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Moleculer VS Sails.js

Compare Moleculer VS Sails.js and see what are their differences

Moleculer logo Moleculer

Fast & modern microservices framework for Node.js.

Sails.js logo Sails.js

Realtime MVC Framework for Node.js
  • Moleculer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-21
  • Sails.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-14

Moleculer features and specs

  • Microservices Architecture
    Moleculer provides an efficient microservices framework which allows developers to build robust and scalable distributed systems effortlessly.
  • Out-of-the-Box Features
    Moleculer offers an extensive array of built-in features such as service discovery, load balancing, fault tolerance, and more, reducing the need for third-party integrations.
  • Ease of Use
    Its straightforward API and comprehensive documentation make it easy to learn and implement, even for developers who are new to microservices.
  • Pluggable Transport Layer
    Supports different transporters such as NATS, MQTT, Kafka, and Redis, giving flexibility in how services communicate with each other.
  • Performance
    Designed for high performance, Moleculer can handle a large number of requests efficiently, making it suitable for production-level applications.

Possible disadvantages of Moleculer

  • Complexity in Large Systems
    As with any microservices framework, managing a large number of services can become complex and may require robust monitoring and orchestration tools.
  • Learning Curve
    While Moleculer is easy to start with, mastering it and understanding all its features and best practices may require time.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Compared to more established frameworks, Moleculer may have a smaller community and ecosystem which can affect the availability of third-party plugins or modules.
  • Dependency Management
    Ensuring compatibility between different versions of services and third-party libraries can be challenging, especially when services are updated independently.
  • Debugging and Error Handling
    Distributed systems can be more complex to debug, and although Moleculer provides tools for this, it may still require extra effort compared to monolithic applications.

Sails.js features and specs

  • MVC Architecture
    Sails.js follows a Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, making it easier to organize and maintain code, particularly for larger applications.
  • Auto-Generated REST APIs
    Automatically generates RESTful APIs based on your models, saving development time and reducing boilerplate code.
  • WebSocket Support
    Built-in support for WebSockets allows for real-time features without needing additional configurations.
  • ORM Integration
    Waterline, Sails.js' built-in ORM, provides a straightforward way to interact with databases, supporting multiple database systems with the same codebase.
  • Modularity
    Encourages modular development by supporting hooks and middleware, which can be reused or extended for various functionalities.
  • Blueprints
    Blueprints provide automatic actions for basic CRUD operations, streamlining common tasks and making development faster.
  • Scalability
    Designed to be scalable, allowing you to build applications that can handle a large number of simultaneous connections.

Possible disadvantages of Sails.js

  • Learning Curve
    Although Sails.js simplifies many aspects of development, there is still a learning curve, especially for those not familiar with Node.js.
  • Performance Overhead
    The abstractions provided by Sails.js and its ORM can introduce performance overhead, potentially making it slower than more lightweight frameworks.
  • Limited Flexibility
    While the conventions in Sails.js can speed up development, they can also limit flexibility, making it harder to implement customized or unconventional features.
  • Community and Support
    The community and support for Sails.js are not as extensive as some other frameworks like Express.js, which might make troubleshooting and finding solutions more challenging.
  • Outdated Documentation
    Some parts of the documentation may be outdated, which can lead to confusion and require additional time to find updated resources or examples.

Moleculer videos

MoleculeR review

Sails.js videos

Intro to Sails.js Framework for Next-Level Nodejs Backend Apps

More videos:

  • Review - Sails.js LOGIC 101: Dynamic data

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Moleculer and Sails.js)
Developer Tools
31 31%
69% 69
Web Frameworks
19 19%
81% 81
JavaScript Framework
17 17%
83% 83
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Moleculer Reviews

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Sails.js Reviews

Top 14 Node.JS Frameworks: Which Will Rule in 2020?
This is another real-time MVC web development Node.js framework created on Express. It builds the latest, data-driven style of APIs and web apps. Sails.js can develop an API bookstore.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Sails.js should be more popular than Moleculer. It has been mentiond 26 times since March 2021. 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.

Moleculer mentions (14)

  • Make microservices look like monoliths
    My goto for this kind of task is moleculer: https://moleculer.services/ Fast, battle tested, vue2-like approach, great documentation, good community. The automatic indipendent-scalability as an option is usually the main selling point of these solutions, but honestly I think the real pro is the "composition" approach, which is essential if you want to keep a clean and well-organized codebase. On this regard, I... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • How to Import/Reference a Microservice from another one
    If you’re using k8s, check out https://moleculer.services and this would likely solve what you’re looking for. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Node JS Microservice Frameworks for Developing Scalable Web Apps.
    Molecular – Progressive Microservices Framework for Node.js. Source: about 2 years ago
  • First time building microservice-based application
    While you’re delving into microservices, check out Moleculer https://moleculer.services. Source: over 2 years ago
  • if Nodejs does not meant for CPU intensive tasks so I think it's better to avoid it from the beginning
    I almost can’t believe I haven’t seen it mentioned here before, but adding Moleculer into your node project (if it’s clustered/k8s’d) will literally solve many single threaded problems, not to mention tons of other scalability issues. https://moleculer.services/. Source: almost 3 years ago
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Sails.js mentions (26)

  • AdonisJS
    I haven't used either so I can't chime in on that front, but long ago I was pretty into Sails which is written by a team that loves rails, but switched to NodeJS so it's basically Node on Rails. I actually thought they discontinued it, but I just searched and it still exists. It was a solid framework like 5 years ago when I used it last so I assume it's quite mature now. https://sailsjs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Choosing the best JavaScript framework for your next project
    Sails is a realtime JavaScript framework built on top of Express. Sails offers built-in realtime communication support and a flexible routing system. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Best NodeJS frameworks for seamless backend development
    Sails is a realtime MVC framework for NodeJS built on top of Express. Sails has a flexible routing system and comes with built-in realtime communication support. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • The Ascent of Node.js: How a runtime changed the Web
    Sails.js: Sails.js pitched itself as the MVC framework for Node.js, bringing a Rails-like experience while being database agnostic. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • WebSockets 101
    Disclaimer: I didn't know much about Websockets 1 week ago, all the experience I had with Websockets was when I developed a chat application back in 2016 using a JS framework that tried to be a Ruby on Rails implementation called SailsJS, so I decided to research about this technology and consumed multiple resources which I will link in this blog post and each section. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Moleculer and Sails.js, you can also consider the following products

Nest.js - A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, reliable and scalable server-side applications.

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

KintoHub - A modern fullstack app platform

ASP.NET - ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Loopback by RogueAmoeba - Get all the power of a high-end studio mixing board, right inside your Mac!

CodeBehind Framework - CodeBehind is a new framework based on .NET Core version 7.0. The CodeBehind framework inherits all the features of .NET Core and gives it more simplicity and flexibility. CodeBehind framework is owned by Elanat.