I have read lots of articles that compare Ruby on Rails (Rails) with Node.js. In my opinion, comparing Node.js with Rails is like comparing an apple with an orange. In general, Node.js is an application runtime environment. It allows us to run Javascript on the server-side. Rails is, on the other hand, a framework providing tools and methods that can help you boost up your web application implementation.
In this article, I want to provide an overview of Rails, Node.js, and how we can use them to develop web applications. Furthermore, I want to share my experience to support you to choose the right option for your projects.
What is Ruby on Rails?
Rails is a Web application framework written in the Ruby language. It contains all features you need to build a web application from scratch. Rails uses MVC (Model View Controller) pattern to control back-end application logic.
Advantages
- Rails provides handy features which help building applications in a small amount of time. You can use generator commands to create e.g. controllers, models, and views. You can also use migration commands to create migration files and interact with the database.
- Rails follows the “Convention over Configuration” philosophy. This helps you understand the idea of using the MVC model and structure the application.
- Learning Rails is not difficult as they provide qualitative documentation. Also, the community is large and very supportive.
Disadvantages
- The runtime speed of Rails is slow comparing to apps written in Node.js environment. It appears to be fast at the beginning. Yet it can be slow because of increasing requests or slow queries when your project grows.
- Rails is not flexible. By providing sets of dependencies and couple modules (route, migration, ORM..) you have no chance but to follow its instruction. You should not go with Rails if your application might change much in the future.
- Rails is one of the best frameworks that turns your project from an idea into production in a short time. But, you need to understand the magic of Rails under the hood to avoid issues in the future.
What is Node.js?
As mentioned, Node.js is a JavaScript environment and an open-source platform for executing JavaScript code server-side. With the help of event-driven, non-blocking I/O, Node.js is more efficient and can handle tons of requests in a short amount of time.
Advantages
- Node.js provides a full package for web development from the HTTP server to templating engine. It is a great option for high demand or real-time applications.
- Node.js provides powerful performance. Behind Node.js, libuv (written by C++) and Chrome V8 engine are 2 core libraries that handle non-blocking I/O, event-driven.
- Node.js allows you to use JavaScript on the back-end and front-end. Thus, it gives JavaScript developers the opportunity to become full-stack engineers. You can manage both the presentation layer and data access layer to help increase the development process. It simplifies the process of developing apps and makes them more efficient.
Disadvantages
- You have to write more lines of code than Rails to create the same application. If you have no experience working with MVC model then it will take time.
- You also need to understand middleware to do more things before and after requests. It is a subset of chained functions that run between the client request and the response from the server.
- You have to get used to asynchronous programming and familiar with async/await or Promises. Node.js is a single-threaded framework. It uses an event loop to monitor various events and executes registered callbacks. If you work with other programming languages like Python or Ruby, you might find it difficult to understand. It is easy to fall into callback hell.
I hope that you have some ideas after reading this article. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at ITGRATE, if you want to discuss more. I’ll see you in upcoming articles.
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