MY ONE BLOGby Manishdai
Software Development

What is Node.js?

Quick answer

An open-source runtime that lets developers run JavaScript outside the browser, commonly used to build servers and tools.

Node.js, explained

Node.js was created by Ryan Dahl in 2009 and is built on the V8 JavaScript engine from Google Chrome. It made it possible for developers to use the same language, JavaScript, on both the frontend and the backend.

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking input and output model, which makes it efficient for applications that handle many simultaneous connections, such as chat apps, APIs, and real-time dashboards. It is less suited to heavy CPU-bound computation on its main thread. Node.js comes with npm, a package manager that provides access to a very large ecosystem of open-source libraries. Popular frameworks include Express, Fastify, and NestJS. Alternatives with similar goals include Deno and Bun.

Related terms

Backend

The server-side part of an application that handles data storage, business logic, and integrations, out of the user's direct view.

JavaScript

The programming language of the web, used to make websites interactive and, with Node.js, to build servers and tools.

TypeScript

A programming language developed by Microsoft that adds static types to JavaScript and compiles to plain JavaScript.

Guides that mention Node.js