Originally published in The New Stack Update.
With Node.js’s use on the server side, comparing JavaScript and Java is no longer apples vs oranges. With that context, it is noteworthy that last year the number of npm (Javascript) packages downloaded surpassed components in the maven (Java) components. According to Sonatype’s 2017 State of the Software Supply Chain, 59 billion npm packages were downloaded in 2017, up 262 percent from the year before, while Java component downloads “only” rose 68 percent. The number of downloads is a function of the number of users, the total number available to be downloaded, and the frequency of software releases/updates. According to the 2017 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, the percentage of developers using Node.js has risen from eight percent in 2013 to 26 percent in 2017. According to Module Counts, the total number of unique Node.js modules surpassed Java in 2014 and now outpaces 3 million to 2 million. Node.js continues to grow its user base and complexity, but the continued increase in downloads per year is also related to the shortening application release cycles. Looking to the future, npm downloads per user per month will be an interesting stat to monitor.
