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Perl VS Node.js

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

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Perl logo Perl

Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development

Node.js logo Node.js

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications
  • Perl Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-21

We recommend LibHunt Perl for discovery and comparisons of trending Perl projects.

  • Node.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

Perl features and specs

  • Text Processing Power
    Perl is renowned for its strong text processing capabilities, making it ideal for scripting and automating tasks involving text manipulation.
  • Mature Ecosystem
    Having been in existence since 1987, Perl boasts a robust ecosystem with a vast array of libraries and modules, easily accessible via CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network).
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Perl is highly portable, running on almost any operating system, which provides flexibility in deployment and development.
  • Community Support
    Perl has a long-standing and active community, providing extensive documentation, tutorials, and forums for support.
  • Flexibility
    Perl allows developers to write code in various styles (procedural, object-oriented, functional), giving them the freedom to choose the best approach for the task at hand.

Possible disadvantages of Perl

  • Readability Issues
    Perl's syntax is often criticized for being complex and difficult to read, especially for beginners or for those maintaining legacy code.
  • Declining Popularity
    Despite its strengths, Perl's popularity has waned over the years with the rise of newer languages like Python and Ruby, leading to fewer new developers and projects in Perl.
  • Performance
    While Perl is efficient for scripting and text processing, it may not perform as well as other languages in tasks requiring high computational speed or resource efficiency.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its intricate syntax and the flexibility that comes with 'There's more than one way to do it' (TMTOWTDI) philosophy, beginners might find Perl challenging to master.
  • Outdated Perception
    Perl suffers from an outdated perception among some segments of the programming community, leading to its decreased adoption for new projects.

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.

Perl videos

CARPRO PERL REVIEW ON TIRES!!! FANTASTIC PRODUCT!! MULTIPLE USES! WINNER IN MY BOOK!

More videos:

  • Review - CarPro PERL Application & Durability | Auto Fanatic
  • Review - Obsessed Garage TIRE DRESSING : Better than CarPro PERL or Chemical Guys VRP?

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

Category Popularity

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Programming Language
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Developer Tools
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100% 100
OOP
100 100%
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Runtime
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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 Perl and Node.js

Perl Reviews

Top 5 Most Liked and Hated Programming Languages of 2022
Perl is yet another complex language to learn. Though this programming language caters to a wide range of applications prototyping, large-scale projects, text control, system administration, web development, and network programming, the very fact that it is on the complex side to deal with makes it one of the most hated programming languages.

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,...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Node.js seems to be a lot more popular than Perl. While we know about 896 links to Node.js, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Perl. 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.

Perl mentions (5)

  • CamelFace
    But what would be a better symbol? I just saw, that perl.org also has a littel camel face on the site :-). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What are your coolest tools for one-liners ?
    And just while I wrote this I saw this on perl.org which may be an interesting read (although I prefer writing some things in Bash despite being a 20 year+ perl user). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Precedence
    I'm going through the textbook "Beginning Perl" located at perl.org, and I'm having a confuse with one of the example questions. I'm supposed to determine the order of operations for 26 + 3 ^ 4 * 2. According to the precedence table in the textbook, + and * come before ^. So I think the answer should be ((26 + 3) ^ (4 * 2)), but the book says the answer is 26 + (3 ^ (4 * 2)). Can anyone help me figure out what... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • How to run/debug perl from Vs:code
    See "A regularly updated compendium of Perl IDEs to be hosted on perl.org" at https://grants.perlfoundation.org/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Perling and Curling
    Use Net::Curl::Easier; Use Net::Curl::Promiser::Mojo; Use Mojo::Promise; My $easy1 = Net::Curl::Easier->new( url => 'http://perl.org', followlocation => 1, ); My $easy2 = Net::Curl::Easier->new( username => 'hal', userpwd => 'itsasecret', url => 'imap://mail.example.com/INBOX/;UID=123', ); My $easy3 = Net::Curl::Easier->new( username => 'hal', userpwd => 'itsasecret', url =>... - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago

Node.js mentions (896)

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What are some alternatives?

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

Python - Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

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

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation

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

Go Programming Language - Go, also called golang, is a programming language initially developed at Google in 2007 by Robert...

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans