working in the background. Asynchronous callbacks make it easier to notify that a task is complete and pass on the data to another function.
Node.js carries out asynchronous callbacks by following event looping. An event loop is where events of incoming and outgoing requests occur and pass through a JavaScript-based single thread. This gives Node.js an event-driven architecture that is capable of handling multiple concurrent requests.
It consumes minimal resources and performs more reliably in a distributed environment. Hence, whenever a new client connection is orchestrated to generate a response, coding is far more efficient. For the same reason, this architecture is also known as reactive architecture, as the code is built on reacting to the events.
Handling several connections without using a lot of resources minimizes idle time, increases performance, and reduces application latency.
The in-built Node Package Manager (NPM) helps break down the code into smaller, readable, and manageable parts, leading to better user experiences.
Advanced tools and frameworks like Koa, Hapi, Meteor, and Express.js make building SSR applications and APIs easier.
Since Node.js uses a single thread for events and requests, it can slow down the performance of CPU-intensive tasks with heavy computations.
A callback hell happens when multiple events occur simultaneously, creating a nest of callbacks within a function. Since Node.js works on asynchronous callbacks, it takes more time to run a function, making it difficult to write and read clean and maintainable code.
Since Node.js is designed for web applications, it doesn’t support many databases except MongoDB. It also manages memory through a garbage collector, which isn’t capable of reclaiming it quickly.
Server-side apps are a breeze with Node.js and scalable RESTful APIs.
Node.js excels at handling several connections at a time, making it a great choice for connected devices.
Node.js makes data exchange easier with asynchronous callbacks, enabling powerful real-time applications to deploy and scale smoothly.
Netflix saw a massive improvement in streamlining development, cutting build costs & times, and customizing when it decided to move its UI code to Node.js.
Apart from aligning well with the skills of its UI engineers, Node.js worked wonders for them as it fit their need to switch from monolithic Java-based applications to smaller and more manageable services.
Here’s what it achieved:
Optimize the performance, speed, and efficiency and scale your web applications with smooth backends.
Node.js is the perfect fit to speed up an app’s performance by handling multiple requests and connections for data streams. Offering various tools for managing input/output (I/O) tasks like file access and network queries, it enables the building of web servers, microservices, and command-line tools.
Next.js is built on top of Node.js for statically generated SSG and SSR applications. It extends Node.js’s capabilities, offers impactful features of automatic code splitting, and is TypeScript-compatible.
Let’s understand the differences between them through the following table:
| Features / Functionality | Node.js | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Development model/pattern | JavaScript runtime model for executing server-side code | Hybrid pattern – combines SSR with client-side JavaScript to render components before code execution |
| Code structure | It doesn’t have a defined code structure; hence, it is more flexible | Predefined code rules and folders for asset and route management |
| SSR Support | SSR support only when working with Express.js | Built-in SSR and SSG support |
| Routing pattern | Needs additional packages | File-based |
| Code split | Needs manual implementation | Support for automatic code splitting |
| APIs | Need to define explicitly | Allows within application |
| Middleware support | Used in frameworks like Express.js | Support for handling requests |
| Popular tools | Nodemon for automatic server restarts | Hot Module Replacement (HMR) and automatic code reloading |
| SEO-friendliness | Manual implementation of SSG and SSR | Built-in support |
The server-side JavaScript coding for the back end is very different from the client-side (customer-facing) coding, also called the front end. Since JavaScript forms the base of Node.js, it doesn’t matter whether the front end is written in React, Angular, or Vue. With Node.js, developers can still write the code for the back end, which is written in JavaScript.
On the other hand, Next.js is built on Node.js. It makes rendering content on the server side easier for static web applications. Hence, it provides components for both the front end and back end. Setup and configuration are much easier with Next.js as it still allows the front end and back end to be built separately.
It’s quite obvious that working with Next.js requires Node.js since the latter helps you understand the server better. The question here is: Is your focus more on the back end or the front end?
When building your first app, Node.js is a preferred option since it has dedicated APIs for the back end. However, choosing Next.js can provide you with many training wheels on which you can build useful applications later.
Let’s understand the major differences between the both through an example:
Suppose almost 600k data is coming from a database. Before the data is sent to the server, it’s converted into JSON format, and the fast API takes a lot of time to perform that function. The backend works as a middleman to send the data from a database to the front end.
Next.js will speed up this process by building an all-in-one API for the backend with its API routes and server-side rendering (SSR) feature. A separate backend or a backend built on Next.js wouldn’t impact the SSR.
Since Next.js renders data on browsers by default, the only thing left to do manually is to instruct which data needs to be rendered.
The bottom line is that Node.js is definitely a better choice than Next.js, but if you choose Next.js, working with Node.js first will enable you to build apps faster with Next.
Node.js and Next.js serve different purposes and functions at various stages of development. The key similarity between them is that they both have SSR capabilities. While the former is a runtime environment for JavaScript, the latter is a framework for React built on top of Node.js.
They are similar in the following ways:
Node.js is a platform for building server-side applications, APIs, and backend functionalities. Similarly, Next.js offers SSR, routing, and automatic code splitting. Next.js supports almost every type of rendering technique and can either render content on the server or pre-render it statistically.
Node.js has an event-driven architecture with non-blocking I/O operations that allow it to handle concurrent requests for SSR. Next.js helps build simple React applications, providing a structured approach to handling SSR tasks like routing.
Hence, they complement each other. You can hire Node.js developers to build highly functional server-side backends. In contrast, you can hire Next.js developers to build high-performing front-end applications with React.
Accelerate front-end speed with Next.js and build simplified backends with Node.js.
The future paths of Node.js and Next.js will open up new possibilities for backend development. With Node.js introducing AI to transform the app experience, it has surpassed React as the most popular framework in 2023.
Node.js is also set to adopt an object-oriented approach with the adoption of TypeScript. Furthermore, since customer engagement is only going to garner more attention, real-time applications, Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), and microservices architecture are a few more areas that make Node.js considerably more flexible for businesses.
Talking about its counterpart, Next.js is expected to introduce an Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) feature for optimal performance. Automatic Static Optimization (ASO) will also emerge to achieve a balance between SSR and SSG.
To keep up with Node.js’s popularity, Next.js has also improved semantic HTML and supported making the web more inclusive with Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) attributes.
Other changes include built-in support for TypeScript, React Native for the web, micro frontend architecture, Electron.js compatibility, and a focus on JAMstack.
Choosing one between Node.js and Next.js for building new software boils down to the level of stability, performance, and ease of coding. They both are excellent options for building real-time applications.
Next.js excels in providing built-in support for server-side applications by reducing JavaScript code for better performance of client-side functions. It also consists of plenty of optimization mechanics with readymade tools for reducing the complexity of UI and enhancing image performance by lazy loading.
However, it’s not suited for complex and data-intensive applications due to the performance levels of the underlying server, which can make it daunting to handle increased loads.
Node.js, on the other hand, boosts the development time of several applications with various open-source tools and libraries that aid in more scalability. The Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) library simplifies database interactions for easy data storage and retrieval. It also minimizes application load with CDNs and caching mechanisms.
However, starting a Node.js project can also complicate web applications as the configuration files multiply. This leads to the manual setup of many tools, and managing large projects can become challenging.
The above discussion is only a starting point to help organizations make the right decision while choosing between Next.js and Node.js. Both are JavaScript-based tools capable of enhancing the performance of real-time web applications.
The interesting part about Next.js is that it’s built on React, a popular JavaScript library for User Interfaces. Thus, if you aim to enhance user experience with better user interfaces, choose a Next.js development company that will provide additional optimization tools by configuring React tools.
Node.js distributes the application into smaller bits so that each part is allocated a function running simultaneously without any extra load on the server. So, if you’re looking to build applications with multiple packages that need maximum speed and accuracy, choosing a Node.js development company is your best choice.
01
02
03
04
Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
Submitting the form below will ensure a prompt response from us.
