Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Node.js VS Rowy

Compare Node.js VS Rowy 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

Rowy logo Rowy

Rowy is an open-source low-code platform to build your product, from MVP to scale. Manage your database in a spreadsheet-like UI, write Cloud Functions effortlessly in the browser, build automation with ready-made extensions to your favorite tools.
  • Node.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18
  • Rowy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-09

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.

Rowy features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Rowy offers a spreadsheet-like interface that is intuitive and easy to use, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users.
  • Real-Time Collaboration
    Supports real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same data set concurrently, enhancing team productivity.
  • Integrations
    Provides built-in integrations with popular services and platforms like Firebase, enabling easy data import and export and smooth workflow integration.
  • Custom Functionality
    Users can write custom code or formulas to implement specific logic or transformations on the data, providing flexibility in how data is handled.
  • Scalability
    Designed to handle large datasets, making it suitable for both small projects and larger enterprise-level applications.

Possible disadvantages of Rowy

  • Limited Offline Access
    Primarily a cloud-based solution, meaning there is limited functionality or accessibility when offline, which might be a drawback for some users.
  • Potential Learning Curve
    Despite its intuitive design, users who are not familiar with spreadsheet-based applications might face a learning curve initially.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    As a cloud-based tool, consistent and reliable internet access is required, which may not be feasible in all working environments.
  • Subscription Costs
    While Rowy may offer a free tier, advanced features and capabilities are likely locked behind subscription plans, which could be a consideration for small businesses or individual users.
  • Data Privacy Concerns
    As with any cloud-based service, there might be concerns regarding data privacy and security, especially when dealing with sensitive or proprietary information.

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

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

Rowy videos

Introducing Rowy - Airtable-like experience for Firestore with GCP's scalability

More videos:

  • Review - Show & Tell: Rowy
  • Review - This FREE Tool Will FOREVER Change Your NoCode/FlutterFlow Development! (Rowy Review)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Node.js and Rowy)
Developer Tools
98 98%
2% 2
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Runtime
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
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 Rowy

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,...

Rowy Reviews

  1. So many ideas made possible

    Streamlining the setup process by eliminating the need to configure Firebase and cloud functions in the Google console makes Rowy a must try service. This saves invaluable time, allowing you to focus exclusively on BUILDING. You literally have a beautiful and intuitive spreadsheet like UI to manage and build your backend on top of.

  2. Bobby
    · No Code Developer ·
    Not only visualises Firestore data as spreadsheet, but also comes with a lot of features

    Rowy's spreadsheet UI turns my Firestore table data into a spreadsheet view where I can manage data, it's super cool! I can even invite my team members and have granular access management! I'm sooooo excited.

    The out of box features are also very handy, I can create a derivative from my existing data, and even have an action column to define actions to perform with JavaScript when I click on it! The extension/webhooks are also so cool, I built a Discord message bot and a ton of automations in no time!!!

  3. Extremely easy and intuitive to use

    The ability to interact with your database via a spreadsheet-like UI makes this one of the most intuitive back-end tools out there, and the various automations offered add to the experience and make it incredibly user-friendly.

    👍 Pros:    Easy to use|User-friendly

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Node.js seems to be a lot more popular than Rowy. While we know about 901 links to Node.js, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Rowy. 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 (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 / 10 days 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 / 20 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 / 28 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 / 26 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 / about 1 month ago
View more

Rowy mentions (5)

  • Introducing BuildShip
    We are the team behind Rowy.io and today we are super excited to launch BuildShip. BuildShip was created with all the feedback we got from the amazing community of no-code/low-code builders using Rowy and months of hard work by the team. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Guide to building an application the quickest?
    I want to build an application as soon as possible, I don't care to be employed by a company or be a "complete" software engineer. I have a service which provides the bank-end (rowy.io) but need help building the app/front-end. Are there any recommendations or tutorials out there for learning enough to build an app/learning which questions to ask open.ai in order to help? I just want to build out my idea as soon... Source: about 2 years ago
  • how do you move to second page in firestone?
    Just thought will put it out here as it seems like a pain point we also faced when trying to use Firestore console UI...trying to manage the data/find it etc was a pain :( So we built an open-source spreadsheet-like UI to manage your Firestore data as easily. Hope you find it useful :) Website: https://rowy.io/ Github: https://github.com/rowyio/rowy. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Opinions on Retool for an admin panel?
    Hi 👋 cofounder of http://rowy.io - lowcode cms platform purpose built for Firebase - manage Firestore, build any cloud functions, upload files directly to Firebase storage - with real-time updates. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I made an Open-source FireStore UI tool to make development with Firestore less painful!
    Also from the same makers, there is rowy.io however that is completely different beast in its own :). Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Airtable - Airtable works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything. Sign up for free.

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

NocoDB - The Open Source Airtable alternative

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Grist - Grist makes it easy to transform spreadsheets into a custom database where data is truly actionable.