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MLton VS Node.js

Compare MLton VS Node.js and see what are their differences

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MLton logo MLton

MLton is an open-source, whole-program, optimizing Standard ML compiler

Node.js logo Node.js

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications
  • MLton Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-25
  • Node.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

MLton features and specs

  • Performance
    MLton is known for producing highly optimized, efficient executables due to its whole-program compilation approach. This can result in faster performance compared to other Standard ML compilers.
  • Standard ML Compliance
    MLton has strong adherence to the Standard ML language specification, ensuring that programs written for MLton are highly portable and conform to the expected language standards.
  • Rich Optimization
    The compiler includes numerous optimization techniques, enabling better runtime performance and memory usage for compiled applications.
  • Large Language Support
    MLton supports the full breadth of the Standard ML language, including advanced features like functors and modules.

Possible disadvantages of MLton

  • Compilation Time
    Due to its whole-program optimization techniques, MLton can take longer to compile programs compared to other compilers that use separate compilation.
  • Executable Size
    Although MLton optimizes for performance, this can sometimes result in larger executable sizes than compilers that don't perform as many optimizations.
  • Limited Interactivity
    MLton is optimized for batch processing and does not provide interactive development features like a REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop), which can be a downside for some developers used to interactive programming environments.
  • Platform Availability
    While MLton supports several platforms, its availability may not be as widespread as other more commonly used programming environments, which could limit use in certain contexts.

Node.js features and specs

  • Asynchronous and Event-Driven
    Node.js uses an asynchronous, non-blocking, and event-driven I/O model, making it efficient and scalable for handling multiple simultaneous connections.
  • JavaScript Everywhere
    Developers can use JavaScript for both client-side and server-side programming, providing a unified language environment and better synergy between front-end and back-end development.
  • Large Community and NPM
    Node.js has a vibrant community and a rich ecosystem with the Node Package Manager (NPM), which offers thousands of open-source libraries and tools that can be integrated easily into projects.
  • High Performance
    Built on the V8 JavaScript engine from Google, Node.js translates JavaScript directly into native machine code, which increases performance and speed.
  • Scalability
    Designed with microservices and scalability in mind, Node.js enables easy horizontal scaling across multiple servers.
  • JSON Support
    Node.js seamlessly handles JSON, which is a common format for API responses, making it an excellent choice for building RESTful APIs and data-intensive real-time applications.

Possible disadvantages of Node.js

  • Callback Hell
    The reliance on callbacks to manage asynchronous operations can lead to deeply nested and difficult-to-read code, commonly referred to as 'Callback Hell'.
  • Not Suitable for CPU-Intensive Tasks
    Node.js is optimized for I/O operations and can become inefficient for CPU-intensive tasks, slowing down overall performance due to its single-threaded event loop.
  • Immaturity of Tools
    Compared to more established technologies, some Node.js libraries and tools still lack maturity and comprehensive documentation, which can be challenging for developers.
  • Callback and Promise Overheads
    Managing asynchronous operations using callbacks or promises can lead to additional complexity and overhead, impacting maintainability and performance if not handled correctly.
  • Fragmented Ecosystem
    The fast-paced evolution of Node.js and its ecosystem can lead to fragmentation, with numerous versions and libraries that may not always be compatible with each other.
  • Security Issues
    The extensive use of third-party libraries via NPM can introduce security vulnerabilities if not properly managed and updated, making applications more susceptible to attacks.

Analysis of Node.js

Overall verdict

  • Node.js is a popular and effective choice for building a wide range of applications, from small utilities to large-scale enterprise solutions. Its performance, speed, and community support make it a strong option, especially for real-time applications.

Why this product is good

  • Node.js is considered good because it's built on Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript Engine, making it fast and efficient for handling I/O operations. Its event-driven, non-blocking I/O model makes it suitable for building scalable network applications. Additionally, it has a large ecosystem of packages available through npm, allowing developers to find solutions for almost any problem they might encounter.

Recommended for

  • Web applications with a lot of I/O operations
  • Real-time services such as chat applications
  • APIs for mobile and single-page applications
  • Prototyping and agile development
  • Microservices architecture

MLton videos

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Node.js videos

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What is Node.js? | Mosh

More videos:

  • Review - What is Node.js Exactly? - a beginners introduction to Nodejs
  • Review - Learn node.js in 2020 - A review of best node.js courses

Category Popularity

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User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare MLton and Node.js

MLton Reviews

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Node.js Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
JavaScript is widely used for back-end or server-side development because it makes a call to the remote server when a web page loads on the browser. When a browser loads a web page, it makes a call to a remote server. Further, the code parses the page’s URL to understand users’ requirements before retrieving and transforming the required data to serve back to the browser....
Source: solguruz.com
9 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023
Node.js applications are written in JavaScript and run on the Node.js runtime, which allows them to be executed on any platform that supports Node.js. Node.js applications are typically event-driven and single-threaded, making them efficient and scalable. Additionally, the Node Package Manager (NPM) provides a way to install and manage dependencies for Node.js projects...
Source: ninetailed.io
20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
TJ Holowaychuk built Express in 2010 before being acquired by IBM (StrongLoop) in 2015. Node.js Foundation currently maintains it. The key reason Express is one of the best JavaScript frameworks is its rapid server-side coding. Complex tasks that would take hours to code using pure Node.js can be resolved in a few minutes, thanks to Express. On top of that, Express offers a...
Source: www.lambdatest.com
FOSS | Top 15 Web Servers 2021
Node.js is a cross-platform server-side JavaScript environment built for developing and running network applications such as web servers. Node.js is licensed under a variety of licenses. As of March 2021, around 1.2% of applications were running on Node.js. Among the top companies and applications utilizing this modern web server are GoDaddy, Microsoft, General Electric,...
Source: www.zentao.pm
10 Best Tools to Develop Cross-Platform Desktop Apps 
Electron.js is compatible with a variety of frameworks, libraries, access to hardware-level APIs and chromium engine, and Node.js support. Electron Fiddle feature is great for experimentation as it allows developers to play around with concepts and templates. Simplification is at the center of Electron because developers don’t have to spend unnecessary time on the packaging,...
Source: www.westagilelabs.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Node.js seems to be a lot more popular than MLton. While we know about 901 links to Node.js, we've tracked only 5 mentions of MLton. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

MLton mentions (5)

  • Simple JSON parser in c++, rust, ocaml, standard ml
    Once I got the parser ready in OCaml, I thought I port it to Standard ML, since it belong to the same ML language family. I was also curious on how well mlton could optimise it. The language lacks custom let bindings, so I resorted to use Result.bind manually. This makes code much less readable and more verbose. The standard library also lacks result type, so I had to come up with my own simple implementation.... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Ante: A low-level functional language
    If you’re fine with tracing GC (which depends on the situation, of course), Standard ML is a perfectly boring language (that IIUC predated and inspired Caml) and MLton[1] is a very nice optimizing compiler for it. The language is awkward at times (in particular, the separate sublanguage of modules can be downright unwieldy), and the library has some of the usual blind spots such as nonexistent Unicode support... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Write your own programming language in an hour with Chumsky
    Unfortunately, I haven't found a ton of "easily-digestible" and, at the same time, comprehensive guides on compiling functional languages. Generally you'll find a mix of blog posts/class notes/papers covering a single step. Some resources I like: - Andrew Kennedy's 2007 paper Compiling with Continuations, Continued [1]. This one is the most clear IMO - Andrew Appel's Compiling with Continuations book... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Why are imperative programs considered faster than their functional counterparts?
    More broadly, they can be fast even without such extensions if they aggressively pursue optimization opportunities afforded by static typing, like MLton for example, but that also impacts compilation performance negatively. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Coalton: How to Have Our (Typed) Cake and (Safely) Eat It Too, in Common Lisp
    According to the OP, it's from http://mlton.org/ (see https://coalton-lang.github.io/20211010-introducing-coalton/#acknowledgements ). - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago

Node.js mentions (901)

  • How to install Tailwind v4 in a Vite project
    This was the first step I took as my Node version was outdated. To check your Node version, use the command node -v. The latest version of Node can be obtained via the official website. - Source: dev.to / about 2 hours ago
  • 🔥 Why Everyone Is Talking About HTMX: The Game-Changer for Web Development
    🌍 Who Should Use HTMX? ✅ Django / Flask / Rails developers ✅ Express / Node.js backend lovers ✅ Fullstack devs who want LESS frontend headache ✅ Teams jo SSR + SEO ko priority dete hain. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • How to Easily Integrate the SeerBit Payment Solution with React.js
    Node.js v12+ installed on your machine. You can download it from the official site. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
  • Building a Responsive Carousel Component in React: The Complete Guide
    Before starting, you must have npm installed on your computer, which comes bundled with Node.js which you can install from here. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • Using NanoAPI on Game Mods
    Napi works out of the box on both mac and Linux systems. To use this tool on Windows, you will need to install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and run the CLI commands from there. Make sure that Node.js (>=22) and npm are installed https://nodejs.org/en. Then the command we run is npm install -g @nanoapi.io/napi. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing MLton and Node.js, you can also consider the following products

Poly/ML - The Poly/ML implementation of Standard ML – full multiprocessor support in the thread library and garbage collector, interactive debugger, fast compiler.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

OCaml - (* Binary tree with leaves carrying an integer.

ExpressJS - Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple

Guile - Guile is the GNU Ubiquitous Intelligent Language for Extensions, the official extension language for the GNU operating system.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

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