Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Node.js VS htmx

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

Node.js logo Node.js

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

htmx logo htmx

high power tools for HTML
  • Node.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18
  • htmx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-25

htmx gives you access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets and Server Sent Events directly in HTML, using attributes, so you can build modern user interfaces with the simplicity and power of hypertext

htmx is small (~14k min.gz’d), dependency-free, extendable, IE11 compatible & has reduced code base sizes by 67% when compared with react

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.

htmx features and specs

  • Ease of Integration
    htmx allows developers to easily add dynamic, AJAX-powered interactions to existing HTML without requiring significant rework or the use of heavier JavaScript frameworks.
  • Server-Side Rendering
    htmx leverages the benefits of server-side rendering and progressive enhancement, ensuring better SEO, faster initial load times, and improved accessibility.
  • Reduced JavaScript
    With htmx, much of the interactivity can be managed using HTML attributes, resulting in less custom JavaScript code and potentially fewer bugs and maintenance challenges.
  • Progressive Enhancement
    htmx supports a progressive enhancement approach, allowing features to be enhanced progressively without breaking the fundamental user experience for those with JavaScript disabled.
  • Declarative Style
    htmx advocates for a declarative style of programming which can make code more readable and maintainable by clearly expressing the intended behavior in HTML.

Possible disadvantages of htmx

  • Limited Ecosystem
    The ecosystem around htmx is still relatively small compared to larger JavaScript frameworks, which means fewer resources, libraries, and community support are available.
  • Potential for Complexity in Large Apps
    For large-scale applications, managing interactivity solely with htmx might become cumbersome. Combining htmx with more robust state management solutions could be necessary, complicating the architecture.
  • Learning Curve
    While not as steep as some frameworks, there is a learning curve associated with understanding htmx’s attributes and integrating it effectively into existing projects.
  • Fragmentation Risk
    Relying too heavily on server-side partials and asynchronous updates can lead to fragmentation, where the logic of the application is split between the client and server, making it harder to manage and debug.
  • Limited Explicit State Management
    htmx lacks built-in state management solutions that are common in other front-end frameworks, potentially requiring additional tools to manage complex application state.

Node.js videos

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

htmx videos

DjangoCon Europe 2023 | HTMX vs WASM - more backend or more frontend?

More videos:

  • Review - Dynamic Web Pages Without JavaScript? - Intro to HTMX

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Node.js and htmx)
Developer Tools
95 95%
5% 5
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Runtime
100 100%
0% 0
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

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...
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,...

htmx Reviews

We have no reviews of htmx yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Node.js should be more popular than htmx. It has been mentiond 897 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.

Node.js mentions (897)

  • 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 / 11 days ago
  • Setting up the Pinecone MCP server in your IDE
    Node.js installed with npm and npx on your path. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Go for Node developers: creating an IDP from scratch - Set-up
    Nowadays, due to performance constraints a lot of companies are moving away from NodeJS to Go for their network and API stacks. This series is for developers interest in making the jump from Node.js to Go. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Verifying Cognito access tokens - Comparing three JWT packages for Lambda authorizers
    This article compares three JWT packages designed for Node.js and TypeScript. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • UmiJS: the Shaolin of web frameworks
    The code for the described project can be found here. Umi suggests (and supports) quite a bunch of build tools and package managers, but the default one is pnpm, for which you'll need to have Node.js v18+ installed. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
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htmx mentions (119)

  • The Rise of Hybrid Frameworks
    At the forefront of this hybrid model stands htmx, a pioneering framework that champions a simplified approach to dynamic web development. By leveraging data attributes, htmx grants developers the ability to control client-side interactions directly from the HTML markup. This means that the primary focus shifts back to generating valid HTML on the server, while htmx seamlessly inserts and updates this content... - Source: dev.to / about 14 hours ago
  • Seeking an Answer: Why can't HTML alone do includes?
    I've become a fan of https://htmx.org for this reason. A small 10KB lib that augments HTML with the essential good stuff (like dynamic imports of static HTML). - Source: Hacker News / 20 days ago
  • The 3 Best Python Frameworks To Build UIs for AI Apps
    FastHTML allows developers to build modern web applications entirely in Python without touching JavaScript or React. As its name implies, it is quicker to begin with FastHTML. However, it does not have pre-built UI components and styling. Getting the best out of this framework requires the knowledge of HTMX and UI styling using CSS libraries like Tailwind and Bootstrap. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Build a Bookmark Manager with the HONC Stack
    Import { bookmarks } from './src/db/schema'; ... Const sampleBookmarks = [ { title: "Hono Framework", url: "https://hono.dev", description: "A lightweight web framework for building APIs and applications.", tags: "hono, framework, edge", }, { title: "Drizzle ORM", url: "https://orm.drizzle.team", description: "A type-safe ORM designed for SQL databases.", tags: "orm, database,... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • An advanced Data Table with HTMX
    HTMX: The library that makes this approach possible. HTMX allows the development of applications with HTML and HTTP, but by lifting a whole set of limitations, particularly by allowing interaction with the server without necessarily reloading the entire page. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

Alpine.js - A rugged, minimal framework for composing JavaScript behavior in your markup.

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

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Svelte - Cybernetically enhanced web apps