It is crucial to choose the correct programming language to use to develop an application. The choice of the wrong programming language can make the development inefficient and time-consuming. Most of the developers know multiple programming languages especially the ones there are popular. This opens up the opportunity to develop a project with a programming language of their choice as per the suitability. In the web and app development industry, the two programming languages that are ruling left and right are Python and NodeJS.

There are lots of similarities between the two programming languages and both the programming languages can be used to achieve the same targets and goals in project development. The question lies with which programming language you can develop a project faster and efficiently. For that, you have to know the strengths of the languages and their differences.

Speed –

In any application, the speed is the factor that is given the highest priority during development. In most of the cases, Node.js clears has better speed than Python. It is important to understand that the speed of a programming language refers to the execution speed and it depends on how fast it can analyze the data and work the process out. When it comes to real-time websites or apps, there is no substitute for Node.js. For example, chat system, stock market, live data streaming, and all such applications can only be developed efficiently using Node.js.

Effectiveness –

Python is perfect for the development of projects that involve big data and dynamic functionalities that will put the processor to test. As a matter of fact, a project that will have a huge data flow due to regular heavy traffic, you should always opt for Python as it is designed for heavyweight application and greater traffic handling efficiently and smoothly. But if you are looking for developing a website or mobile app that should look eye-catching and the size of the project is relatively small to medium, you can trust Node.js to fulfill your required features. Due to this back-end suitability of Python and front=end for Node.js the following scenario occurs.

There are many who use Python for back-end development and Node.js for front-end development. This can make a project development efficient except the fact that you are going to make a lot of mistakes if you are responsible for both sides’ development. The syntaxes of the two languages are easy but different and even the ones who make the switch regularly make a lot of silly mistakes through the project development which increases the time of debugging and create a distraction.

 Debugging –

All the developers know that the most time-consuming part of any project development is spotting the bugs and solving them out. It does not matter how proficient you are in a programming language, the bugs are always complicated to solve unless they are typos. But the time required to spot the exact bug or understand the bug can be reduced significantly if the programming language offers certain advanced and simplified bug spotting and debugging features. Fortunately, both the programming languages have an advanced debugging system but Python has an edge for its simplified messages.

 Key Pros and Cons –

With Node.js, you can develop both the front-end and the back-end with the same language if you want. The front-end representation of Node.js is multiple times better than Python. You can scale your application to the multi-core system using Node.js but for most processor intensive applications, Python is the best choice. Node.js has the ability to handle concurrent requests without putting too much overhead load. The web page will load faster and it is simple to deploy and manage by the support team.

Python is a perfect server-side programming language. The coding standard is cleaner than Node.js. Even though Node.js is totally JavaScript and should have been easier, in reality, Python is the most developer-friendly programming language for beginners. The developers have to write fewer lines of code than various other object-oriented languages. In comparison to PHP which has a great share in the web development world, Python can do anything that PHP can do but at a faster rate. Python is nearly 25 years old and therefore, you can find more robust API for front-end and back-end development. There is no dearth of community support. On the flip side, Python is slow and that is why startups prefer Node.js over Python. Even though it is better for process intensive projects, it is bad for memory intensive projects.

 Final Verdict –


Node.js is awesome for live-feed and scalable applications and not suitable for processor intensive applications. Python is suitable for dynamic and heavyweight applications and not suitable for the scalable application. Python is a perfect choice for applications that involve machine learning. Node.js is a perfect choice for e-commerce stores. You will be hearing that people are moving from Python to Node.js, but you should also check the features of your projects and match them with the strengths of the programming language before beginning.