In this article, we will explore some popular Node.js libraries that can help you build efficient and scalable applications. These libraries are divided into categories based on their functionality.
| Library / Category | Description | Website/Documentation & how to install |
| 1. Express Web Servers | Flexible and minimalist web framework | https://expressjs.com/ npm install express |
| 2. NestJS RESTful APIs | TypeScript-based framework for building scalable, enterprise-grade APIs | https://nestjs.com/ npm install --save @nestjs/common @nestjs/core |
| 3. Mongoose Mongo Database | Object Modeling Mapper (ODM) for MongoDB | https://www.mongodb.com/developer/languages/javascript/getting-started-with-mongodb-and-mongoose/ npm install mongoose |
| 4. Sequelize SQL Database Drivers | ORM for various databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc.) | https://sequelize.org/ npm install sequelize |
| 5. MoleculerJS Microservices Framework | Fast and modern framework for building microservices | https://moleculer.services/ npm install moleculer |
| 6. Passport.js Authentication | Middleware for authentication strategies (OAuth, JWT, etc.) | https://www.passportjs.org/ npm install passport passport-jwt (for JWT example) |
| 7. Express-authorization Authorization | Flexible authorization middleware for Express | https://github.com/ylorenzana/node-express-api-auth npm install express-authorization |
| 8. Multer File System | Middleware for file uploads and parsing | https://blog.logrocket.com/multer-nodejs-express-upload-file/ npm install multer |
| 9. Joi Validation | Schema-based validation for data | https://www.npmjs.com/package/joi npm install joi |
| 10. Jest Testing | Testing framework for JavaScript and TypeScript | https://jestjs.io/ npm install --save-dev jest |
| 11. EJS Templating | Embedded JavaScript templating engine | https://www.npmjs.com/package/ejs npm install ejs |
| 12. Handlebars Templating | Logicless templating engine | https://handlebarsjs.com/ npm install handlebars |
| 13. Nodemailer Email | Send email from Node.js applications | https://www.npmjs.com/package/nodemailer npm install nodemailer |
| 14. PM2 Deployment | Process manager for Node.js applications | https://pm2.io/ npm install -g pm2 |
| 15. Winston Logging | Logging library with various transports and formats | https://www.npmjs.com/package/winston npm install winston |
| 16. Sharp Image Processing | High-performance image processing library | https://www.npmjs.com/package/sharp npm install sharp |
| 17. Socket.io WebSockets | Real-time communication library | https://socket.io/ npm install socket.io |
| 18. Bull Background Tasks | Queueing system for background jobs | https://www.npmjs.com/package/bull npm install bull |
| 19. Redis Caching | In-memory data store for caching and messaging | https://redis.io/ (Requires separate installation) |
| 20. Apollo Server GraphQL | GraphQL server framework | https://www.apollographql.com/docs/apollo-server/ npm install apollo-server |