NestJS vs. Node.js: Which one should you choose?

Learn about NestJS vs. Node.js
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NestJS vs. Node.js: Are you having a hard time choosing between any of them? Well, If you want to develop server-side applications using JavaScript, NestJS or Node.js will be perfect solutions. However, both tackle different problems in their own way. Speaking of which, choosing becomes a tricky part here. 

In this blog, we’ll go over the pros, cons, use cases, similarities, popularity, and adoptions of each. So, keep reading, and in the end, you’ll have an idea of the best one between them for your next project.

Between NestJS and Node.js, let’s start learning about NestJS first. We’ll also go over the expectations we can have from its future version.

What is NestJS?

Learn about NestJS

In 2017, Kamil Mysliwiec, a software developer, launched the NestJS open-source framework. It comes in the form of a toolbox that provides a structure to write minimum and clean code. For that, developers use programming languages like JavaScript or TypeScript to develop web apps and APIs. NestJS is time-saving and cost-effective. It’s efficient enough to streamline the application development process.

Pros of NestJS

Organized codes

NestJS assists you in organizing and writing codes neatly. It structures your codes in such a manner that other developers in your team can understand and maintain them as required.

Scalability

It works well for both small and large projects. If you want to start from small projects and then later scale up them, then NestJS is helpful for sure.

Built-in-support

NestJS is incorporated with a built-in support system. So, you don’t need to install external components to add extra features if required in the future. The system helps simplify the users’ experience. Users’ experience includes functionalities like authentication, data validation, and so on.

Testing

Test-friendly tools and features are available on this framework. Developers can create, run, and maintain the test process smoothly and efficiently. You can make sure that the final result meets your expectations.

Documentation

It’s not a hard task to get plenty of support when it comes to NestJS, as the community is growing positively. So, finding a documentation guide and help has become more accessible in recent times.

Cons of NestJS

Learning curve

Learning or working on NestJS can be complex for beginners. People new to web application development, JavaScript, or even Typescript need time to command NestJS.

Size

NestJS may affect the loading time as the file size is larger than simple frameworks like Express.js. It’s not that lightweight in comparison to Express.js. As a result, the large bundle size slows down the startup times.

Performance overhead

Sometimes, developers find performance overhead for the way it works. And that can affect the process in terms of efficiency. The software may get slower since it consumes more memory than usual.

Less mature

NestJS is less mature compared to old frameworks. It’s yet to achieve its full potential as not much time has passed since it came into existence. It’s a fresh and new framework. So, developers may face some adjustments and issues in the codebase during its evolving period.

Opinionated

Some developers might find it restrictive because of its opinionated nature. The opinionated nature requires a particular way of structuring and writing the code, which may not suit some developers’ preferences.

Use cases for NestJS

Large-scale applications

NestJS is for developers who need a framework for simplifying the complexity of highly maintainable applications. It comes with TypeScript and a modular design that can handle high maintenance with scalable methods.

API development

NestJS is suitable for developing APIs where there is communication among various applications and services. Building a backend for a mobile and a website is a fine example of it.

GraphQL

Want to work with GraphQL schema efficiently? NestJS is the perfect choice. It offers many tools to developers to manage it and implement it quickly.

Dependency injection

A pattern of design is available to assist NestJS in organizing the code well. It happens because of the injections of dependency in times of need.

Real-time applications

NestJS has proved to be the accurate choice for building real-time applications. It supports WebSocket and Event API connections well—applications like chatbots, games, collaborative tasks, video conferencing, and document sharing run seamlessly.

Popularity of NestJS

NestJS framework is made for developing server-side applications. It has been in demand since it’s super helpful to organize the code easily. It’s based on TypeScript, and developers find it convenient, especially if a team member needs to get involved. TypeScript offers extra features to JavaScript language to find errors sooner.

Adoption of NestJS

Its adoption by developers and companies is growing rapidly. The simple reason behind this is the easy documentation and growing community. Furthermore, it shares similarities with famous programming languages Java and C#. So, developers with experience in these languages can quickly adopt the NestJS.

Popularity of NestJS

NestJS framework is made for developing server-side applications. It has been in demand since it’s super helpful to organize the code easily. It’s based on TypeScript, and developers find it convenient, especially if a team member needs to get involved. TypeScript offers extra features to JavaScript language to find errors sooner.

What is the future of NestJS?

Know the future of NestJS

The fan base of NestJS is growing massively. In 2023, it gained over 59,899 stars on GitHub. The future of NestJS seems promising. Without a doubt, it’s going to evolve continuously.

Here are a few things we can expect from its future version:

Steady growth

Developers find it easy to use. It follows a structure of writing clean and organized code. And it’s getting known more for that reason in the industry. With regular updates in feature improvement, more developers will like to adopt it.

New technology integration

The best part is that it keeps up with the latest changes in JavaScript. Moreover, It stays up-to-date with trends in the area of web development. It’ll likely integrate more new tools and technology as it grows.

Community strength

As the users become more active and prominent, getting documents, tutorials, and support will be easy. More online resources will be available to help you with NestJS projects. You will be able to keep up with accurate knowledge as it progresses.

Between NestJS and Node.js, NestJS has a long way to go. Now, let’s see what Node.js has to offer in the web development process and what future it holds.

What is Node.js?

Learn about Node.js
Node.js is a technology that came into the picture to let people use JavaScript on the server. It’s a robust runtime environment that allows developers to build different types of programs. Before, JavaScript could only run on the browser. However, Node.js made the work simple for developers. In 2009, Ryan Dahl, a software engineer, released Node.js, which helps JavaScript to run on the server. Developing various software and web apps while handling a bunch of tasks became more manageable.

Pros of Node.js

Speed

Node.js’s speed is faster with the help of the Google V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js is built on this popular engine, known for its speedy work. So, it becomes perfect for building real-time applications.

Cross-platform

Node.js adapts various operating systems well enough. So, you can build an application to run on different platforms without any hassle.

Open source

Since the nature of Node.js is open source, it comes in handy at no cost. Furthermore, developers can improvise it if they want, which helps the framework to enhance its functionality.

Easily customizable

You get various packages and modules in Node js to customize it. Developers can make changes according to their requirements and extend its functionality.

Great for real-time apps

Node.js is a robust framework for managing constant changes. Therefore, it’s a suitable choice for developing real-time applications, like social media or sports scores.

Cons of Node.js

Single-threaded

It may face issues while handling massive tasks. Such tasks can be CPU intensive and may trouble the main execution thread. Therefore, some tasks aren’t suitable.

Callback issues

Independent operations management during the process of complex application development may result in writing lengthy code. The code will be hard to manage and understand, creating callback issues.

Immature for some use cases

Node.js is less mature to handle some types of projects since its main programming language is JavaScript. For instance, python or #C are more suitable programming languages for developing desktop apps or machine learning programs.

Longer boot-time

It might take a longer time to start in comparison to traditional technologies. So, some applications can be affected in terms of response times.

Lack of strong typing

Runtime errors may occur since the framework is about dynamically typed languages. The compiler will detect the runtime errors at compiler time.

Use cases for Node.js

Web servers

You can build efficient and scalable web servers. Node.js can handle various connections at once. That is why it is great for real-time applications, too.

Single page applications

Node.js is best for building SPAs (single page applications), a single HTML-loaded page. The page content gets updated dynamically when any user interacts with the application to make it more interactive.

High-performance applications

It is also used for building robust and efficient applications. Node.js is developed on the V8 JavaScript engine. Thus, it’s a perfect solution for building high-performance applications.

Serverless applications

Node.js works perfectly on cloud platforms to develop serverless applications. With the help of event-driven architecture, it becomes easy to deploy resources. These resources help to maintain the serverless environment.

Proxy servers

Developers can use Node.js to build proxy servers. Between the client and other servers, proxy servers work as intermediaries. They enable functionalities such as load-balancing and security.

Popularity of Node.js

The popularity of Node.js is quite a big deal. There is a genuine reason behind it. It simply lets developers use the same programming language, JavaScript, in both the backend and front end. Besides, developers get a bunch of resources and guidance through the strong community.

Adoption of Node.js

Now, why is it widely adopted? Well, the speedy work, strong community, and scalable nature make it more reliable. And the architecture helps the built applications scale and grow. Best of all, it can manage multiple connections simultaneously. So, eventually, it becomes perfect for developing websites with numerous users.

What is the future of Node.js?

Know the future of Node.js

Node.js will still be a relevant framework in the future. Recent statistics show that Node.js has become the most used web framework. The survey indicates that approximately 42.7% of respondents use Node.js. In modern times of this industry, working with multiple connections is essential. Node.js offers a non-blocking architecture and is asynchronous to handle those large numbers of connections.

Here are a few things that we can expect from its future version:

Security

The crucial part of Node.js is security. The community is highly attentive to this. We expect that the future version will have improvements in the features of security. There will be advanced practices to avoid vulnerabilities.

Package ecosystem

Node.js offers a package ecosystem where you get different libraries and tools. The ecosystem will have more improvised functions to fulfil all types of project needs.

Serverless computing

Node.js is lightweight, and the startup time is also fast. The serverless computing nature of it makes it continue to grow more. Therefore, it will remain the developers’ choice to build server-side applications.


Now, you’ve got the differences between NestJS and Node.js. So, Let’s move on to know how similar they are.

Common traits between NestJS and Node.js

Even if they are built to solve different issues, both have many things in common. After all, the NestJS framework is created over Node.js. Some of the similarities we can discuss here.

JavaScript and TypeScript

While Node.js runs JavaScript over the server, NestJS uses TypeScript, a set of JavaScript to develop web applications. Both use JavaScript and TypeScript when it comes to writing code.

Event-driven

Node.js and NestJS have an event-driven architecture. This architecture is helpful to handle numerous connections efficiently to build scalable applications.

Non-blocking I/O

This part is essential in high-performance application development. Node.js and NestJS have non-blocking I/O operating features, which help them run many tasks simultaneously. This happens without the tasks to wait for each other to finish.

Npm (Node package manager)

Node package manager helps in managing packages and libraries. It’s available in both Node.js and NestJS. Therefore, sharing packages and installing becomes easier when you want to extend any functionality.

Server-side

This is the crucial similarity between them. Both share a common purpose of application development on the server side. From API development to Web development to managing HTTP requests to server-side operations, Node.js and NestJS are helpful.

NestJS VS Node.js: which one is the best? (Conclusion)

Learn about NestJS vs. Node.js

Both have different purposes to serve in the web development process.

Node.js is a runtime environment. You can use it to run JavaScript on the server. Plus, it’s useful for different types of projects. Simply because it can handle both simple and complex scripts, many frameworks can be used on Node.js for web application development purposes, including Nest JS. One of the popular frameworks is Express.js.

On the other side, NestJS is a framework developed on the Node.js runtime environment. The purpose of designing this is to maintain and structure the code. This helps in building server-side and web applications APIs. It comes with more features like dependency injection, modules, and so on to develop robust applications.

Now, the question is which one to choose between NestJS and Node.js? Well, that depends on your project size and needs. Node.js is a perfect choice when you need a simple and lightweight solution. And if you have a larger project that needs to be maintained thoroughly, then NestJS is an excellent choice. It also helps you and your team to command over writing structured code while working on complex projects.

Have you got more questions in mind? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Go to our Contact Us page and get connected. We would love to answer all the questions you have in mind.

FAQ

The answer is blockchain, as the concept of blockchain originated first in 2008 in a whitepaper to serve the digital currency Bitcoin. Later, in January 2009, a new kind of digital currency, Bitcoin, was launched. Other cryptocurrencies also started developing to support blockchain technology.

Yes, HasCash, B-Money, and Bit Gold were some technologies that used the concept of blockchain before Bitcoin. HasCash was created by Adam Back in 1997, a cryptographer to introduce the proof-of-work concept. B-Money was proposed by Wei Dei 1998, a computer engineer, to study building a decentralized digital currency. But, unfortunately, it was never implemented fully. Lastly, Nick Szabo developed Bit Gold in 2005 to work on a decentralized digital currency system.

Bitcoin blockchain is the longest-running blockchain as it is the widely accepted starting point and origin of the blockchain system.

Yes, we can credit Bitcoin for introducing the practical concept of blockchain technology. Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper in 2008. The paper was named “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” And the paper says that Bitcoin, a digital currency, will be operated on a decentralized network.

No, Bitcoin isn’t the first digital currency. Before, there were many trials for electronic payments. However, many relied on central authorities such as DigiCash and e-gold.
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