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.NET vs Django vs Node.js: What are the differences?
Introduction
This article compares the key differences between .NET, Django, and Node.js, which are popular frameworks used for web development.
Programming Language Support: One of the main differences between these frameworks is the programming language used. .NET mainly supports languages such as C# and VB.NET, while Django is based on Python, and Node.js is primarily used with JavaScript. The choice of programming language might depend on factors such as developer expertise, project requirements, and ecosystem maturity.
Architecture: Each framework follows a different architectural pattern. .NET uses a multi-tier architecture, where web applications are divided into multiple layers, such as presentation, business logic, and data access. Django follows a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, where the model represents the data, the view manages the user interface, and the controller handles the logic. Node.js adopts an event-driven, non-blocking architecture that allows for scalability and efficient handling of concurrent requests.
Community and Ecosystem: The size and maturity of the community and ecosystem surrounding a framework can greatly impact its adoption and support. .NET has a large and established community, with a wide range of libraries, tools, and resources available. Django also has a strong community, particularly in the Python ecosystem, and offers a rich set of packages and extensions. Node.js benefits from a vibrant and rapidly growing community that contributes to its extensive library and module ecosystem.
Performance and Scalability: Performance and scalability are important factors to consider when selecting a web framework. .NET, as a compiled framework, can provide high performance and scalability, particularly when combined with technologies such as ASP.NET Core. Django, being based on Python, may face performance challenges in certain scenarios. Node.js, with its event-driven and non-blocking architecture, has gained popularity for its ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections efficiently and is often used for real-time applications.
Tooling and Development Environment: The tooling and development environment provided by a framework can greatly impact developer productivity. .NET has a mature and feature-rich Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called Visual Studio, which offers extensive debugging, profiling, and project management tools. Django benefits from robust tooling, such as the Django Admin interface and the Django ORM. Node.js has a lightweight development environment and offers numerous command-line tools, package managers, and libraries, facilitated by the Node Package Manager (NPM).
Domain and Use Cases: Each framework has its strengths and is better suited for certain domains and use cases. .NET is widely used for enterprise applications, particularly in Windows environments, and offers extensive support for building web, desktop, and mobile applications. Django is preferred for building scalable and maintainable web applications, particularly in the content management and social media domains. Node.js is popular for building real-time web applications, microservices, and scalable server-side applications that require high concurrency.
In summary, .NET, Django, and Node.js differ in their supported programming languages, architecture, community and ecosystem, performance and scalability, tooling and development environment, and preferred domains and use cases. Understanding these differences can help in selecting the framework that best suits a specific project or requirement.
Hi all. I want to rewrite my system. I was a complete newbie 4 years ago and have developed a comprehensive business / finance web application that has been running successfully for 3 years (I am a business person and not a developer primarily although it seems I have become a developer). Front-end is written in native PHP (no framework) and jQuery with backend and where many processes run in MySQL. Hosted on Linux and also sends emails with attachments etc. The system logic is great and the business has grown and the system is creaking and needs to be modernised. I feel I would stick with MySql as DB and update / use Django / Spring or Laravel (because its php which I understand). To me, PHP feels old fashioned. I don't mind learning new things and also I want to set the system up that it can be easily migrated to Android/iOS app with SQLite. I would probably employ an experienced developer while also doing some myself. Please provide advice -- from my research it seems Spring/Java is the way to go ... not sure. Thanks
PhP might be old fashionned but Laravel is really great. I've tried nodeJs backend with express, python with flask and a little bit of serverless, and quite frankly, laravel was by far the best in my opinion. It has a lot of official packages that speeds up development (from authentification to serverless deployement), it also uses Eloquent ORM that support Mysql databases. Finally it works great with VueJs for the front end development.
I recommend ExpressJS or NestJS as BackEnd and React as Front-End and PostgreSQL as the database. The reason is as follows. First of all, since it is a financial system, various services will exist, and each service must be well connected and combined with each other. The organic combination of small services that work very well is the foundation of a great system. For this, it is best to use Node.js based, and I think ExpressJS or NestJS is the best choice. We recommend choosing React or Vue as the FrontEnd. PostgreSQL is currently the best performing database. These three combinations have many examples, and their superiority has been confirmed by my implementation in many projects already. If you are interested in my advice and have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
On my end for me it's better to choose Laravel. It has very good documentation and easy to code. The framework supports MVC and you can create either monolithic or API only. The community is also big. If you combined a Domain Driven Development (DDD) and Test Driven Development (TDD) on Laravel then it will be a superb.
Since you are using PHP more natural is Python - it can handle high traffic - Python is very effective in coding. Python is superset of Java and C++ - True Object Oriented and have very clear syntax (Spring is hard to learn and debug - you can be confused many times). It is human readable you can code 2-4 times faster with small speed sacrifice. Jinja2 is more faster/flexible Django - whatever Django is better with ORM. Flask is just proposal - many other options of web servers.
I am about to complete my graduation with a computer science background. I want to pursue my career in software development. My front-end knowledge is very poor. I didn't like PHP so I didn't go for Laravel. My university offers a course on ASP.NET, I liked C# that's why I took asp.net. But now I think .net tech is unnecessarily complicated and most of the job offers available for .net are not for freshers. Should I try js and Node.js now? I mean as a fresher which tech stack should I choose for web development(Backend)?
Just don't .NET
. It was a failed idea from the start. Node and javascript are easier to learn, with much wider adoption, and more active communities.
.NET
is an old experiment in using a markup language to separate the UI from the business logic. The idea was that this would allow a small team of hyper-competent engineers to build the tooling and code for a large team of less-skilled front-end developers to leverage. In practice, leveraging that customized UI markup requires understanding and adjusting the underlying code. The result is that any UI change requires a hyper-competent .NET engineer.
However, many larger companies bought into it a long time ago, and now have a hard dependency on old monolithic .NET ecosystems, and they do need .NET developers to maintain them.
So, you can get a well paying .NET job without much difficulty. However, you'll neither like it, nor be doing anything interesting. There's no growth here, only a very long slow death of .NET (that'll probably take another 20 years).
Node and Javascript are sticking around, and still growing.
What I can see, you are confusing yourself, if you studied .Net now it's better to work as .Net developer, and you will find opportunities as fresh. Just search and don't waste your time. After you get more experience in .Net, then you can learn NodeJS if you still need to learn it.
Hi everyone, I have a new venture project, we do frontend development mainly with Tailwind CSS, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and React. This project will run on a cloud platform and it will be a web platform with data analysis. At Backend, we can't decide which technology to continue with. We will necessarily use Python for data analysis and algorithms, but should the backend be written with Django or C# .NET, can I get your suggestions within the cloud platform? Price performance is our priority.
If you are already committed to Python for the data analysis then it would make sense to use Django for the framework and stick with Python throughout. In general the fewer technologies you use (unless there is real justification) will improve process and long term costs.
All things being equal the fact you would not have less (likely no) licensing costs with a Python based solution will overall reduce your long term costs.
If you will be doing data analysis and complex algorithms Django is best suited for this because of it' maturity and the huge communities providing lots of Python libraries for data analysis and more.
Situation: I need to make a website for my Final Year Project. It's the website for brain analysis. The website features include chat, blogs, posts, users, payment methods. One of the main features includes the use of AI, which I know only in Python.
Decisions and Confusions: I decided to make two backends and one front-end. One backend will be using Django with GraphQL/RestAPI that will be running my AI models. The other backend is for the website. It will add users, chat, post, etc. I'm thinking of using TypeScript, Prisma, ExpressJS, GraphQL, MongoDB/PostgreSQL.
Please guide me to the latest and stable tech stack I can use. Because one of the requirements of our Final Year Project is to use the latest tech stacks. 1st Backend advice? (This will be used to run AI models) 2nd Backend advice? Frontend to 2nd Backend advice?
Thank you.
Hey there 👋,
Daniel from the Prisma team here.
I think your choice of a stack would work well for your final year project.
Some recommendations: - Use PostgreSQL if you need a stable stack. Prisma support for MongoDB is currently in Preview and therefore isn't stable. Moreover, PostgreSQL being a relational database enforces a schema more strictly than MongoDB which is useful given that your data model involves multiple relations. - If your Django backend exposes a REST API, you can also expose it over the GraphQL API by proxying requests from the GraphQL API to the REST API. That way, you have a unified API for all operations. This is typically known as wrapping. - Regarding the GraphQL part, I would consider looking at Nexus and nexus-prisma.
For inspiration, check out the Prisma Examples repository which contains many ready-to-run examples.
Here's another fully-fledged example using Prisma, Fastify, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL: https://github.com/2color/fastify-graphql-nexus-prisma
Hi. Maybe you can try use FastAPI instead Django https://fastapi.tiangolo.com It could be faster. The FastAPI documentation is so useful and elegant.
Also you can try split a little more the backend and use an "microservice" architecture. Using Kubernetes to deploy your services.
Hey everyone,
I am planning to start a personal project that would be yet another social media project with real-time communication facilities like one-to-one chat, group chat, and later voice and video chat using WebRTC.
The thing I am concerned about is Django being able to handle all the real-time stuff using websockets. I can use Django Channels, but I don't think that would be a very scalable solution. Moreover, django_channels
require alto of configurations, and deployment
is also a pain. My plan is to use a separate Node.js server to handle all the socket connections and have it talk to the main django
server through Redis.
My question is whether the above-mentioned solution is a good choice? If yes, how this can be achieved, keeping in mind all the authentication
other related problems. It might be simple, but I have never done this before, which might be the main reason I am concerned. But any suggestion will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance 😊
Try to do it with less - Nodejs + Redis + socket.io, optionally you can always communicate with django, but you can do it all in Nodejs, use pm2 and cluster too. For Redis you can also use Pub/Sub, is a good combination for future scaling.
I'm working in a university in the IT department where they are developing web Apps with a .NET framework, and I'm starting a master course with python (python programming, ML, AI, NLP, and Django). My manager doesn't mind using any technology. Please guide me. Should I go to learn .NET with Django or stick with Django? What is the best for the future?
Since the course is in Python, a Python web framework seems like a logical choice. Django is a good option, but Flask and FastAPI are far more lightweight than Django, and great for quickly adding an API on top of your ML/NLP code. Django has its merits, especially the generated admin interface, but requires a lot of boilerplate code.
The one thing I wouldn't do is mix the two, different structures and ideas for how to do things
Taking a class in python already? I'd lean to Django Want to learn a language that will carry forward to a good paying job .net
Python is an excellent language, though it's often being replaced with things like go which uses a similar syntax
Over time you're going to learn many languages if you want to be a great programmer spend your time with one and dive deep, learn what makes it shine and what the draw backs are grow proficient with it and then consider learning something different so you can compare
Early on learning a single language at depth is more important than tinkering with several or learning any specific language
Good luck
Looking for Advice! I am developing a hybrid app for video streaming, I have a prior experience with .NET Core and would like to use it for my back end but the latest buzz on characteristics of Node.js such as light weight, event loop and Async capabilities is really tempting me to reconsider my decision. On a quick research I could observe that a lot of Internet companies use either Python Django or Node JS for their back end which has thrown me into confusion, looking for an expert advice, thx.
If you want to create a reliable video streaming service, you'll probably want to go with a UDP approach. TCP will throw an exception as soon as a packet drops. That being said..... Node.js is ultimately a bad choice. Way too high-level. I've found, when working with UDP, it's much more performant on lower level languages like C, etc. As far as my recommendation, if you want to go with something 'new' and fun, check out GoLang. It's low level, and developed to handle high performance at scale.
That's depend on your experience if you are very well in C# you should start using the Technology that's you know and like it.
So none of these tools may be bad for your implementation of this streaming app. But one thing to consider is what are you trying to achieve. If your application is more front end facing with streaming to a backend service C# may be your better implementation path just due to its greater overall versatility in terms of options for mobile, backend development, front end development, service development, etc... However if your focused purely on the streaming aspects and utilizing Amazon or Azure services in conjunction with the language of choice, Python, Node.Js, Django or other technologies may offer a faster option to success. Another thing to consider is many of the streaming platforms today utilize services from cloud vendors to achieve their success more than simply the ingenuity on the part of their internal staff's programming skills. Traditional programming languages like Java, C++, C# are used less these days. Today most teams are piggybacking off these services where its possible to give your application the greatest ability to compete with the big boys. - Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Manager
You could apparently go for both Node or Django but I would recommend choosing Node as you're building a video streaming app and the biggest video streaming service Netflix used Node in the production.
Take a look at FastAPI if you are going to choose Python
I am starting a new project to build a simple ERP system for small businesses, where the owners can also manage orders on their phones.
I have decided to use JavaScript & React on the front-end and MySQL for the database. But I am really struggling to pick a backend language. I'm familiar with Node.js, but when I search for ERP (CRM & order mgt) projects on Youtube, I see that most build with Python (Django). Many also recommend Java.
So I'm a little confused. Please advice.
There is no problem to keep using node.js for your backend. Keep in mind that you already have expertise in it, so you could focus on development instead of to learn a new syntax/framework. There are good libraries in node.js that could help you in the development (services, validations, integrations, etc) also keeps you with a single language to the whole system. Django, as far as I know, it will provide a solid base for you, but it could be too much for your purpose, also could be more complex than you could need. Java provides to you many frameworks to simplify your integrations also could achieve a good performance. Anyway, I recommend you to follow using node.js, since you already know the syntax/platform.
Django is best suited for your requirement and has a very good community base to reach out for any queries. I have myself built and seen a lot of stuffs which match your requirement.
Hello, Node.js is simply a better option than python if you wish to make your application real-time operations. Also Node.js is a better choice than python for server side development.
But let's get your problem now. For most ERP projects, Node.js is a better choice. Also, since you are already familiar with Node.js, continue with it. Personally, I think Node.js is way better than Django mainly because JS is the god of ERP projects. Java is a good counterpart though.
I personally suggest NodeJs as you are also familiar with it. Even nodeJS has its own strong frameworks such as NestJS, Loopback etc. And the community is pretty much strong though. If you are looking for a faster development , then always you can go for NodeJS. And its pretty fast though.
Will you build it from scratch? There are some open source ERP/CRM solutions that you can use as a base for your solution. SugarCrm is an example. By looking at those, you can then decide which language you'll use for the backend.
I can recommend you a flexible constructor for this purpose. To create a system, you only need sql, and you can connect to any database without any problems. Please see the introductory article about the features, and if you are interested, I can provide access to the test site. My contacts for communication are on the site page https://falconspace.site/docs/vvedenie-v-falcon-space--c-chego-nachat https://falconspace.site/for-it
Hey if you are allready familar with nodejs then just go with it. There are some very nice frameworks out there that can be hold with the big ones.
Examples: AdonisJS or SailsJS
AdonisJS is even very similar like django.
Go with Node.js and use a framework. I can recommend NestJS or Fastifiy as a Backend Framework. They both have a strong community and Fastify is the successor of Express but much faster.
I prefer to use Node.js because you have experainse in it and also you can do anything for this language.
I am looking to make a website builder web app, where users can publish built websites with a custom or subdomain (much like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, etc.), and I was wondering about any advice on which web framework to build it on? I currently know Node.js, but I would be excited to learn Laravel or Django if those would be better options. Any advice would be much appreciated!
The tools you mentioned are all backend focused frameworks. I will say, you can choose one of them as you may prefer (maybe Laravel and Django will be better since it's more organized than Node.js). But no matter what, if you will create a website builder application, today you'll need a frontend framework like Vue.js, React or Angular - or maybe Ember.js, Svelte and Meteor.
If you use Nodejs, you should use one more frontend language like reactjs or angularjs. Laravel is the better option. They are more power for rendering.
Currently, I am a university student, and it is my second last semester with a major in Computer science. I want to start my career in full-stack web development. I know Python with Django + PHP with Laravel, and my focus is on learning MERN stack. I am a little bit confused as to which technology I should choose: Django or Magento or MERN stack.
#newbie
I suggest you to go with MERN Stack (Mongo,express,react,Node). As you know python and django which is a plus point because you can use python and node as your backend and for front-end use react(easy to learn) and database of your choice.(Mongo or SQL)
NestJS has a very good documention. Furthermore, as a former django-user myself, I believe it is nice to finally get a backend node.js framework very much opiniated like Django. It may be related to what I previously said, but in terms of enterprise-used framework, it seems that Nest.js is the most popular.
Selecting an appropriate back-end technology requires vital consideration of the variables like speed, reliability, and scalability. Know the features of the best 4 back-end frameworks to select an appropriate one for your project.
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Node Js have worked incredible great for me on every project I had. It is fast enough to support big and small apps, you do not have to worry about performance, because it is very capable of building a big REST API.
One advantage is that the learning curve is lower when you have used javascript on web browser as frontend, so, it is easy to migrate from Frontend to Backend with node.
Node Package Manager (NPM) has an incredible amount of packages from many developers, so you can use them on your project as you need them.
Code is easy to support, way different than Java Legacy code.
Decided to change all my stack to microsoft technologies for they behave just great together. It is very easy to set up and deploy projects using visual studio and azure. Visual studio is also an amazing IDE, if not the best, when used for C#, it allows you to work in every aspect of your software.
Visual studio templates for ASP.NET MVC are the best I've found compared to django, rails, laravel, and others.
Pros of Django
- Rapid development673
- Open source488
- Great community425
- Easy to learn379
- Mvc277
- Beautiful code232
- Elegant223
- Free207
- Great packages203
- Great libraries194
- Comes with auth and crud admin panel80
- Restful79
- Powerful78
- Great documentation76
- Great for web72
- Python57
- Great orm43
- Great for api41
- All included32
- Fast29
- Web Apps25
- Clean23
- Easy setup23
- Used by top startups21
- Sexy19
- ORM19
- The Django community15
- Allows for very rapid development with great libraries14
- Convention over configuration14
- King of backend world11
- Full stack10
- Great MVC and templating engine10
- Mvt8
- Fast prototyping8
- Its elegant and practical7
- Easy to develop end to end AI Models7
- Batteries included7
- Cross-Platform6
- Very quick to get something up and running6
- Have not found anything that it can't do6
- Zero code burden to change databases5
- Great peformance5
- Python community5
- Easy Structure , useful inbuilt library5
- Easy to use4
- Map4
- Easy to change database manager4
- Full-Text Search4
- Just the right level of abstraction4
- Many libraries4
- Modular4
- Easy4
- Scaffold3
- Node js1
- Built in common security1
- Great default admin panel1
- Scalable1
- Gigante ta1
- Cons1
- Fastapi1
- Rails0
Pros of .NET
- Tight integration with visual studio272
- Stable code261
- Great community190
- Reliable and strongly typed server side language.182
- Microsoft140
- Fantastic documentation119
- Great 3rd party libraries89
- Speedy80
- Great azure integration71
- Great support63
- Highly productive34
- Linq34
- C#34
- High Performance31
- Great programming languages (C#, VB)28
- Open source26
- Powerful Web application framework (ASP.NET MVC)19
- Fast16
- Clean markup with razor16
- Powerful ORM (EntityFramework)15
- Dependency injection14
- Visual studio + Resharper = <310
- Constantly improving to keep up with new trends10
- High-Performance9
- TFS8
- Security8
- Job opportunities7
- Integrated and Reliable7
- Huge ecosystem and communities7
- Light-weight6
- Lovely6
- {get; set;}5
- Variations5
- Asynchrony5
- Scaffolding4
- Support and SImplicity4
- Default Debuging tools4
- Concurrent4
- Useful IoC4
- Entity framework4
- Nuget package manager3
- Blazor3
- F♯2
Pros of Node.js
- Npm1.4K
- Javascript1.3K
- Great libraries1.1K
- High-performance1K
- Open source805
- Great for apis486
- Asynchronous477
- Great community423
- Great for realtime apps390
- Great for command line utilities296
- Websockets84
- Node Modules83
- Uber Simple69
- Great modularity59
- Allows us to reuse code in the frontend58
- Easy to start42
- Great for Data Streaming35
- Realtime32
- Awesome28
- Non blocking IO25
- Can be used as a proxy18
- High performance, open source, scalable17
- Non-blocking and modular16
- Easy and Fun15
- Easy and powerful14
- Future of BackEnd13
- Same lang as AngularJS13
- Fullstack12
- Fast11
- Scalability10
- Cross platform10
- Simple9
- Mean Stack8
- Great for webapps7
- Easy concurrency7
- Typescript6
- Fast, simple code and async6
- React6
- Friendly6
- Control everything5
- Its amazingly fast and scalable5
- Easy to use and fast and goes well with JSONdb's5
- Scalable5
- Great speed5
- Fast development5
- It's fast4
- Easy to use4
- Isomorphic coolness4
- Great community3
- Not Python3
- Sooper easy for the Backend connectivity3
- TypeScript Support3
- Blazing fast3
- Performant and fast prototyping3
- Easy to learn3
- Easy3
- Scales, fast, simple, great community, npm, express3
- One language, end-to-end3
- Less boilerplate code3
- Npm i ape-updating2
- Event Driven2
- Lovely2
- Creat for apis1
- Node0
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Cons of Django
- Underpowered templating26
- Autoreload restarts whole server22
- Underpowered ORM22
- URL dispatcher ignores HTTP method15
- Internal subcomponents coupling10
- Not nodejs8
- Configuration hell8
- Admin7
- Not as clean and nice documentation like Laravel5
- Python4
- Not typed3
- Bloated admin panel included3
- Overwhelming folder structure2
- InEffective Multithreading2
- Not type safe1
Cons of .NET
- C#13
- Too expensive to deploy and maintain12
- Microsoft dependable systems8
- Microsoft itself8
- Hard learning curve5
- Tight integration with visual studio3
- Not have a full fledged visual studio for linux3
- Microsoft itself 🤡🥲1
Cons of Node.js
- Bound to a single CPU46
- New framework every day45
- Lots of terrible examples on the internet40
- Asynchronous programming is the worst33
- Callback24
- Javascript19
- Dependency hell11
- Dependency based on GitHub11
- Low computational power10
- Very very Slow7
- Can block whole server easily7
- Callback functions may not fire on expected sequence7
- Breaking updates4
- Unstable4
- Unneeded over complication3
- No standard approach3
- Bad transitive dependency management1
- Can't read server session1