Hello Coders,
Usually, when we start a new project, the codebase tends to repeat over and over among different projects. Instead of reinventing the wheel, all the time can be a good solution to use a starter kit, already equipped with a few basic tools and features.
This article presents a shortlist with Node.js starters qualified for production use, based on a few necessary characteristics:
- clean code structure that follows proper coding standards
- documented
- actively supported
- a minimum validation (Github Stars, Number of Downloads)
- open source
- permissive license ( MIT, Apache )
In my opinion, this shortlist with requirements qualifies a NodeJS starter to become a real candidate for a production app.
This list includes only a few Nodejs starters, used by me in different projects in the last 2 years. If you know a new killer project, unlisted here, please suggest it in the comments. Thank you!
Nodejs Starter - Vue Argon Design is a Full-Stack Nodejs starter equipped with a fully usable Vue.js UI, coded on top of the Argon Design System design. The app uses a decoupled architecture, where the Vue.js frontend communicates with the Nodejs through secure ajax calls.
Nodejs Starter - React Material Kit is a Full-Stack Nodejs starter equipped with a fully usable React UI, coded on top of the Material Kit design. The app uses a decoupled architecture, where the React frontend communicates with the Nodejs through secure ajax calls.
Nodejs Starter Hackathon
Nodejs Starter Hackathon is a project with 26k+ stars on Github, equipped with many useful features like:
- MVC structure
- Authentification: local (user/pass), OAuth (1.0, 2.0)
- SaaS stylesheets, Bootstrap4 integrated
- Forms powered by Mailgun and Sendgrid
- Integrations for Paypal, Twitter, LinkedIn
This starter can be overwhelming for a beginner, but this fact can be easily compensated by reading the docs and interact with the project community.
Nodejs Starter API Kit
Nodejs Starter API Kit is a Boilerplate for authoring data API backends with Node.js and GraphQL. With more than 2.8k Github starts, this boilerplate is definitively a winner if your future project replaces the old school REST API with GraphQL. Features:
- Common Node.js stack: Express, Passport, Session, Cors
- PostgresSQL as DMBS, along with Redis
- Localization and translations
- Nodemailer, Handlebars templating
- Deployment: via Docker
Starter Links
Nodejs Starter Serverless
Nodejs Starter Serverless is a Node.js starter for the Serverless Framework with async/await and unit test support. The project is actively supported by Frank Wang with 450 Github stars. This starter got my attention mainly for the serverless concept, which is a rising concept in web development nowadays. Features:
- Integrate serverless-webpack plugin
- ES7 syntax in handler functions
- Support for unit tests (via Jtest)
Nodejs Starter Serverless Live sample hosted on AWS, and a sample of the code executed when we click on the link:
export const hello = async (event, context) => {
return {
statusCode: 200,
body: JSON.stringify({
message: `Go Serverless v1.0! ${(await message({ time: 1, copy: 'Your function executed successfully!'}))}`,
input: event,
}),
};
};
const message = ({ time, ...rest }) => new Promise((resolve, reject) =>
setTimeout(() => {
resolve(`${rest.copy} (with a delay)`);
}, time * 1000)
);
To start playing with this Nodejs starter, here is the list with requirements:
Nodejs Starter Express Bootstrap
Nodejs Starter Express Bootstrap is a lightweight Bootstrap NodeJS boilerplate built with ExpressJS 4, MongoDB/Mongoose, Authentication with Passport.js, Jade and GruntJS as Task Automation.
The app is well organized and actively supported by a freelancer. The demo link, hosted on Heroku, seems to be dead. The app can be successfully built on (at least) on Windows10 and Ubuntu 18.04.
Not here production-ready Nodejs starter you know? Please suggest in the comments.
Resources
Thank you!
