Log in
Upcoming Tech Conferences
JSNation 2025JSNation 2025

What We All Pretend to Know: The Differences Between the JS Engine & JS Runtime

Karina Ionkina
Karina Ionkina
Bloomberg
Samiul Huque
Samiul Huque
Bloomberg
This talk is confirmed. The time of the talk will be announced soon.
The recording will be published after editing. Multipass and Full ticket holders have early access.
Get Multipass
Bookmark
Rate this content

Modern web development frameworks provide so many levels of abstraction that developers don’t need a deep understanding of the underlying runtimes or engines to hit the ground running. In fact, ease of use is the point of modern frameworks and a good indicator of their success. When spinning up an application, it’s easy to view Node as just “a piece of the puzzle,” and mistake it for a JavaScript engine, or a language, when, in reality, it is neither.

It is valuable for developers to understand the differences between the engines and runtimes employed in their full-stack projects in order to have a mental model of how their code is being executed, and to optimize it for the environments in which it is running. The goal of this talk is to make clear the distinction between a JavaScript engine and runtime, to review how they interact with one another (in both servers and on the web), and to look at practical applications of this knowledge.

This talk has been presented at JSNation 2025, check out the latest edition of this JavaScript Conference.

Video transcription, chapters and summary will be available later.

Check out more articles and videos

We constantly think of articles and videos that might spark Git people interest / skill us up or help building a stellar career

It's a Jungle Out There: What's Really Going on Inside Your Node_Modules Folder
Node Congress 2022Node Congress 2022
26 min
It's a Jungle Out There: What's Really Going on Inside Your Node_Modules Folder
Top Content
Feross Aboukhadijeh
Feross Aboukhadijeh
Feross is the author and maintainer of WebTorrent, StandardJS, and 100s of other open source projects
The talk discusses the importance of supply chain security in the open source ecosystem, highlighting the risks of relying on open source code without proper code review. It explores the trend of supply chain attacks and the need for a new approach to detect and block malicious dependencies. The talk also introduces Socket, a tool that assesses the security of packages and provides automation and analysis to protect against malware and supply chain attacks. It emphasizes the need to prioritize security in software development and offers insights into potential solutions such as realms and Deno's command line flags.
node.jssecurity
ESM Loaders: Enhancing Module Loading in Node.js
JSNation 2023JSNation 2023
22 min
ESM Loaders: Enhancing Module Loading in Node.js
Top Content
Gil Tayar
Gil Tayar
Microsoft, Israel
ESM Loaders enhance module loading in Node.js by resolving URLs and reading files from the disk. Module loaders can override modules and change how they are found. Enhancing the loading phase involves loading directly from HTTP and loading TypeScript code without building it. The loader in the module URL handles URL resolution and uses fetch to fetch the source code. Loaders can be chained together to load from different sources, transform source code, and resolve URLs differently. The future of module loading enhancements is promising and simple to use.
node.js
Towards a Standard Library for JavaScript Runtimes
Node Congress 2022Node Congress 2022
34 min
Towards a Standard Library for JavaScript Runtimes
Top Content
James Snell
James Snell
Workers team @Cloudflare
There is a need for a standard library of APIs for JavaScript runtimes, as there are currently multiple ways to perform fundamental tasks like base64 encoding. JavaScript runtimes have historically lacked a standard library, causing friction and difficulty for developers. The idea of a small core has both benefits and drawbacks, with some runtimes abusing it to limit innovation. There is a misalignment between Node and web browsers in terms of functionality and API standards. The proposal is to involve browser developers in conversations about API standardization and to create a common standard library for JavaScript runtimes.
component librarynode.jsjavascript
How Bun Makes Building React Apps Simpler & Faster
React Day Berlin 2022React Day Berlin 2022
9 min
How Bun Makes Building React Apps Simpler & Faster
Jarred Sumner
Jarred Sumner
Creator of Bun.
BUN is a modern all-in-one JavaScript runtime environment that achieves new levels of performance. It includes BUN dev, a fast front-end dev server, BUN install, a speedy package manager, and BUN run, a fast package runner. BUN supports JSX, has optimized React server-side rendering, and offers hot module reloading on the server. The priorities for BUN include stability, node compatibility, documentation improvement, missing features in BUN install, AST plugin API, native Windows support, Bundler and Minifier optimization, and easier deployment to production. BUN's AST plugin API allows for bundle-time JavaScript execution and embedding code, potentially inspiring new frameworks.
performancebuild toolsbuilders and foundersbun reactbunjs runtimes
Out of the Box Node.js Diagnostics
Node Congress 2022Node Congress 2022
34 min
Out of the Box Node.js Diagnostics
Colin Ihrig
Colin Ihrig
Member of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee
This talk covers various techniques for getting diagnostics information out of Node.js, including debugging with environment variables, handling warnings and deprecations, tracing uncaught exceptions and process exit, using the v8 inspector and dev tools, and generating diagnostic reports. The speaker also mentions areas for improvement in Node.js diagnostics and provides resources for learning and contributing. Additionally, the responsibilities of the Technical Steering Committee in the TS community are discussed.
node.js
Node.js Compatibility in Deno
Node Congress 2022Node Congress 2022
34 min
Node.js Compatibility in Deno
Bartek Iwanczuk
Bartek Iwanczuk
Deno core team member
Deno aims to provide Node.js compatibility to make migration smoother and easier. While Deno can run apps and libraries offered for Node.js, not all are supported yet. There are trade-offs to consider, such as incompatible APIs and a less ideal developer experience. Deno is working on improving compatibility and the transition process. Efforts include porting Node.js modules, exploring a superset approach, and transparent package installation from npm.
node.jsdenojs runtimes

Workshops on related topic

Node.js Masterclass
Node Congress 2023Node Congress 2023
109 min
Node.js Masterclass
Top Content
Workshop
Matteo Collina
Matteo Collina
Have you ever struggled with designing and structuring your Node.js applications? Building applications that are well organised, testable and extendable is not always easy. It can often turn out to be a lot more complicated than you expect it to be. In this live event Matteo will show you how he builds Node.js applications from scratch. You’ll learn how he approaches application design, and the philosophies that he applies to create modular, maintainable and effective applications.

Level: intermediate
node.js
Build and Deploy a Backend With Fastify & Platformatic
JSNation 2023JSNation 2023
104 min
Build and Deploy a Backend With Fastify & Platformatic
Top Content
WorkshopFree
Matteo Collina
Matteo Collina
Platformatic allows you to rapidly develop GraphQL and REST APIs with minimal effort. The best part is that it also allows you to unleash the full potential of Node.js and Fastify whenever you need to. You can fully customise a Platformatic application by writing your own additional features and plugins. In the workshop, we’ll cover both our Open Source modules and our Cloud offering:- Platformatic OSS (open-source software) — Tools and libraries for rapidly building robust applications with Node.js (https://oss.platformatic.dev/).- Platformatic Cloud (currently in beta) — Our hosting platform that includes features such as preview apps, built-in metrics and integration with your Git flow (https://platformatic.dev/). 
In this workshop you'll learn how to develop APIs with Fastify and deploy them to the Platformatic Cloud.
graphqlnode.jscloudfastify
Building a Hyper Fast Web Server with Deno
JSNation Live 2021JSNation Live 2021
156 min
Building a Hyper Fast Web Server with Deno
Workshop
Matt Landers
Will Johnston
2 authors
Deno 1.9 introduced a new web server API that takes advantage of Hyper, a fast and correct HTTP implementation for Rust. Using this API instead of the std/http implementation increases performance and provides support for HTTP2. In this workshop, learn how to create a web server utilizing Hyper under the hood and boost the performance for your web apps.
backendnode.jsdeno
0 to Auth in an Hour Using NodeJS SDK
Node Congress 2023Node Congress 2023
63 min
0 to Auth in an Hour Using NodeJS SDK
WorkshopFree
Asaf Shen
Asaf Shen
Passwordless authentication may seem complex, but it is simple to add it to any app using the right tool.
We will enhance a full-stack JS application (Node.JS backend + React frontend) to authenticate users with OAuth (social login) and One Time Passwords (email), including:- User authentication - Managing user interactions, returning session / refresh JWTs- Session management and validation - Storing the session for subsequent client requests, validating / refreshing sessions
At the end of the workshop, we will also touch on another approach to code authentication using frontend Descope Flows (drag-and-drop workflows), while keeping only session validation in the backend. With this, we will also show how easy it is to enable biometrics and other passwordless authentication methods.
Table of contents- A quick intro to core authentication concepts- Coding- Why passwordless matters
Prerequisites- IDE for your choice- Node 18 or higher
node.jsjavascriptauthentication
Build Peer-to-Peer Applications with Pear Runtime
JSNation 2024JSNation 2024
152 min
Build Peer-to-Peer Applications with Pear Runtime
WorkshopFree
David Mark Clements
David Mark Clements
Learn how to rapidly build peer-to-peer applications with Pear Runtime. No servers required. Understand peer-to-peer paradigms and construct applications from well-defined building blocks. This workshop will cover how to create both Desktop and Terminal applications (with discussion for Mobile) that work entirely peer-to-peer from anywhere in the world. By the end of this workshop you should know how to build a new type of highly scalable application with entirely reduced infrastructural costs (~0) along with suitable architectures and best practices for peer-to-peer applications. From the creator of Pear Runtime and the company that brings us keet.io. Table of content:- Introducing Pear- Initial Q & A- Getting Setup- Creating a Pear Desktop Application- Sharing a Pear Application- Running a Pear Application- Creating a Pear Terminal Application- Releasing a Pear Application- Architectural Discussions- Wrap-up Q & A
js runtimes
GraphQL - From Zero to Hero in 3 hours
React Summit 2022React Summit 2022
164 min
GraphQL - From Zero to Hero in 3 hours
Workshop
Pawel Sawicki
Pawel Sawicki
How to build a fullstack GraphQL application (Postgres + NestJs + React) in the shortest time possible.
All beginnings are hard. Even harder than choosing the technology is often developing a suitable architecture. Especially when it comes to GraphQL.
In this workshop, you will get a variety of best practices that you would normally have to work through over a number of projects - all in just three hours.
If you've always wanted to participate in a hackathon to get something up and running in the shortest amount of time - then take an active part in this workshop, and participate in the thought processes of the trainer.
graphqlweb developmentnode.jsbeginner friendly