What makes JavaScript for startups so popular? And why is using this technology and its frameworks attractive to investors? Focusing on these questions, we’re going to provide some insights.
According to a survey conducted by Stack Overflow, JavaScript (JS) was the most widely used programming language among developers globally in 2020, being used by over 67% of software engineers on various projects. Given its rapidly growing demand and community, the technology is likely to maintain this lead in 2022 and beyond.
The language’s popularity makes it very appealing to startups. Firstly, it can be used almost anywhere, in any industry or field. Secondly, having more developers who can work with it means costs go down, which is an important consideration for startups.
But if we dig a little deeper, we’ll discover even more reasons from the perspective of development.
Frameworks
Frameworks are very important for startups as they provide a skeleton for the project, saving time and resources. AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS – these frameworks have been gaining immense popularity in the past few years. They allow developers to create fast, reliable, and scalable applications. And this is exactly what startups need; an application that can grow with their business.
When talking about the reasons why startups opt for JS technologies, it’s also essential to mention frameworks like MeteorJS or MEAN stack.
MeteorJS allows for the creation of real-time applications within a fraction of the time of conventional frameworks. It requires minimal coding and makes working on both frontend and backend extremely easy. Not only does it allow you to forget about creating different client and server-side scripts, but it also gives you a chance to have all your data with just one command. Other features include MongoDB integration, ease of scaling, and security options, among others. To dive deeper into this technology, we recommend you check out the official MeteorJS website.
MEAN stack comprises four technologies, with the most popular being NodeJS due to its scalability capabilities. Thanks to its versatility and community support, this framework has become extremely popular in the past couple of years. The list below provides a brief overview of the MEAN stack:
MongoDB: a document-oriented database.
Express.j: an application server for web applications.
AngularJS: a JavaScript-based frontend framework for single page applications (SPA). Check out this great tutorial on how to learn AngularJS.
Mongoose: an object model for Node.js that connects with MongoDB databases and simplifies its interaction with the JS code.
Node.js: powered by V8, it’s an event-driven I/O server-side JavaScript environment for executing JS code outside of a browser using Google’s V8 engine, known for high performance and fast compiling speed. Code written in one language can be shared between frontend and backend due to it being built on Chrome’s JavaScript.
All these technologies work together to allow developers to create full-stack web applications easily and quickly. If you’re interested in learning more about this stack, we suggest you check out our detailed tutorial on the subject.
Community
The JavaScript community is huge and welcoming. This means that there’s always someone to help you with your coding problems or give you advice on how to improve your code. There are also tons of online resources, including blogs, podcasts, and videos, that can teach you everything about the language and its frameworks.
Tools
Since JavaScript is so popular, developers have created a bunch of helpful tools for their everyday workflow. These are mostly open-source and free to use, meaning you can save money on the web development or online app creation process. Another important thing to mention is that there are loads of interactive tools available, which can help you to learn how to code faster.
Startups that use JavaScript
Uber
Founded in 2009, Uber is a ridesharing company that has built an app which allows users to request private cars with just one click. The Uber app uses JavaScript for both frontend and backend, which creates an isomorphic application. Using Node.js, Uber developers have built an application which can manage 2 million calls per second.
LinkedIn is another great example. The app performed better and used less memory after switching from Ruby on Rails to Node.js, working 25 times faster in some scenarios. Frontend and backend web development also began to use the same language, allowing for better communication, faster implementation, and cost reduction by a single team. In addition, the number of servers was reduced from 30 to three.
Skyscanner
The Skyscanner team decided to redesign the UI/UX in 2019. Engineers created Backpack, their own design platform, for this purpose. Backpack was built using React.js components, which gave it a lot more consistency and smoothness than the previous version.
It’s clear that startups prefer JS technologies because of their speed, scalability, community support, and helpful tools. These frameworks provide a solid foundation for your project and can help you save time and resources. Additionally, the language is very versatile and can be used in almost any field or industry. So, if you’re looking for a reliable and powerful technology, we suggest you give JS a try. You won’t regret it!
Appomate’s software developers have extensive experience with JavaScript. By developing SaaS, web applications, and cloud-based platforms that are connected to AWS, IoT, and other databases, we’re constantly improving our skills and knowledge base.
From fitness and healthcare to finance and data science, we have a wide range of domain expertise. Whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, we always conduct a thorough analysis prior to development to ensure that you get the best software possible.
Check out our website and get in touch if you’re looking for a dedicated team of experts to build you the best JavaScript startup solutions that are both scalable and secure.