Top 5 Best Node Js Developers Tools To Use

The need for better tools and technologies seems like a never-ending concept. With time passing by, these tools and technologies keep on evolving at a fanatic pace. The following post focuses on the best node js IDEs and tools to take into account. However, before we directly jump onto that, let us brush a bit more about what Node.js is and why the technology seems to be pretty much in vogue across the globe.

Introduction:

Well, Node.js is one of the leading technologies that act as a popular run-time environment leading to the development of fully functional web applications. It is more kind of an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime mainly used to develop highly functional, dynamic, robust, and scalable applications. The technology turns out to be open source and quite recommended for cross-platform development projects.

Other than being open source, cross-platform, and Javascript runtime environment, Node.js tends to offer developers a comprehensive set of tools, and libraries for seamless working in the non-blocking, event-driven I/O paradigm, which we will be discussing further in the following post.

If you are looking for a technology that ensures fast, scalable, and real-time application development, then look no further than Node.js. You see this particular tech seems to have an insane amount of capacity to handle a large number of simultaneous connections and that too with high throughput. As mentioned earlier, the tech incorporates non-blocking, event-driven I/O so that it remains lightweight and efficient especially when developing data-intensive real-time applications which are capable of running across a wide range of distributed devices.

Now I am pretty sure you are well-versed in the fact that Javascript seems to be one of the most popular programming languages powering millions of websites worldwide and it doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon. As a result, it seamlessly droves or grabs the attention of dozens of developers and designers for conducting successful web development projects. Node.js is a single-threaded, open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for developing fast, scalable server-side and networking applications. Technically speaking, the Node.js technology runs on the V8 JavaScript runtime engine, and it uses event-driven, non-blocking I/O architecture, as a result, your developed web application is bound to be an efficient, powerful, robust, and highly scalable real-time application.

Node.js technology in short is:

• Easy to get started with
• Highly scalable
• Efficient and speedy
• Incorporates numerous packages in the NPM ecosystem
• Strong backend
• Supports Cross-platform
• Easy to maintain

Since its inception, Node.js development technology has been growing at a pretty exponential rate. It may quite interest you to know that the popular runtime has crossed 1 billion downloads, pretty amazing right? And the tech seems to have backed more than 20 million total sites on the internet including Twitter, Spotify, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, and GoDaddy. Well, you will always have this option for choosing a reliable Node.js development company that carries skills, expertise, and experience in ensuring a successful development project in accordance with your needs.

What can be developed using the Node.js Tech stack?

• Real-time applications/chats
• Web applications
• Data Streaming
• Internet of Things (IoT) Applications
• REST API Server
• Complex Single Page Applications (SPAs)

Further below I would like to shed some light on some of the crucial benefits of using Node.js for your web development project.

Benefits Of Using Node.Js

#1 High Performance:

One of the obvious benefits of using Node.js is that it ensures high performance. In today’s cut-throat competitive times, developing lightning-fast applications has become pretty important for successful results. And since the Node.js technology is event-driven, single-threaded design makes sure that multiple requests can be well taken care of without clogging the RAM. Apart from this, the event-loop and non-blocking I/O operations enable different codes to be executed at a fanatic rate and this definitely ensures a positive impact on the application’s overall performance.

Node.js is powered by the Google Chrome v8 engine and is written in C++ which helps developers to convert Javascript to machine code. Also, the tech giant doesn’t leave any stone unturned in making significant improvements in regard to efficiency and security, ensuring strong support for Javascript technology. Moreover, due to non-blocking I/O operations, the run-time environment, code execution becomes faster and seamless.

So yes, Node.js definitely results in fast execution, better compilers, security patchworks, and high-end scalability.

#2 Easy To Get Started With:

Another amazing aspect or advantage of using Node.js is that it is pretty easy to get started with. So now you know why developers all across the globe are going gaga over development technology. You see frontend developers, most of them tend to have some familiarity with Javascript, C++, and HTML so it becomes way easier for them to get started using Node.js for the backend as well. Moreover, the working of Node.js is pretty simple and takes pretty little time to accomplish a successful development project.

#3 Cost-Effective:

The next amazing benefit offered by Node.js is that it is pretty cost-effective. You see here with the help of technology programmers tend to develop server-side JavaScript and frontend JavaScript codes in a pretty easy manner. You see when you choose Node.js as your core tech stack, the need for two resource teams automatically gets eliminated, saving ample time, money, and energy resulting in the best possible outcome.

It may quite interest you to know that LinkedIn’s development team successfully switched from Ruby on Rails to Node.js and you can see the result for yourself. The servers were reduced subsequently from 30 to 3 only. Slowly and steadily, the development teams began delegating and using resources more effectively and began shifting from debugging to serious application development.

Apart from these mentioned benefits, Node.js comprises the world’s most comprehensive package manager featuring a wide range of tools and libraries which we will be discussing about right in the next segment. Above all, Node.js offers amazing, large, and active community support. No matter how simple or bizarre your development difficulties are, trust these guys they are specialists, carrying seamless expertise and ensuring the best possible solutions from their space.

Top 5 Best Node.js Developer’s Tools To Consider:

#1 Express.Js:

One of the best and the most popular Node.js developer tools to take into account is Express.js. Being a popular Node.js web framework, Express.js provides a wide range of features and functionalities to conduct seamless and successful web and mobile application development projects. Whether you are planning to create a single page or a multipage, or a hybrid web application, Express.js definitely works wonders for your needs and requirements. Some of the core benefits of using Express.js include:

• Saves ample time
• Ensures efficient development
• Fast
• Economical or cost-effective
• Easy to get started with
• Asynchronous
• Can be customized easily

Companies vouching for Express.js include Netflix, IBM, eBay, Uber, and a lot more. So Express.js must be considered among your top priorities as it is pretty easy to get started with for any and every Node.js developer. They can develop different kinds of web applications in a pretty short span of time. Here with express.js, you are bound to receive simple routing and middleware for making relevant and quick decisions and getting correct responses in return. If you are not using Express.js what happens is, that you have to write your own code and this can turn out to be pretty time-consuming, tiring, and monotonous. So basically if you are looking for a Node.js developer tool that is pretty simple to use, efficient, flexible, and highly scalable then choose Express.js.

#2 PM2:

PM2 is another leading Node.js development tool to take into consideration. You see this one is a pretty easy and simplest developer tool that also serves as a successful process manager. PM2 incorporates a wide set of features that are ideal for a production environment and of course, has a wide community of developers who are highly skilled and experienced. What makes PM2 a cut above?

• Behavior Configuration
• Watch and Reload
• Hot reload
• Development Workflow
• Startup Scripts
• PaaS Compliance
• Key metrics monitoring
• Cluster Mode
• Log Management
• Max Memory load
• Container Integration
• Deployment Workflow

You see PM2 has lots and lots of uses such as:

• Instant restart after crashes – with the help of PM2, the procedures keep on running even if there is some kind of server failure or anything else.
• Monitoring and managing procedures remotely – Here you will find a magic-powered web portal that enables you to keep an eye on remote procedures and manage them seamlessly.
• Not just Node.js apps, PM2 is way more than that! – PM2 can keep your Minecraft server online.
• Restart Persistence – It may also interest you to know that PM2 successfully remembers all the procedures and restarts them right after the system gets restarted.

#3 Mocha.Js:

The next interesting and intimidating Node.js developer tool to take a look at is Mocha.js. Now this one is a test framework highly based on Node.js. Developers tend to test both in a console as well in the browser. So whether you are conducting  TDD (Test-Driven Development) and BDD (Behavior Driven Development), with Mocha.js everything is pretty much sorted. If you are looking for a reliable Node.js developer tool that runs serially, enabling flexible and accurate reporting then Mocha.js is the right tool to take into consideration. In the end, you will be left with error-free software.

• Highly supports both Behavior Development (BDD) and Test Driven Development (TDD)
• Offers numerous installation options
• Supports assertion library
• Asynchronous testing becomes easy
• Integrates beautifully with Node.js development project
• Seamless customization is possible
• Highly compatible with different browsers
• Quick changes implementation is possible
• Early detection of bugs and errors
• Enhances growth and scalability

#4 Meteor:

Meteor is such a framework that is quite popular among Node.js developers across the globe. The Node.js tool has the capability to script cross-platform codes be it for Android, iOS, or web. Usually, the Node.js developer tool can be well integrated with MongoDB but has the potential to be seamlessly implemented with any and every Javascript UI widget library. Do you know what is the most amazing aspect of this particular developer tool? It has the ability to shorten 1000 lines of code into just 10. So basically developing fast and easy-to-use applications is quite possible with the platform in comparison to any other option available. Some of the key features of Meteor include:

• The tool integrates well with Angular, Vue, React, Svelte, and other frontend frameworks seamlessly
• The tool ensures highly detailed documentation for developers
• Developing full-stack applications becomes easy
• High-end community support
• High-end security

However, there is only one issue here, it’s the performance. Yes, Meteor’s performance becomes its huge bottleneck. Also, tracking real-time applications definitely raises the overall development cost.

#5 WebPack:

Last but certainly not least comes Webpack. Another intimidating, unique, and popular tool that assures fast and seamless development in comparison to other available tools and serving assets. Wondering why Webpack is in the following list of the top Node.js developer’s tools to consider, well, it simplifies the deployment process to a great extent. Why shouldn’t it be? So in other words, the loading time gets minimized which ultimately assists you in beating the competition and developing seamless applications.

So if you are looking for a developer tool that speeds up the development journey, removes issues for overwriting global variables, makes code shorter,  ensures seamless splitting of the code, compiles with a wide range of Javascript modules, supports flagging, then look no further than Webpack.

Conclusion:

And we are done for now! I hope you exactly know why these are the top Node.js developer tools to take into consideration. If you look for a Node.js development company, just ask them which tools they are well-acquainted with and if the answer lies in one of these, then simply go for it. So I hope the post was quite insightful for you! Keep watching the space for further information and updates.

About the Author:

Colin Rooney is a Tech enthusiast and technical consultant. He loves to write tech blogs related to Angular, Vue, React and React Native in his leisure time. You can find his bylines in many famous blogs.

Find Me On Twitter