We start a series of blogs where we are going to compare the trendiest programming languages to help you choose the best technology for your project.
The software industry offers multiple choices for developers and business owners. Some languages come and go forever, and some make a toll in the industry and immediately gain popularity. Not to run the competition with a wooden leg, one has to choose the most versatile solution with advanced functionality. We’ve already conducted a comparison of NET Core (C#) vs Python, Flutter vs React Native vs Native, and a comparison of AWS vs Azure vs Google Clouds to help you make the choice.
Today we’ll proceed with ASP .NET (Core) and Node.js comparison. These are two renowned, publicly available development environments that scale, fasten, speed up, and empower the development process. Both .NET Core and Node.js have pros and cons, and each is better with every release. When it comes to the choice, the crucial point is the project needs.
For instance, Node.js is considered to provide a wide diversity of the tools that are free of charge. On the contrary, ASP .NET (Core) is thought to be a limited environment because of the Microsoft tag. However, these are just assumptions that do not reveal a complete picture.
We want to reassure you that both programming platforms offer an awesome range of features that meet performance requirements. Let’s see what development environment is best for your business or project.
.NET Core/ASP .NET Core vs Node.js: The Basics
Node.js
As an alternative to Apache HTTP Server, Node.js was created for Apple’s, SmartOS, FreeBSD, AIX, Microsoft Windows, Android and Linux operating systems. As the official site explains Node.js is a software platform built on the basis of V8, where V8, in turn, is the JavaScript engine developed by Google with open source code written in C++.
Within packages, you can find modules (code that has been prewritten) that allows you to cope with programming faster. You can find approximately a million packages, in the NPM toolkit, within the Node.js repository. To easily secure new dependencies you can use an automatic lock-file mechanism. Visual Studio Сode with plugins for Node.js development is considered the widest spread environment for development. Node.js enables designers to use JavaScript everywhere rather than only in browsers and the two most frequent uses as of this writing are web/app servers and the Web of Things. For this reason, Node.js is ideal for messaging-like applications like chat servers, as well as operating internal Arduino-like devices.
.NET Core/ASP .NET Core
In this aspect, .NET Core is totally different, as it is based on C# and is solely used for .NET projects. .NET Core is built on the Common Dialect Runtime which allows developers to use various languages like F#, C++ or Visual Basic. ASP.NET has two primary branches: MVC (Model View Controller) and Web Shapes.
.NET libraries, the most common ones are Swagger, Unity.WebAPI, Serilog, IdentityServer04AspNetIdentity, Nswag, incorporate prewritten code so that data structures were supported. It also has different libraries for encryption, security, and database access. The class libraries are used to render graphics and interact with databases.
There’s also NuGet, a package management tool that tracks and saves versions and updates within dynamic link libraries and handles dependency chains during package installation. There are now 205 000 packages available. Visual Studio and Rider are the most popular development tools, as they simplify and speed up the building of programs.
Asynchronous and Synchronous Processing Models: Node.js vs .NET Core
.NET Core and Node.js have utterly different processing models.
Node.js
Being an asynchronous platform, Node.js server handles multiple requests simultaneously and doesn’t block them. While the code is executed in the main thread, it spawns on different threads to perform other tasks. This is a secret to efficient and lightweight solutions even if the app must be heavily loaded with data.
.NET Core
.NET Core isn't synchronous too. Every request is handled by a separate thread and each I/O is not blocking the thread. Thanks to that ASP .Net Core is one the fastest web frameworks currently among all web frameworks in all languages and exactly asynchronous processing makes it fast.
ASP.NET Core/.Net Core vs Node.js. Community Support
Both development environments can boast of having active and strong community support which ultimately means it won’t be burdensome to find a solution to the problem. However, keep in mind that .NET has more community support on Stack Overflow whereas Node.js is supported more via GitHub. The best example is the Stack Overflow question and answer website that has around 4 million registered users.
The community support for .NET Core appears to be rising as well. Every day, the official Dotnet YouTube channel posts useful video that engages the community in a good way.
Platform Support
Node.js
Node.js was built from the ground up to operate on a variety of platforms. It grew in popularity as a result of this. Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, SmartOS, and IBM AIX are all officially supported.
.NET Core
.NET Core took a different approach, as it was designed from the start to function solely on Windows systems. However, it underwent a major transformation in 2021, and the NET 6 version now is cross-platform and operates on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Scalability
Node.js
Node.js is perfectly designed for distributed systems. Microservices-based software enables components to scale autonomously which prevents an app from falling apart due to its weight. Because a single instance utilizes just one thread, you'll need to use the Cluster module or external process control to load all of the server's cores. A load balancer like AWS ELB/NGINX is required to scale to several servers. There are additional technologies, such as Istio, that allow you to manage services and traffic. As more and more enterprises prefer to develop the software on top of microservices, Node.js has gained tremendous popularity among businesses like eBay, Netflix, Twitter, Uber, and others.
.NET Core
.NET Core is also a very scalable platform. It fits into microservices architecture equally well. Since the platform allows you to develop multi-threaded apps, loading a single server is a little easier than with Node.js. Microsoft has published the Azure Service Fabric SDK for activities such as installation, scaling, and service resilience. This SDK may be used on your own servers, Azure, or AWS. Further documentation may be found here.
.NET Core vs Node.js Performance
Node.js is a popular load-handling framework. As each request from the thread pool is assigned to a single thread in.NET. Requests are queued up when it exits the threads. However, if the queries aren't blocking, this won't be an issue. As can be seen, this kind of request has an influence on productivity.
Not only that, but the sort of web page it displays is also important. For the purpose of producing static pages. By its built-in IIS server, Net Core is likely to prevail. IIS employs kernel-mode caching, which implies that requests for the static page will not even make it out of the kernel. It can perform very CPU-intensive operations faster than node.js on the net core side. Moreover, each release of Net Core pushes the envelope further. With its most recent release. The performance of the Net Core gRPC server is superior to that of other popular languages such as Java, C++, Go.
Due to the asynchronous model, Node.js apps have high performance without being too heavy in comparison to other solutions. According to Nodejs.org, 48% of companies identified increased app performance when they switched to Node.js. However, other tests showcase that .NET Core/ASP .NET Core has better performance than Node.js. There’s no final victory here, as it depends upon the structure and the purpose of the application.
Stability Reliability and Security
ASP.NET Core/.NET Core is definitely a winner in this category. The security and reliability the platform provides make it a great option to create robust software with C# language. Node.js is more reliable for complex enterprise software developed with TypeScript than on its own.
Pros of Using Node.js
- Node.js has been regarded as a full-stack JavaScript for serving both the client and the server-side applications.
- Node.js interprets the JavaScript code via Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. It compiles JavaScript code into the machine code(directly). This makes it easier and faster to implement the code.
- Speed of the code execution also enhanced by the runtime environment as it supports the non-blocking I/O operations.
- Latest versions of Node.js are strongly overlapping with the development of V8. With V8, JavaScript code is converted to byte code for use in a VMs.
Pros of Using .NET Core
- The most important benefit of the .NET Core is its high performance. With recent updates, the code gets much more optimized which improves performance at the very end.
- .NET Core demands less coding now, developers can easily optimize the code structure by means of writing much lesser statements. That ends up with less time spent on development and smaller budgets which puts .NET Core very close to Node.js in terms of development speed.
- Maintaining a large .Net Core application is much more easier comparing to Node.js.
- Platform agnostic nature of the .NET Core makes it easy to create autonomous, self-sufficient, and microservice applications.
- .NET Core is easier to get it to work and work WELL. It puts you, as a developer, into certain limits which are very precise, yet very flexible when you approach things in a right way.
Companies Using Node.js
Many big names armed their products with Node.js. Netflix, PayPal,Medium, eBay. Node.js is very popular among start-ups as it allows you to build products faster and cheaper, especially on early stages of the product.
Companies Using .NET Core/ASP .NET Core
Dell, Stack Overflow, Intel, Intuit, Cisco, Morgan Stanley, Siemens, and many more are using .NET Core for enterprise application development for years.
How do You Make the Right Decision?
Node.js vs .NET Core? If you know the type of app or software you want to develop it will be easier for you to choose the solution. If you still have doubts, as a software development company, we will help you to make the right decision based on your project requirements.
