Node.js Vs Angular – An in-depth comparison

Web development technologies have evolved drastically in the past recent years.

The technologies that were once known to be cutting-edge have now become obsolete. For instance, technologies like Node.js & Angular has taken over the world of web development right now.

According to Stack Overflow 2017 survey, both Node.js & Angular were top 2 frameworks used for web development in 2017.

Source: Stack Overflow Survey 2017

In fact, both Node.js & Angular remained on top 2 positions in 2018 as well.

Source: Stack Overflow Survey 2018

Reason? – JavaScript.

JavaScript is used everywhere, from web browser to mobile, desktop, AR/VR, IoT, Server-side, etc. As a result, JavaScript has dominated web development so much so that you’ve no choice now but to use JavaScript in your web development project.

That being said, let’s compare the two most popular JavaScript frameworks – Node.js and Angular.

What is Node.js?

Node.js is an open-source server framework that runs on a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Unix.

It is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine and has features like event-driven and non-blocking I/O model, which makes it lightweight and efficient.

In layman terms, Node.js is an ideal framework for developing server-side, data-intensive, scalable web apps.

Following are the key features of Node.js framework.

Key features of Node.js

• Open source – Node.js is free and completely open-source for anyone to download and use.
• Enhanced performance – The framework allows Node.js developers to perform non-blocking operations, which enhances the performance of a web application.
• Server development – Node.js has incredible in-built APIs using which developers can easily make different kinds of servers like DNS server, TCP server, HTTP server, and more.
• Unit testing – Node.js is blessed with a significant unit testing called Jasmine using which developers can easily test written code.
• Scalability – You can scale a Node.js application in both Vertical and Horizontal way, helping you improvise the performance.

SEE ALSO: Tutorial: NestJS for Node.js applications

What is Angular.js?

Angular is an open-source, client-side framework launched by Google in 2009. It is mainly used for building single-page applications as well as applications having separate functional layers.

One of the biggest benefits of Angular is that it binds data using Expressions and extends HTML attributes with Directives. This, in turn, helps developers in adding dynamic views to web apps.

But, the main reason why Angular has attained the top 2nd position among top JavaScript framework is because of its Model-View-Whatever architecture.

The MVW architecture of Angular allows building data-driven, interactive web apps, making it the most-preferred JavaScript framework as a result.

Following are the key features of the Angular framework.

Key features of Angular.js

• MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework – Angular is integrated with a dynamic and easy-to-use MVC framework, which makes it easier for Angular developers to build a client-side web application.
• POJO (Plain-Old-JavaScript-Objects) model – If we consider functionality, the plain-old-javascript-objects are fully self-sufficient. Simply put, the POJO model offers well-organized objects and logics in a natural manner.
• MVW (Model-View-Whatever) architecture – On top MVC framework, the Angular is comprised of MVW architecture in which the view basically manipulates and remodels DOM to update data and behavior.
• Easy to use – Angular can easily decouple the DOM manipulation from your favorite app logic, making it an all-time easy to use JavaScript framework compared to others.

SEE ALSO: What’s new in Angular v8?

Difference between Node.js and Angular.js

As you can see, both Node.js and Angular are different from each other in many ways. They’ve their own specializations and sets of benefits for web application development.

But there are certain things which are unclear. So, let’s compare them both to see how both these JavaScript platforms play different roles.

1 – Basics

The Node.js framework is designed for building scalable web applications & web servers. However, the Node.jsteam has added the possibility for mobile application development recently.

The Angular framework, on the other hand, is designed to create structured applications for both desktop and mobile platform. In addition, Angular is also an ideal framework for developing dynamic web apps.

2 – Installation & deployment

In Node.js, while the developers can write code in JavaScript but since Node.js has a run-time environment, the developers must install Node.json their systems to create the development environment.

Other the other hand, the Angular developers are not required to install the framework on their systems. They can directly embed the Angular framework in code just like any other JavaScript files.

3 – Core architecture

The Node.js framework was created based on Google’s V8 JavaScript Engine as a run-time environment. And to create it, a number of programming languages were used like C, C++, and JavaScript.

Unlike Node.js and other JavaScript frameworks, the Angular is written completely in JavaScript. In fact, it even follows all JavaScript syntax rules.

4 – Programming language and paradigm support

Both Node & Angular support a variety of programming languages.

For instance, Node.js supports TypeScript, CoffeeScript, and Ruby, in addition to JavaScript. Angular, on the other hand, supports TypeScript, Dart, and CoffeeScript, in addition to JavaScript.

And as far as paradigms are concerned, Node.js supports functional, object-oriented, concurrency-oriented, event-driven, and sub/pub programming paradigms, while Angular supports functional, object-oriented, and event-driven programming paradigms.

5 – Working with data

Angular supports two-way data binding to keep the data between a web app’s model and view synchronized automatically. However, the Angular does not provide any sort of feature for writing database queries.

Node.js, on the other hand, lets developers generate database queries directly in JavaScript. This, in turn, makes it easier for developers to create database queries even in non-relational databases like CouchDB and MongoDB.

6 – Use cases

The Angular features allow programmers to build interactive, client-side web applications, making the framework widely used by JavaScript developers nowadays.

Node.js, on the other hand, is mainly used by JavaScript developers to create fast & scalable networking and server-side applications. The Node.js features offered by its run-time environment helps developers in building applications with real-time collaborative editing & drawing.

In a nutshell…

Node.js is a run-time environment, while Angular is a client-side framework.

That means you can develop isomorphic applications by integrating Node.js and Angular frameworks. In fact, both of them can also be used as primary components in MEAN Stack Development. Though it gets a bit tricky, so it is wise to consult with a company providing web development services to ensure the integration is done the right way.

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