Node js vs .NET Core: Which One to Choose for Backend Development?

Roy Daniel
CodeX
Published in
8 min readMar 3, 2022

Developing an app is a time taking process. Hence, it is very important for app developers to select the best technology that suits the client’s business. Especially, when it comes to making a choice between Node js and .NET core, it is a daunting task. Both of them pave successful paths for apps. We hope you are aware of the fact that both of them are used in making a robust backend development.

Table of Content

1. Introduction

1.1 What is Node js?

1.2 What is .NET Core?

2. Things to Consider before Choosing Frameworks

3. Node js vs .NET Core: Key Differences

3.1 Processing Modes

3.2 Platform Support

3.3 Scalability

3.4 Performance

3.5 Security of Apps

4. Top Companies using Node js and .NET Core

5. Node js vs .NET Core: Which one to choose for Backend Development?

1. Introduction

Today we’ll compare and contrast ASP.NET (Core) and Node.js. These are two well-known, publicly accessible development environments that help developers expand, accelerate, and empower their work. Both.NET Core and Node.js have advantages and disadvantages, and each is getting better with each release. When it comes to making a decision, the most important factor to consider is the project’s requirements.

1.1 What is Node js?

As everyone knows, Node.js is a free, open source server environment that can allow you to code Javascript outside of the browser. Node js can be used to develop almost all types of Javascript-based server-side web applications. It is a web supported development framework that supports all types of businesses.

You can use Node.js in a variety of operating systems and devices (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)

We can use Javascript across the entire stack if we use Node.js. That entails rapid and cost-effective web application development. Node.js has a large collection of ready-to-use packages and dynamic link libraries that will save you a lot of time. NPM is in charge of such libraries (Node Package Manager)

Because Node.js supports asynchronous programming, a Node.js-based server does not have to wait for data from the API. The server makes a call to the API, and if no data is received, the server continues on to the next API, the Events API. Enterprise application development speeds up when you use Node.js and its package management tool for it.

1.2 What is .NET Core?

We all know what .NET core is and what are its functions. To start with, this object-oriented programming language (C Sharp or Visual Basic) is used to create the.NET Core framework. It quickly established itself as one of the preferable robust, cross-platform frameworks for most .NET projects. It also allows for the use of non-.NET foundation programming languages. .NET Core is a dynamic, lightweight, quick, and cross-platform web development framework that was built from the ground up. It offers the essential capabilities needed to run a basic.NET Core application.

The.NET Core framework also includes pre-built class libraries that enable both simple and complicated data structures. It has libraries for practically everything, including security, encryption, and access to databases. They also come with ready-to-use class libraries for a variety of software development tasks, including XML processing, graphics rendering, and so on.

Both Node.js and .NET core are the most chosen ones among all the other available multiple platforms. So in order to choose from these frameworks they must know what factors to consider before starting a web development project.

2. Things to Consider before Choosing Web Development Frameworks

2.1 Request Handling

The single-threaded asynchronous callback handler is used by Node.js, whereas .NET now employs exactly asynchronous programming to process requests. The original ASP.NET version, on the other hand, employed a synchronous processing model. Each of your requests is handled by a different thread pool in Apache. Node.js, on the other hand, is single-threaded and responds to your calls asynchronously, without stopping your requests. As a result, Node.js is an excellent solution for I/O-bound applications.

Compared to node.js, .NET has a little better multi thread handling capabilities. .NET used multi-thread options to execute multiple queries together. After the version 4.5 of .NET, the async/ await paradigm of request handling has been used to manage requests without delaying your application’s operation. It’s a task-based approach that makes use of callbacks, async/await programming models, and promises utterly different processing models.

2.2 The Container Functions & Potential

If you’re considering dealing with containers or containerizing your roadmaps, you should evaluate both the.NET Core and Node.js frameworks because they both have different capabilities. A Node.js developer may create their application faster and quickly reproduce build components by using Node.js containers. The microservices architecture is implemented in Node.js, allowing for horizontal growth and rapid development. Developers can utilize containerized Node.js apps to scale up or down according to workload requirements in this fashion. .NET developers may now deploy and construct desktop, mobile server, and web-based workloads in .NET Core.

2.3 Community Support

Both these web app development environments can claim to be a very active and substantial community to support concerns and imply solutions to a specific developer’s problem. It will not be difficult with both .NET as well as Node.js. But just to keep in mind that .NET has a strong community support on Stack Overflow, and Node.js has a larger community support on GitHub. The Stack Overflow is a Q&A community for developers, which has about 4 million registered members, is the best example.

Support for .NET Core appears to be growing in the community as well. Most of the time, their official Dotnet YouTube channel publishes a useful video that benefits the community.

3. .NET Core vs Node.js: Key Differences

3.1 Processing Models

Each one has its own way of processing and operating. For both Node Js and .NET the functioning is entirely different from each other. If we were to compare the operations of both then we can say that Node.js is an asynchronous platform, it can handle multiple requests at the same time without blocking them. In Node, the machine code is actively working on the main thread, and concurrently spawning across other threads as well to complete other tasks. Even though the programme must be substantially loaded with data, this is a key to effective and lightweight solutions.

.NET Core isn’t synchronous either. Every request is handled by its own thread, and no I/O blocks the thread. As a result, ASP.Net Core is currently one of the fastest web app frameworks in the web development realm, thanks to asynchronous processing.

3.2 Platform Support

Isn’t it true that both Node.js and .NET are platform-friendly in nature and offer compatible business apps. Node.js tech stack was built from the ground up to run on a variety of platforms. That was the reason why it gained more popularity. Well, when we speak about platform support and integrable solutions, node.js is easily compatible with any operating systems such as Windows, Linux, macOS, SmartOS, and IBM platforms too. NET core took a different approach, as it was designed from the start to function only on Windows systems. But from 2018 it went through a massive revolution and the NET core 3.1 version runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

3.3 Scalability

The scalability section of Node.js is unquestionable because Node.js has always shown incredible traits of advancements. It was created by keeping distributed systems in mind like Microservices. We know that Microservices-based software development allows components to scale independently, preventing a programme to fall without any intimation of extra weight. Because a single instance uses only one thread, they need to load each process in the server’s cores with the help of Clusters or external process control. Thus, you will have to grow multiple servers, and need a load balancer like AWS ELB/NGINX. Additional technology stacks are also available for you to help and manage services and traffic. There are many large companies using Node.js such as Netflix, Twitter, Uber, eBay, and others who prefer to develop software on top of microservices.

On the other hand, if we speak about .NET core then, .NET Core is a very scalable platform. It’s equally at home in a microservices architecture. Loading a single server is a little easier than with Node.js because the platform allows you to construct multi-threaded apps. For tasks like installation, scaling, and service resiliency, Microsoft has released the Azure Service SDK which will be helpful for developing robust, cross platform and scalable applications.

3.4 Performance

The performance of the application is of utmost consideration, we must be quite cautious about the use cases that are utilized to assess performance. What we need to realize is the difference between being fast and being able to handle a load.

Node js is a popular load handling framework. Because each request from the thread pool is assigned to a single thread by .NET, Requests are queued when they reach the end of the threads. It won’t be a problem if the requests aren’t blocked. As you can see, the type of requests you make has an impact on performance.

Static pages are built-in IIS servers, which makes the core processing faster.Net core is likely to win. IIS uses kernel-mode caching, which implies that requests for the static page will never leave the kernel.

3.5 Security

In this area of reliable and secure app development, no one is less. Both Nodejs and .NET core are excellent in offering high-quality security and robustness. The security and reliability of both the platforms provides a great option to create robust software. Node.js is more reliable for complex enterprise software developed with TypeScript than on its own.

4. Top Companies using Node js and .NET Core

The asp.net development world is a competitive one. The list of companies is not limited, there are many popular companies who are using Node.js and .NET core. The big shot names in this list are Dell, Intel, Cisco, Morgan Stanley, HCL, Go daddy and more. For more insights, let us see in depth about how go daddy and HCL has made .NET and Node.js a bigger part of their development processes.

HCL uses cross-platform native app development to help solve difficult business problems by increasing user experience, speeding app development, and improving collaboration.

GoDaddy uses this platform to provide small businesses with all of the technical assistance they require. The company claims that .NET Core allows them faster development, higher performance benchmark, and scalability.

Also, some of the famous companies that has made Node.js as a main technology

PayPal, Netflix, Uber, LinkedIn, eBay

5. Node js vs .NET Core: Which one to choose for Backend Development?

The answer to which one is the best among .NET Core vs. Node.js is not certain. Though after this blog, it will be easier to choose a solution if you know what type of app or software you want to create. Well, the things are moreover dependent on the project’s requirements, as well as the need of hosting and constraints.

However, using Microsoft’s visual studio support and enterprise-level influence, .Net Core has begun to move forward passing Node js. As a result, we believe.net core is leading in all of these benchmarks as well as cloud support.

And Node.js is built on top of V8, which is written in C++. As a result, Node has a second layer below it that includes additional effort while compiling the code. However,.NET core generates a.dll that is much closer to machine-readable.

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Roy Daniel
CodeX
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Writer | Loves to write articles on Technology. Technical Blogger | Contributor | Designer | Entrepreneur | Reading is my Passion.