LoopBack vs Sails.js: What are the differences?

Key Differences between LoopBack and Sails.js

LoopBack and Sails.js are both popular backend frameworks for building web applications. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between the two.

1. Architecture: LoopBack is built on top of Express.js and focuses on creating RESTful APIs. It follows a model-driven development approach, where the application models are defined first and then the API is automatically generated based on these models. On the other hand, Sails.js follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture and provides a complete web application framework with support for features like routing, views, and ORM.

2. Data Source: LoopBack provides a powerful data source abstraction layer that allows developers to easily switch between different datasources, such as databases, REST services, and more. This abstraction layer also includes built-in connectors for popular databases like MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Sails.js, on the other hand, uses Waterline as its ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) layer, which provides a unified API for interacting with different databases, but may not have the same level of flexibility as LoopBack in terms of data source options.

3. Authentication: LoopBack provides extensive built-in support for authentication and authorization, with features like user management, role-based access control, and token-based authentication. It also integrates with popular authentication providers like Facebook and Google. Sails.js, on the other hand, does not provide built-in authentication support out of the box, although there are community plugins available for adding authentication functionality.

4. Real-time Features: Sails.js has a strong focus on real-time features, with built-in support for WebSockets and Pub-Sub functionality. It provides a powerful and easy-to-use mechanism for handling real-time events and broadcasting data updates to connected clients. LoopBack, on the other hand, does not have built-in support for real-time features, although it can be extended using third-party libraries or integrated with other real-time frameworks.

5. Extensibility and Flexibility: LoopBack provides a highly extensible framework with a modular architecture that allows developers to easily customize and extend its functionality. It also provides a strong command line interface (CLI) for generating code and scaffolding applications. Sails.js, on the other hand, provides a more opinionated framework with fewer options for customization. It follows a convention-over-configuration approach and provides a set of built-in blueprints for generating RESTful APIs and CRUD operations.

6. Community and Ecosystem: Both LoopBack and Sails.js have active and vibrant communities, with a wide range of plugins, modules, and community-contributed resources available. However, Sails.js has been around for a longer time and has a larger community and ecosystem. It has been widely adopted by developers and has a mature ecosystem with a strong community support.

In Summary, LoopBack and Sails.js are both powerful backend frameworks for building web applications. LoopBack focuses on creating RESTful APIs with a model-driven approach and provides extensive support for authentication. Sails.js, on the other hand, provides a complete web application framework with MVC architecture, strong real-time features, and a larger ecosystem.