The first time I've coded an API is for a full-stack application which was my side project. I've done some research and watched some youtube tutorials. Since I was using React for the client-side I quickly chose to use NodeJs for my API.

Later when I got into a company as an Intern I had to use .NET that's the first time for me to see technology other than NodeJs that we can use for APIs ( I used Django in the past which is a python web framework but didn't give it that much of a thought )

Let's see how these technologies compare in different aspects

Programming Languages

.NET uses C# as its programming language, it also supports other languages like Visual Basic and J# (Now Discontinued). C# is the most widely used language on .NET because of the endless features it offers.

C# is a general-purpose programming language that is static, strongly typed and object oriented.

Where on the other hand NodeJs as the name suggests uses JavaScript. JavaScript is a loosely typed (meaning you don't have to specify any types for variables) language. One can also use TypeScript which is a superset of JavaScript that uses Strong Typing. JavaScript was originally developed to run on a browser. But NodeJs is a runtime that allows JavaScript to run on a server.

Frameworks

.NET uses ASP.NET Core which is a framework to build web apps. .NET provides support for ASP. NET right out of the box. Developing an API is very simple in .NET as most of the work will be taken care of by ASP. NET

NodeJs can use any framework depending on the programmers choice like Express, Sails, NestJs, etc., Express is the most used framework for NodeJs APIs. Here most of the heavy lifting must be done by the user but the upside to Express is it is very minimalistic.

Package Managers

NodeJs uses different package managers based on the developer's choice like npm(node package manager), yarn or pnpm. npm is the most used and default package manager for NodeJs.

.NET uses a package manager called Nuget package manager (Can't be called NPM 😉)

Source Code Structure

ASP. NET by default gives a wonderful boilerplate code as an example and files are structured in an excellent way. While in NodeJs, not every framework provides a boilerplate code and a file system. Most of the time Programmer has to modularize their code and structure their files. So when writing a large and complex application .NET must be preferred

Performance

How both these languages perform behind the scenes is completely different. JavaScript is a single threaded language that focuses on CPU performance by sacrificing parallel computing ability. While .NET treats each response as a thread and multiple responses can be handled at once but once every thread is occupied, the responses will be queued.

So in terms of a single request Node might win over .NET but when there are multiple requests per second .NET handles them better.

Conclusion

So... The hardest part, Making a choice. Considering all the above discussed aspects. I choose .NET for large to medium size services and use NodeJs for small size applications.

Thank you for reading. If you think some additional points will add to this article. Please contact me through my Email.

Email : akashdoppalapudi2001@gmail.com