When Node.js hit the market, it was quickly adopted by a large community of individual developers and large-scale enterprises as a viable development technology. It is because of the fact that it allowed the implementation of JavaScript on the server side. Node.js gave a huge boost to web and mobile app development.

Previous developers had to continually switch contexts between JavaScript and a server language like PHP. It caused a lot of problems as similar functions had different names in JavaScript and PHP. Node.js put an end to this by providing a platform to use JavaScript everywhere. Since then, many Node.js frameworks such as Sails.js, Geddy.js, Total.js and others have been developed and released to the market. Although these frameworks are very useful, they lack some modern features and learning resources.

Thus, the Meteor.js framework was born which meets much of the requirements of modern developers. Meero.js not only provides advanced features, but also has good documentation and learning resources.

Today, Meteor.js is a robust and complete JavaScript platform for developing real-time web and mobile applications. It is built on top of Node.js and is written in JavaScript. MEAN.js and MEAN.io are also quite powerful, but they are no better than Meteor.js and we will describe some reasons why. So, let’s take a look at 7 amazing features of Meteor.js.

1) Complete solution:

MEAN stack is just one instance of using a combination of technologies (MongoDB, Angular.js, Express.js and Node.js) and cannot be called a framework. When using the MEAN stack, developers need to synchronize between Node.js and MongoDB, as well as between Express.js and Angular.js.

On the other hand, Meteor offers a complete solution for developing and deploying web applications. Meteor comes with several built-in features such as reactive templates, automatic CSS and JS minification on the production server, and live code reloading. Their cloud platform, Galaxy, is quite powerful for deploying, scaling, and monitoring client applications. It also offers useful client-side technologies, including templates, wizards, and events.

2) Development ecosystem:

Meteor.js is more than a JavaScript development framework. It is an open source isomorphic development ecosystem (IDevE). Meteor.js allows you to build real-time web applications from scratch. It contains all the necessary front-end and back-end components (such as frameworks, libraries, configuration tools, databases, and more) that help developers throughout the application development lifecycle, from configuration and development to deployment.

3) Isomorphic JavaScript code:

Meteor allows you to use the same code in the front-end and back-end, as well as for mobile and web applications. It prevents developers from being required to install and configure different libraries, module managers, APIs, drivers, and more.

Additionally, with Meteor, developers can harness the power of JavaScript while reducing code length and complexity. This saves a lot of production time for developers, since they don’t need to make context switches between the server language and JavaScript.

4) Front solution:

Meteor offers Blaze.js, a front-end development framework. Although it is not an advanced framework, it does offer some nice features. But, Meteor also integrates with modern and popular front-end frameworks like Backbone.js for better results.

Meteor offers isomorphic APIs that communicate between the front-end and the back-end. This allows developers to handle client-server management and server session management with ease. Data communication between the client and the server happens automatically without you having to write any boilerplate code.

5) Database integration:

One of the downsides of Meteor.js is that it only supports MongoDB for now. Therefore, you cannot use Meteor if you need to include NoSQL database support for your applications. But the Meteor ecosystem offers the MongoDB database, as well as a front-end representation of MongoDB called Minimongo, which is written entirely in JavaScript. Meteor has a Mongo API that seamlessly integrates MongoDB on the back-end and Minimongo on the front-end. This results in faster page reloads and refreshes, mitigating latency.

6) Live recharge:

Another prominent feature of Meteor.js is its integrated live browser reload. Whenever there are development changes to be made on the front-end, the live web page is automatically reloaded. Live reloading also makes it possible to update only the required DOM elements on the web page without having to reload an entire page despite any dependent changes in data on the back-end or front-end.

7) Custom Package Manager:

NPM modules (98,000+ modules) can be used with Meteor, but it also has its own custom Package Manager that presents the necessary NPM features and some additional functionality. The official Meteor repository of Meteor packages called atmosfera.js has over 2600 smart packages.

Meteor has a built-in package to handle preprocessing and custom user authentication for email, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and more. Furthermore, it also comes with the necessary packages for popular frameworks like Backbone.js, Bootstrap, and jQuery.

Conclusion:

With so many exciting features in its kit, Meteor.js will soon become an ideal JavaScript development platform. In addition, it is supported and funded by a large community of developers who are committed to improving Meteor’s functionality and features to optimize its performance. Along with it, you can also find different sites online that provide you a platform to learn Meteor.js.

Although its server-side runs on top of Node.js, it uses synchronous-style coding. It uses the Fibers JavaScript library to avoid the asynchronous callback style, which is critical to Node.js. This results in an easy-to-read code structure and a linear execution model that is quite suitable for server-side code in a Meteor application.

Mobile development with Meteorjs offers support for applications through the Cordova phonegap integration. You can easily develop and deploy Android and iOS apps.

In short, the Meteor ecosystem has an isomorphic API (application programming interface) that links all components within the Meteor ecosystem and integrates with third-party packages, tools, and managers. Additionally, you have the option to deploy Meteor applications using Meteor or any other service provider. You can also deploy your Meteor applications on your own server.