Download our Guide How to Build a Marketplace in 10 weeks / 🇺🇦 Stand with Ukraine donate x

JavaScript For Startups: A Complete Guide

06 Oct 2020

Building your product idea, you will have some requirements for the tech behind. First and foremost, it should be affordable, and specialists should be accessible enough.

Secondly, the end product should be easy to maintain and manage since you will need additional resources after releasing it. For example, once the number of users grows, you may need to extend it and add a rich database without neglecting the app performance.


Thirdly, the time-to-market has to be reasonable. With proper technologies, you can build your MVP faster and get the first feedback of users.

At ByteAnt, we often advise our clients on technologies necessary to implement their solution. After all, the tech stack affects not only your development time but further scaling as well.

Technologies play a role in calculating costs, hiring a team, and affect the possibility of third-party integrations. Therefore, in this article, let’s explore the benefits and applications of JavaScript stack for startups. 

JavaScript stack for startups: why or why not?

Javascript is a dynamically changing programming language. It holds the first place among the most used coding languages globally, counting for 69% of respondents.

However, one programming language has diverse applications.

Here are some reasons why JavaScript may be a decent choice for a startup.


1) Universal nature

JavaScript lets you build practically anything, including web, mobile applications, as well as desktop solutions for Linux, Windows, and Mac devices.
You may also use JS to develop a chatbot, a social media app, or some components of an IoT system.

An isomorphic nature of JS saves considerable time and effort on developing an application from zero. For example, one can reuse some of JS libraries, templates, and even modules. With a few changes, you can make the same code work at the client and a server-side. This phenomenon is called isomorphism, and it is highly appreciated in the developer community. By saving time for engineers, isomorphic websites are also more SEO-friendly, perform better, and are easier to maintain.

2) Rich ecosystem and a large community

Since JavaScript is so widespread, you can find considerable advice and code snippets on the internet. It saves effort to developers that can focus on more important tasks instead. Why spend hours on coding the basics, if you can concentrate on your original software functions instead?

A large community of JS programmers also means that you can find qualified specialists faster than with some other programming languages or rare frameworks. Choosing from a large talent pool, you can find the ones with the optimal price-quality ratio. We will state the rates of JavaScript programmers later in this article.

3) Wide range of frameworks


Here are some JS frameworks you may encounter:

  • React.js
  • Vue.js
  • Node.js
  • Angular
  • Ember.js
  • Express


When hiring a JS front-end developer, check their skills with one or several of the following frameworks:

  • React.js
  • Vue.js
  • Angular.js

Since web browsers only accept JavaScript code, you will certainly need one of these front-end frameworks for web development. All three let you build interactive & original user interfaces.

If you are struggling to define which one works best for you, well, you are not the only one. Every solution has its own use cases and advantages, which makes choosing even more complicated.

React.js is a common choice for simple-logic applications, while Angular fits well more complex apps. React.js is also relatively easy to learn. By the way, Facebook and Instagram were created using this framework.

In terms of performance, React & Vue may provide you with more possibilities than Angular. It is due to the Document Object Model (DOM), which serves as a tool to manipulate & update your code. The DOM interface displays the web page as a document with a tree structure. Since Vue and React both use virtual DOM instead of an actual one, you can change individual components of the page without reloading the entire page. As a result, the application works fast and is easy to update.

So, if your web application is content-rich, has a complex structure, and gets frequent updates, it’s a good idea to use a framework relying on the virtual DOM.

If you are planning to expand the functionality of your application later, Angular and React are both sound choices. You can reuse JS components and modules, as mentioned above, to add some more features or users. Therefore, you have the necessary basis to improve your application when needed.

To get some more in-depth comparison of the three frameworks mentioned, watch the video below.

Besides, JavaScript can be used with headless CMS, considerable simplifying the deployment of websites and content delivery.

Node.js for startups - when to use it?

Node.js is a free back-end JS environment that is compatible with many OS. Based on JavaScript, Node.js is about event-driven programming. It means that your software will detect and react to specific events such as clicks, inputs from other software, or users. Thanks to this event-based architecture of Node.js, engineers can build easy-to-scale web servers and software.

This technology is considered a good fit for the following projects:

  • Real-time applications, for example, an online chatting solution, or a team collaboration software
  • IoT systems
  • Audio & video streaming software
  • Serverless applications & microservices
  • Applications using microservice architecture


At the same time, Node.js is not a good match for:

  • financial-niche software, due to potential errors with variables;
  • software heavy in CPUs (Central Processing Units).

A CPU component gets the inputs from users, processes it, and generates the guidelines for the computer. All this activity can block user requests and erase the benefits of Node.js.

Other back-end JS technologies are Express.js, REST, GraphQL. When hiring a back-end JS developer, you should also check his knowledge of MongoDB and GraphQL databases to manage and integrate them seamlessly.

JavaScript stack for startups

Overall, using JavaScript both in front-end and back-end sides is a remarkable advantage for a business. It eases the maintainability of your software. You can hire one full-stack JS developer to do both front-end and back-end work without the need to employ several different specialists for every job. Therefore, it saves you costs and time spent on development and hiring.

The most popular JavaScript stacks are MEAN and MERN stacks. 

MEAN Stack

MEAN is a robust collection of JS frameworks and technologies that streamline app development and work perfectly well together. This tech stack includes the following: 

  • MongoDB database ( for data storage)
  • Express.js (for back end)
  • Angular (for the front end)
  • Node.js (for back-end)

One advantage is its flexibility since you can create both web and mobile applications with its help. If you have a web app and decide to build a mobile version as well, you can do it smoothly with the same tech. Another important fact is that all the languages are open-source, which means you don’t have to pay for the licenses to use them.

The ready-to-use Node.js modules also speed up engineering and cut the development costs significantly.

 

MERN Stack

MERN stack involves the following tools:

  • MongoDB
  • Express.js
  • React.js
  • Node.js


As you can see, only the front-end framework differs in this stack, and all other elements are the same.

These two JS-based tech stacks make the most popular choices in the JS community.

Now, let's explore the average rates of JS developers across the countries, as GoodFirms reveals.

Once you get an image of how much JS development services cost, you can manage your budget and choose the optimal price/quality ratio.


Summary


When choosing a set of technologies for your product, pay attention to many aspects. The complexity of your software, frequency of updates, target OS, and devices all matter. Therefore, it’s a good practice to get advice from a trusted software developer before idea implementation. JavaScript is a vibrant community full of experienced professionals ready to help.

Whether you are creating a cloud-based or a hybrid solution, we have the technical expertise you need.
About the Author
I’m a content writer sharing expertise-based advice & tech insights for business owners. Explore how innovative ideas change the game, or get useful advice on SaaS, IoT development, innovation, and startup growth.

Join 1000+ tech enthusiasts & entrepreneurs, subscribe to our newsletter!


Subscribe to our newsletter

and get the latest updates