13 Node.js Libraries to Power Your Projects

A library, or module, is pre-written code that abstracts commonly required tasks. You can use libraries to speed up the coding process and promote the reusability of code, helping to keep your work “DRY” (don’t repeat yourself).

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for browsers and Node.js. It also handles the transformation of request and response data from the browser or Node.js as needed.

Multer is a middleware library for Node.js. It’s written on top of the HTML form parser busboy and handles multipart and multiform data.

For example, if you are working with MongoDB predominantly, using Mongoose can be a lifesaver. CORS can help you deliver content from multiple domains, and Dotenv can be extremely handy if you need to share code — but not secrets — within a team.

Async is a powerful Node.js utility module that helps developers work with asynchronous JavaScript by working with JavaScript “async” or callback-accepting functions. If you pass an array of callbacks to the Async module, it executes and wraps them to return a promise.

Features and Benefits of the Async Library

• Provides some 70 utility functions to develop asynchronous control flow with ease
• Offers “parallel” function for tackling multiple requests to a host (which would otherwise take a lot of code to implement)
• Helps to eliminate nested “callback Hell” in JavaScript

6. Winston

Using JavaScript objects, Sequelize models the structure of database tables and connects to the desired relational database to query and transform data. It then parses and returns the retrieved data as a JavaScript object.

Features and Benefits of the Sequelize Library

• Connects to databases and performs operations without writing raw SQL queries
• Reduces SQL injection vulnerabilities and SQL injection attacks
• Compatible with GraphQL

2. CORS

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Passport is a modular authentication middleware for Node.js. Passport features over 500 authentication strategies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other custom and single sign-on (SSO) providers. Strategies include normal username and password authentication, delegated authentication using OAuth for social media sites, and OpenID for federated authentication.

Features and Benefits of the Passport Library

• Built-in SSO authentication for social media sites with minimal code
• Configures persistent login information across multiple sessions
• Avoids mounting new routes in the application by using an unobstructed configuration with Express and Connect middleware

5. Async

Libraries in Node.js are managed using the Node.js package manager, npm, which can help install many open-source libraries. We’ve identified 13 essential libraries for Node.js that make a web developer’s life easier.

What Is Node.js?

Axios is isomorphic, meaning it can run on the server and the client with the same codebase. For HTTP communication, Axios uses a native HTTP module on the server side and XMLHttpRequest on the client side.

Features and Benefits of the Axios Library

• Offers built-in API functions for common HTTP data types like GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE
• Provides more security through cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection while making HTTP requests across the Internet
• Easily transforms response data to JSON through automatic JSON data transformation

11. Puppeteer

Mongoose is a Node.js based object modeling tool for MongoDB, also known as an object data modeling (ODM) library, which offers a variety of functions like hooks, model validation, connecting, and querying.

The CORS package forms a wrapper around the Node.js route middleware, enabling the application to access resources from domains other than its own. It takes in multiple parameters to configure cross-origin options, including origin, headers, and more.

Features and Benefits of the CORS Library

• Reduces the amount of code required to enable CORS in a web application
• Allows you to configure allow-listed domains and lets the user enable CORS for selected origins while blocking others
• Provides seamless error handling and helps developers analyze security threats from suspicious origins

3. Nodemailer

CORS is a Node.js package for providing cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) as middleware that draws on Connect/Express.

Mongoose provides a schema-based solution for application data by enforcing a single schema at the application layer that makes a collection in MongoDB. Each schema is associated with a Mongoose model, which allows you to run queries against a MongoDB collection, like fetching, updating, and deleting data.

Features and Benefits of the Mongoose Library

• Provides easy abstraction of queries, allowing developers to write less code for MongoDB transactions
• Built-in data validation for defining rules on what kind of data can be added or updated in the database
• Implements a predefined structure for the MongoDB collection, which provides a boiler-plate MongoDB instance for developers
• Allows query chaining for working with multiple queries

8. Socket.IO

Node.js supports code reusability through JavaScript libraries, but choosing the best libraries can be daunting. Useful libraries can accelerate development time and have a wide range of benefits for your web application, including faster load times and reduced application bundle size.