Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that runs JavaScript code outside a web browser. Created by Ryan Dahl in 2009 and built on the V8 engine from Chrome, Node.js introduced an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that made JavaScript a viable server-side language.
It is now the foundation of npm — the largest software registry in history — and powers everything from CLI tools and build pipelines to web servers and edge runtimes.
JavaScript runtime built on V8. The platform that took JS off the browser and into every server room.
✨ Features
Non-blocking I/O on a single thread. Handle thousands of concurrent connections cheaply.
Largest software registry in existence. Two million+ packages for everything imaginable.
Same JIT-compiled runtime that powers Chrome. JS executes at near-native speed.
True parallelism for CPU-bound work. SharedArrayBuffer, Atomics, MessagePort built in.
Built-in HTTP/HTTPS, WebSocket, undici fetch. Make web requests without external libraries.
