Deno vs. Node.js

Deno is a TypeScript runtime built on V8Google’s runtime engine for JavaScript. Node.js is an open-source JavaScript runtime environment that is also built on V8 and written in C, C++, and JavaScript.

Both languages are intended to be used for web development. In fact, Deno was developed as a replacement to Node.js by the very person, Ryan Dahl, who made Node.js. Ryna Dahl announced Deno in 2018 in his famous talk, ‘10 Things I Regret About Node.js’. As the name of the talk suggests, Ryan aimed to fix some of the problems of Node.js in Deno.

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Deno

  1. Deno has a huge focus on security. It runs all code in a sandbox, which prevents access to the file system. To access the file system, Deno asks permission first.
  2. Deno uses URLs to import modules instead of a centralized registry like npm. While this is risky due to the unpredictability of the web, Deno attempts to reduce this problem by caching downloaded modules.
  3. Deno has a built-in window object. A window object offers a representation of the browser’s window.
  4. Deno offers out-of-the-box support for TypeScript.

Node.js

  1. Node.js does not run in a sandbox and does not need permission to read or write in the file system.
  2. Node.js uses Node Package Manager, commonly known as npm, which is a centralized system to import modules. Although convenient, npm has recently encountered a number of issues.
  3. Node.js does not offer a built-in window object.
  4. Node.js does not offer out-of-the-box support for TypeScript.

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