How would node.js stack up vs jetty for an etherpad-like application?

Question

I noticed that etherpad, when it was alive ( and living clones of it ) used Jetty. I'm considering writing a similar program but I want to use node.js instead.

Could anyone offer some insight into the pros and cons of Jetty/node.js performance-wise?

Answer 1

Node.js is the new hot library, powered by the awesome fast Google v8 Javascript engine.

Jetty is powered by Java, and is a pretty robust stack that powers many enterprisey apps.

Performance wise I would expect similar performance provided the architecture is right. I single node instance will run on a single proc, if you want to start sharing data between procs you probably need to look at something like memcached or redis.

Node is likely to use less memory (since there is no JVM) and is also likely to perform slightly slower. (which may or may not be noticeable)

Personally, I think Nginx + Node + Redis would give you ample performance with plenty room grow down the line.

If you prefer a JVM based solution, jetty or even aleph could work.

If you want a Ruby solution, Event Machine could work.

If all you need is simple pub/sub something like nginx push model could do.

I think any of the above solutions could be made to scale.