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10 Most Popular NodeJS Apps of 2021

Welcome to this year’s list of 10 Most popular NodeJS apps. In recent years, NodeJS has gained a lot of popularity. In fact, a large number of companies choose NodeJS to create an effective digital presence and stay ahead of their competitors. But what is NodeJS?

 

According to the official website, NodeJS is a JavaScript runtime designed to build scalable network applications. It is similar to and influenced by systems like Ruby’s Event Machine and Python’s Twisted.

 

Today, software developers use it to create both the front- and backend of an application. The main type of apps it is used for are:

  • Internet of Things
  • Real-Time Chats
  • Single-Page Applications
  • Real-Time Collaboration Tools
  • Streaming Applications

 

most popular NodeJS apps
Source: www.nodejs.org

 

There are also different frameworks for NodeJS aimed at making programming even easier. Among them are:

  • Express.JS – Express is a minimal and flexible framework, that provides robust sets of features for web and mobile app development.
  • KOA.JS – KOA is designed by the same team as Express, it allows you to increase error-handling.
  • Socket.IO – Socket enables real-time and event-based communication in two directions. It works reliably on any platform, let that be a browser or a device.
  • Hapi – Hapi is an open-source framework that was originally developed to better handle Walmart’s Black Friday sale.

 

So, now that we know a bit more about NodeJS, here are some of the biggest and most popular NodeJS apps belonging to some of the largest companies in the world.

 

Enjoy!

 

1. LinkedIn

Our first contender for most popular NodeJS apps is LinkedIn, which changed to NodeJS from Ruby on Rails. Their reason was performance. In other words, they had lagging problems with the latter when just barely 8% of their users were connected to their mobile application.

 

As they wanted to fix their problem, they evaluated three solutions they could have gone with:

  • Rails/Event Machine
  • Python/Twisted
  • NodeJS

 

They chose NodeJS because of several benefits; the main three of them are:

  • It is up to twenty times faster than Rails in some cases
  • It only uses three servers instead of thirty
  • Front-end JavaScript developers could deal with back-end coding as well, making it possible to merge their teams

 

LinkedIn made the change because of how great NodeJS could handle their needs as their company grew, and their application needed to deal with more than in its beginnings.

 

LinkedIn App NodeJS
Source: www.mspoweruser.com

 

2. Netflix

Second among the most popular NodeJS apps is Netflix. Even though Netflix used Node.JS to an extent as they started out, they were using the NodeQuark infrastructure at the beginning.

 

As Netflix wanted to start content production, they had to rethink what to use instead of their then NodeQuark infrastructure.

 

NodeQuark handled some data and a large userbase well but was not ideal for a larger amount of data, which Netflix would need after their change. That is why they made the choice to use NodeJS.

 

Netflix NodeJS App
Source: www.theverge.com

 

By making this transition, the new infrastructure they made could easily handle the amount of data and users they had.

 

It also made it possible for them to provide an incredibly fast application for much of their customer’s delight.

 

Their choice turned out great as they never changed from NodeJS, it stayed the best choice for them throughout their growth and development.

 

3. NASA

Yes! NASA is part of our 10 most popular NodeJS apps o 2021, how cool is that?

 

NASA traditionally kept their data siloed in individual missions. The reason behind this choice was mainly just convenience, but this approach started changing when they had a mishap.

 

Their goal is to ensure astronauts’ safety; small mistakes and service interruptions could easily turn into life-or-death situations.

 

NASA’s team was already writing their applications mostly with JavaScript. With that given, NodeJS was an obvious choice when they tried to center around a single platform.

 

NASA app NodeJS
Source: www.nasa.gov

 

They also made an application with Node that is accessible for anyone interested in their streaming from space or other content made by them.

 

NodeJS is fast and reliable, so it was a great solution for NASA’s cloud-based database system that was going to be used by dozens of users who require data instantly.

 

4. PayPal

PayPal made the decision to change from Java to JavaScript and with that to NodeJS, resulting in faster page load and response time and doubling the number of requests they can handle at any given second.

 

NodeJS Java PayPal
Source: www.softwarebrothers.co

 

The changes helped them by enabling their browser and server applications to be written in JavaScript. It unified their engineering team and allowed them to understand and react according to their clients’ wants and needs faster anywhere if they need some changes made.

 

PayPal App Node.JS
Source: www.apptunix.com

 

5. eBay

Considering the amount of traffic on eBay and the dependability needed in each transaction made, they needed a reliable and stable application.

 

On their website, they based their entire workflow mostly on Java. But for their application, it did not quite fit the requirements. That is why they began exploring NodeJS.

 

They had two main requirements; one was to make their app as fast as possible and to maintain the live connection. The second was for the application to be able to handle a huge number of specific services displaying information on pages.

 

Ebay NodeJS App
Source: www.pages.ebay.com

 

When they tried to do this with what they already knew best, Java, it consumed more resources than what they had hoped for. They could not afford this on a bigger scale, so they needed a change in what language they used.

 

At first, their back-end developers were hesitant about changing their ways, as they did not believe that JavaScript was reliable and efficient compared to Java.

 

However, the company answered any raised concerns with real-life examples, resulting in developers understanding the core value of changing to NodeJS, and moved forward with implementing it in their application.

 

As a result, eBay is our 5th among the 10 most popular NodeJS apps. Great job eBay, you made the right choice.

 

6. Yahoo

Yahoo is not only one of the most popular NodeJS apps today, but they are actually an early adopter of the framework, as they moved to NodeJS earlier than most.

 

When their developers found it, they first started using it for file uploads. As later they wanted to have the same code base for both the client and server-side, they considered their options and chose to go with NodeJS.

 

Yahoo Node.JS App
Source: www.androidcommunity.com

 

The company decided to make this larger, more time-consuming investment; it took them over 12 months to make the change.

 

Showing how great their decision panned out, they are using Node for 75% of all of their web applications.

 

7. Uber

Uber was among the first companies that started using NodeJS, they wanted a fast and scalable platform. They needed this because their application needed to handle a large number of requests and notifications.

 

Uber Node.JS
Source: www.techcrunch.com

 

Considering that their whole business builds on matching a rider to a driver they needed a system that could easily and accurately do this without any problems. NodeJS was their perfect solution.

 

With it, they can inspect and change any program without needing to restart it, for Uber this was a great feature while running their application.

 

8. Mozilla

When Mozilla reached half a billion installs, they made the choice to use Node for two reasons. One of these reasons was memory footprint, it was impossible to continue with their older solution that only supported half a million users.

 

Mozilla App Node.JS
Source: www.mozilla.org

 

Their second reason was about cryptography, it was advantageous for them to be able to use the same language on both the server- and client-side.

 

It was empowering for the whole team to have everything in one single repository and there is no dependency on any other language.

 

9. Walmart

Walmart is one of the biggest retail chains in the United States, which dominates in a lot of states with its e-commerce shop. Before changing to Node, they experienced a data leak that prompted them to make some changes.

 

After changing to NodeJS, the company’s app was secured and protected, with excellent experience for their users.

Walmart App Node.JS
Source: www.corporate.walmart.com

 

They use Node mostly as a customizable layer, being able to build new APIs at any given time, deploying them within hours. Their application is also able to help the company get precise results from the client’s side.

 

10. Groupon

Our last contender in the most popular NodeJS apps of the year is Groupon. Groupon sold over 1.5 billion coupons to its 34 million active global customers across Europe, Asia, North- and South America.

 

They at first started with only a website, they made sure to improve website performance to give their visitors a seamless and exceptional purchasing experience.

 

However as they slowly grew to their size today, they of course needed an application that could handle the number of users and make the experience just as good for mobile users.

 

In order to make sure this application is the best possible, their engineering team decided to change from Ruby, which they have been using before this task, to NodeJS.

 

Their choice of change was based on the fact that they simply outgrew Ruby on Rails, and it became harder to maintain it.

 

The reason they went with Node was that JavaScript is nearly a universal language between front- and backend developers, unifying their development team.

 

Groupon App Node.JS
Source: www.retailconnections.co.uk

 

Summary of the most popular NodeJS apps of 2021

It may not be the best choice for those that are just starting out with their businesses, but this technology is being chosen by some of the biggest companies to maintain their applications with complex infrastructures.

 

However, as even as small companies grow they repeatedly change to NodeJS for its ability to handle the amount of data they need.

 

 

If these big enterprises keep using it, there is a constant need for Node to develop its technology and stay relevant, making it possibly a great choice even in the future for any company.

 

For anyone interested in trying it out and seeing how it works, they can easily download NodeJS from its official website.

 

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