I’m trying to decide between Python and Node.js for my next backend project and would love to hear from others who have experience with both. I know they’re both really popular choices for creating server-side applications and REST APIs, but I’m not sure which one would be better for my situation. What factors do you consider when choosing between these two technologies? Are there specific scenarios where one clearly outperforms the other? I’m particularly interested in hearing about performance differences, learning curve, development speed, and how well each handles scaling for larger applications. Any real-world examples or personal experiences would be super helpful in making this decision.
i’ve worked with both, but honestly, node.js felt more responsive for real-time stuff. python’s a champ for data crunching tho. just my 2 cents!
Interesting! What kind of app are you building? Is it a basic CRUD API or something more complex with real-time features? Also, what’s your team’s background - are they stronger with JavaScript or Python?
I’ve built production APIs with both over the past few years, and I usually go with Python for backend work. The ecosystem’s rock solid - Django and FastAPI give you so much right out of the box. Django’s ORM and admin interface have saved me tons of time, and FastAPI’s fast with automatic API docs. Python’s way easier to debug than Node.js callback hell (though async/await helped a lot). That said, if your frontend team’s already deep in JavaScript, Node.js cuts down on context switching and you can share code between client and server. npm’s huge but I’ve hit more dependency headaches than with pip. Both scale fine with good architecture, though you need to be more careful with Python’s threading for CPU-heavy stuff.