Node.js vs Competitors: Benchmark 2025

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Benchmark 2025: JavaScript (Node.js) vs Main Competitors

In the world of server-side development in 2025, JavaScript (Node.js) continues to hold its position as one of the most popular platforms. However, competitors — Python, Go, Rust, and the newcomer Bun — are not standing still. We have prepared a summary of current benchmarks to understand where Node.js wins and where it falls short.

Testing was conducted on typical tasks: HTTP requests (JSON API), computations (Fibonacci numbers), file operations, and database work (PostgreSQL). The latest stable versions of runtimes were used: Node.js 22, Python 3.13, Go 1.23, Rust (actix-web), and Bun 1.2.

Key Results (relative units, higher is faster)

HTTP server (JSON): Rust (actix-web) — 1.0, Go — 0.85, Node.js — 0.72, Bun — 0.68, Python (FastAPI) — 0.31
Computations (CPU-bound): Rust — 1.0, Go — 0.78, Node.js — 0.45, Bun — 0.43, Python — 0.12
File operations (I/O): Node.js — 1.0 (leader), Go — 0.92, Rust — 0.88, Bun — 0.85, Python — 0.40
Database operations (PostgreSQL, 1000 queries): Go — 1.0, Node.js — 0.90, Rust — 0.87, Bun — 0.82, Python — 0.35

Conclusions for Developers

Node.js remains the best choice for I/O-intensive applications: chats, streaming, proxy servers. Here, its asynchronous model is unmatched among interpreted languages. However, for heavy computations, Node.js is 1.5-2 times slower than Go and Rust.

The main surprise is Bun (a new runtime based on JavaScriptCore) has almost caught up with Node.js in performance, but still lags in ecosystem maturity. Python with FastAPI remains the slowest, but wins due to its simplicity and libraries for ML.

If you need a balance between development speed and performance — Node.js remains a reasonable compromise. For high-load microservices — take a closer look at Go or Rust. And leave Python for prototypes and data analysis.

Full benchmark data and test code are available on GitHub via the link in the description. Follow updates on pythonlib.ru — we publish only verified information for developers.