Features of Node.js

Learn about a few key features of Node.js in this lesson.

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What is Node.js?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a web browser. Let’s take a look at what each of these words mean.

  • Open-source: Node.js has a healthy community of collaborators who work on keeping Node.js feature-rich and up-to-date.
  • Cross-platform: Node.js applications can be run on Windows, macOS, or Linux.
  • Runtime environment: Node.js is built on Google Chrome’s V8 engine and provides everything you need to run JavaScript outside the browser.

One-man army

A Node.js app runs in a single process. While this certainly has its pros and cons, the asynchronous nature of Node.js allows it to handle multiple requests to a server without the hassle of managing threads.

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So many packages

Node.js has over 1,000,000 open-source packages hosted on npmA package manager for JavaScript. This has helped Node.js grow drastically. It is often easier to use a package rather than writing code from scratch. Code reusability has enhanced greatly with the use of packages.

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Under the hood

Node.js uses Google’s open-source, high-performance JavaScript and WebAssembly engine called V8. This gives Node.js a stronger performance compared to other frameworks.

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