Technology changes rapidly and is an integral part of today's business. Businesses must face the challenges of digital transformation by building an IT infrastructure compatible with business requirements. The success of the project depends on the choice of technologies. One of these challenges is choosing server technology. Today we compare Nginx and Node.js.
Creating a stable and reliable server is essential in a web application development company . Web technology refers to the client and server side that is invisible to users and includes the backend language, the database and the server. Both Node.js and Nginx support the web as they are the most widely used server-side technologies and both can run applications of any complexity.
Advantages and disadvantages of PHP with Nginx
PHP stands for Personal Home Page Tools and Hypertext Preprocessor. It is an open source server scripting language created in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. It has been a remarkable success since its inception. A recent study showed that 77.4% of websites use PHP. It is one of the most widely used open source languages for creating dynamic websites and applications.
You can read more about the importance and characteristics of PHP in the next article.
What is PHP? Do I have to learn PHP to use WordPress?
Nginx is one of the two most popular web servers that can interpret PHP. PHP does not work without a web server. Nginx is more efficient and faster than Apache and works much more stable, so in this article we will focus on the Nginx and Node.js comparison.
Advantages of PHP
Supports CMS systems, including WordPress;
It is easy to configure the development environment and the process;
A strong community of web developers contributing to language development, supporting software and training materials;
The code has an ordered syntax that makes it easy to write lines of code quickly;
Nginx is a standard in hosting plans.
PHP disadvantages
The interpreted code is slower because it processes line by line, executing the following function only after the previous one;
Web-oriented, it runs in the backend of your website;
It has little performance capacity when it comes to detecting, filtering, and solving code errors;
Inheriting from previous versions can cause chaos.
Advantages and disadvantages of Node.js
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime. Developed by Ryan Dahl in 2009 to create scalable and fast applications. It quickly gained popularity in the developer community because it delivers applications with high performance and stability thanks to the JS V8 engine.
Node.js runs JavaScript beyond the limits of the web browser, working directly with the operating system. Using JavaScript, you have access to the operating system API, including the file system, system libraries, or running processes ( for example, HTTP ) servers.
This technology provides access to many asynchronous operations, making applications more responsive. Node.js aims to unify web application development services or company using JavaScript only. And that's what makes the Nginx and Node.js comparison so exciting.
Advantages of Node.js
It uses JavaScript throughout the application (backend and frontend), which makes code operations very convenient;
Asynchronous JavaScript processing allows you to create highly scalable solutions on the server side while maximising the use of your CPU and memory;
Allows you to establish a client-server connection in real time;
Easy work with JSON.
Disadvantages of Node.js
The module ecosystem is still immature – not suitable for handling large files;
CMS do not support Node.js;
It is inefficient for web applications that represent sophisticated graphics.
PHP with Nginx or Node.js
It is impossible to determine if it is better to choose PHP with Nginx or Node.js. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, so the most important thing is to choose the technical specification for the type and needs of the project.
Coding speed
A simpler language needs less code to run the program. Node.js requires many more lines of code to perform the same functionality as PHP. On the other hand, PHP works with fewer lines of code but requires Nginx to interpret the code. In the PHP encoding speed comparison with Nginx vs. Node.js, the second is the clear winner.
PHP requires a web server and interpreter to run, but there are applications that allow you to create a local PHP environment. Take a look at the best WAMP / LAMP solutions that will allow you to develop PHP applications on your computer.
The best web servers for the development of PHP
Application execution and handling speed
High response speed means faster development process and more profitable projects. Node.js is asynchronous, which gives it an advantage. No need to wait for one module to run correctly before loading the next one, which dramatically reduces the downtime of the web application and ensures a perfect user experience.
PHP is synchronous, which means that the code runs line by line. PHP offers slower code execution routines because all modules or functions are processed in a specific order.
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Efficiency
Performance is one of the most important metrics for evaluating an application, as it affects the user experience, smooth operation, and page load speed. Node.js works asynchronously and uses the Chrome V8 engine to speed up command execution. While performance is also the result of the development team's skill and experience, Node.js has several advantages over PHP:
Few dependencies – Nginx and Node.js work differently. Each request to the PHP project must be directed to Nginx, and the web server executes a PHP interpreter, which processes the code and serves it. Node.js does not require as many dependencies. It is light and manages various aspects of the application.
Without a translator – Node.js is more agile and faster because it does not need interpretation. The processor executes the compiled code in its native language. PHP must be translated from its original format during execution in CPU machine instructions by Nginx and its interpreter.
Translation slows down language.
Driven events, non-blocking input / output – Most server languages, including PHP, use a lock model. When you request information from the database, the request will complete the process before moving on to the next statement. With Node.js, you can create callbacks that listen to processes and run them simultaneously.
Some PHP actions can be accelerated using Hack (object-oriented programming language) through HHVM (an open source virtual machine designed to run programs written in Hack).
**Databases
**Conventional databases store data hierarchically, while relational databases store data using tables, making them a convenient format for detecting relationships. There are also non-relational NoSQL databases that store data in formats such as documents, charts, or key pairs. They provide flexibility and scalability along with large amounts of data or user load.
PHP works with relational and traditional databases like MariaDB, PostgreSQL and MySQL. It can also be used with Redis, MongoDB, ElasticSearch and other non-relational databases. Thanks to this, web developers are not limited to using a specific database and can choose the one that best suits the project.
On the other hand, Node.js works perfectly with SQL databases, NoSQL databases ( CouchDB and MongoDB ), graphical database systems ( Neo4j ) and NPM packages. If you are looking to develop a scalable web project that extracts data from relational, conventional or NoSQL databases consistently and smoothly, Node.js is the best option.
Functionality and development
PHP is a backend programming language that limits its use in applications. To test, manage and design a functional web application, you need CSS and HTML. For most professionals, PHP encryption is a faster option, since no converters or compilers are needed. It allows you to connect to a database without accommodation restrictions.
However, there is an exchange: PHP projects do not run as fast as those developed at Node.js. Node.js combines some functions in a single package without fragmenting the functionality. With Node.js, you can create comprehensive backend models, but they still require Nginx to provide an HTTP framework and databases.
In the case of Node.js, the implementation seems much more complicated, but it works smoother and faster because it provides a low server load.
Popularity and use
Node.js is used in multithreading applications, web applications, browsers or games. This technology is perfect for creating dynamic, one-page, real-time, and data-intensive applications.
Examples of using Node.js include streaming services (Netflix), instant messaging (Slack), social networks (Twitter), fintech applications (PayPal), project management tools (Trello, Asana), game applications, live chats, devices and data intensive IoT applications.
PHP is also commonly used in web applications. And because it's built as a backend-centric language, it can be integrated with servers, databases, and HTML. You can use PHP to develop CMS systems that allow you to configure a web project quickly. It works well to build e-commerce markets, effective websites, email marketing platforms, or blogs.
The practical applications of Nginx and Node.js technologies vary and depend on the project you want to develop.
Community and ecosystem
PHP has existed since 1994 and has demonstrated its reliability and revolutionary technology. It has a much larger community that helps create libraries and find solutions that allow a certain technology to gain a competitive advantage. With WordPress feeding millions of websites and using PHP as a backend, this technology has become immensely popular.
Node.js is a relatively new technology (2009). Although Node is a popular tool for backend development and is gaining even more popularity, the community is smaller. Node projects are newer and more relevant to current developers. How the community develops solutions at Node.js facilitates the development of current projects.
The community focuses on adding unique functionalities to Node.js instead of serving as a library to import functions from other languages.
Conclusion
As you have already noticed, PHP with Nginx and Node.js have their pros and cons. Neither will solve all technical problems. The main criterion for determining the architecture of your project is knowledge of the scope of functional requirements. A well designed and well thought out architecture will allow you to answer which crucial elements of the project can be problematic.
Node.js is the perfect choice to build dynamic single page applications using Angular, React and JQuery for the frontend. Node is part of the MEAN stack ( MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js ), so its use makes sense if your stack consists of these tools. It can power IoT devices like fitness trackers, drones, and robots, as well as streaming platforms.
PHP is a good choice for dynamic website content and is primarily used for web development. The use of PHP for blogs and e-commerce sites that require many integrations is immensely popular.
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