Node.js vs Browser - Top Differences That Every Developer Should Know

Node.js and Web browsers are two different but interrelated technologies in web development. JavaScript is executed in both the environment, node.js, and browser but for different use cases. Since JavaScript is the common Programming language in both, it is a huge advantage for developers to code both front-end and backend in the same language. Despite the similarities, there is a huge difference between Node.js and the browser.

Hence in this article, we will see why to differentiate both and some of the top differences between Node.js and Browser, that every developer should know. But before that let’s first understand what is node.js and the browser.

What is Node.js?

Node.js is an open-source (can be accessible publicly) and cross-platform (compatible with multiple computing platforms) runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. In simple words, It is the environment where we can execute JavaScript programs or applications outside of the browser.

It is used for server-side programming, since it is very fast due to its chrome V8 engine.Node.js based servers never wait for API to return data because it is asynchronous. Also, it is used for Real-time Applications due to its approach of non-blocking I/O.

To know more, Please refer to this article - Introduction to Node.js

What is Browser?

It is a platform that allows users to access and view websites and their content on the internet. It acts as an interface between users and the world wide web that requests data and information on web pages from the server.

The browser has a JavaScript Engine that interprets and executes the code to perform tasks and interactions. JavaScript works in web browsers by being embedded within the HTML code of a web page. A user creates a request through its browser and it will fetch the data through HTTP protocols when data is received it is rendered in HTML to user-readable form and to make that page dynamic, we use JavaScript and it is executed by the JavaScript Engine of the browser.

To know more, Please refer to this article - What is Web Browsers?

Similarities Between Node.js and Web Browsers

As we discussed above, both Node.js and Browser have one thing in common and that is they both are environments where you can execute JavaScript. So before differentiating them let's see some similar functionality they have:

1. JavaScript Language: Both Node.js and web browsers use JavaScript as their primary programming language. It will be easy for developers to write code that is compatible with both environments.
   
2. Event-Driven Architecture: Asynchronous programming and efficient handling of concurrent tasks can be done by an event-driven approach. Both Node.js and web browsers use event-driven architecture.
   
3. Common JavaScript APIs: Both Node.js and web browsers have some APIs which are common such as timers, string manipulation, array operations, and JSON manipulation. These APIs will help developers to write JavaScript code that runs in both environments with the least changes in code.
   
4. Common Libraries: There are many JavaScript libraries and frameworks, such as React, Express.js, and Lodash, which are created to work in both Node.js and web browser environments. This allows developers to reuse their JavaScript code in web applications.

Also, there are some similarities that both node.js and web browsers share such as having sync and async capabilities and usage of exceptions, flows, and scoping identically.

From a developer perspective, these are very important and helpful functionalities and while Node.js and browsers have these similarities, it’s important to note that they are very different in their execution environment, available APIs, and target use.

 So let's look at the top differences that every developer should know:

Difference Between Node.js and Browser

There are many differences between Node.js and the browser, let's discuss some of the important differences that every developer should know

1. Difference in Environment

The environment of both Node.js and Browser are very different due to their different purpose Some key differences are:

• The browser executes JavaScript within the Host Environment, on the client side. Browsers provide a Document Object Model(DOM) which represents the structure of web pages.
  
• Node.js provides a runtime environment that allows JavaScript to run on a server, outside the browser. Also, it does not have a DOM like web browsers.

2. User Interface

One of the main differences is the way of execution. Browsers in its Host environment execute JavaScript and render the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and also provide a graphical user interface(GUI) to interact with web pages, since users interact with the web pages so it is essential to use GUI. But Node.js uses a command line interface(CLI) because it has no interaction with the users and it is used for server-side development to build web servers and APIs.

3. Different in their Usage

Since both execute JavaScript, the usage of both is what makes them different. Where Browser is used for the Client-side and executes JavaScript inside the browser’s Host environment and here developers use JavaScript to make the web Content dynamic. On the other hand, Node.js which is a runtime environment for the execution of JavaScript is used for server-side development to create web servers and APIs so JavaScript is most used for logic-building and algorithmic parts here.

4. Architecture Difference

Node.js runtime architecture consists of a V8 engine, event-driven I/O, Libuv library, and C++ addons and JavaScript Modules which will provide an amazing runtime environment for JavaScript execution as shown in the image below.


Since browsers are used for browsing web content, its architecture is much more complex than the node.js architecture, it has a JavaScript engine inside a rendering engine that executes the JavaScript within the client-side environment as shown in the image below.

Also, web browser and Node.js has a lot of other differences that are as follows:

Conclusion

Both Node.js and the browser has a different environment and uses but they both execute JavaScript. This article is all about the differences between Node.js and browsers where we saw their architecture and difference in their usage. Node.js is used for server-side or backend programming while in the case of browsers, we use JavaScript for the client side. Also, Browser has a graphical user interface for users to make a smooth interaction, and for Node.js we have to run it on CLI or terminal.