Python vs JavaScript: A Comprehensive Comparison for Web Development

The Web Development landscape is highly dynamic and constantly changing. If you have been in this industry for some time, you must have noticed how newer technologies are increasing the expectations of websites among users. Developers are always expected to implement the latest features and functionalities and deliver high-performing and lightning-speed web applications. Due to this, developers always juggle between programming languages, and two popular programming languages are Python and JavaScript.

After HTML and CSS, these two languages are the 2^nd and 3^rd most used programming languages. Their respective popularity and similarities make them good candidates for comparison.

In this article, we will be doing a comprehensive comparison of JavaScript and Python with aspects of web development. Let’s begin with the basics.

Python Introduction

Python is an easy-to-interpret, object-oriented, and high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. For beginners, it is easy and quick to learn due to its straightforward index. It offers easy readability, and the program maintenance cost is quite low. There are tons of modules and packages in the Python language that support program modularity and code reuse. As per the latest reports, nearly 80% of ML engineers prefer to use Python for building applications.

Python Uses:

• It is highly used for web application development on a server
• Python is used for developing workflows with a program
• Gets connected to the database systems and is capable of reading and editing files
• Easily manage huge amounts of data and carry out complicated mathematical operations
• Widely used for developing software that is ready for production or rapid prototyping

Python Features:

1. Simple yet high-level programming language
2. Open-source, free, and object-oriented language
3. Encompasses a large standard library with a wide range of modules and functions
4. Dynamic typing feature

Benefits of Python Programming Language

When you go for Python Development Services, you can reap the following benefits:

a. Execution:

There is real-time interpretation in Python during its usage. Also, the programmer doesn’t need to compile the program before running it. This benefit is quite similar to that of PHP and PERL programming languages.

b. Interactive:

Python is interactive while writing programs; you can actually be on a Python prompt and communicate with the interpreter directly.

c. Object-Oriented Program:

Python is an object-oriented program language and supports this style in which code is encapsulated within objects.

d. Beginner Friendly:

Python is an easy-to-learn language, and that’s why, in many institutes, this is the language that is first taught to programming students. It is a great language for novice programmers, and they can create a variety of programs using it.

A few of the major companies that are using Python are Google, Netflix, Amazon, Instagram, and Spotify. You can also hire Python developers to build your high-performing applications from us.

JavaScript Introduction

JavaScript is highly used for developing web pages where its implementations allow users to engage with client-side scripts and create interactive pages. JavaScript has characteristics of object-oriented programming, but it is an interpreted programming language.

It is a scripting language. To put it another way, JavaScript facilitates the automation of website and application processes. JavaScript was initially created as a front-end language to provide browsers with dynamic capability that HTML and CSS alone could not provide.

In 2009, when the Node.js framework became a popular backend framework, there was a drastic increase in the popularity of the javascript language. It allowed developers to use JS to create both client-end and server-end code. Another important thing about JS is that the translator doesn’t compile the JS code but translates it.

JavaScript Uses:

Entrepreneurs hire a JavaScript Development Company due to its various uses. The major ones are:

a. It is highly used for developing web applications and robust web pages. A few examples are a button touching, allowing the user to reveal or conceal more information, hovering the mouse over a button, and then the button color changes, etc.

b. It is also used to create mobile applications in React Native. Various JS-based frameworks are available for developers to use for different purposes in mobile and web application development. The popular front-end javascript frameworks are Angular JS, Next.JS, Express.JS, and others. The backend frameworks are Node.JS, Vue.js, and others.

c. It comes with a huge set of libraries and frameworks for game development

d. Interactive web pages

e. Building web servers and creating server apps is helpful

JavaScript Features:

• This is an object-oriented scripting language. As the JavaScript engine (interpreter) analyzes and executes JS statements one at a time, JavaScript is also regarded as an interpreted language.
• The users also get additional browser control
• Both the client and the server can use this language
• There is complete DOM manipulation functionality in the JavaScript
• It provides engaging interactive components for web pages

Benefits of JavaScript

1. Because you can verify user input before sending the page, there will be less communication with the server. Your server will constantly have less traffic as a result of the decreased server traffic.

2. Immediate feedback to the visitors and don’t need to wait for page loading to check if they forgot to type something.

3. JavaScript provides better interactivity, which is good for designing interfaces that respond when the users move their cursor over them or press a keyboard shortcut to activate them.

4. JS is also used to integrate sliders and drag-and-drop elements to provide the site visitors with a rich interface.

Some of the popular companies that are using JavaScript are Microsoft, Uber, Facebook, PayPal, eBay, etc.

Also Read: NodeJS vs Python: Which one is best for Backend Development

Python vs JavaScript: Which is Better?

Though we are comparing these languages, it doesn’t imply that one of them can outweigh the other. We also want to tell you before comparison that, in reality, combining both Python and JavaScript will help you maximize their advantages. Instagram leverages Python on the server side and JavaScript on the client side to manage its huge traffic.

However, our goal is to identify the real winner, for which we will deep-dive into every possible aspect. Let’s know, in Python vs. JavaScript for web development, who is the real winner?

Here are the major considerations that you have to take into account:

JavaScript vs Python Performance

In terms of speed and performance, Python is highly reliable for CPU-intensive jobs, while JS is more suited for dynamic and real-time interactions. JS is focused on making the web more responsible and quick. In Node.js, multi-threading is not present in Python. Therefore, Node.js is slightly faster. This Node.js and Python debate for backend development gets important in the development sector.

Python is a good option for processing huge data files, CPU-intensive tasks, and large-scale applications. You can achieve better performance if the development team knows how to optimize Python code using Cython or NumPy.

Thus, in JavaScript vs Python speed, JavaScript comes out on top. Software built using Python takes more time to respond, making it inactive for the user community. Thus, in web development, if you want websites to function well, you must leverage JavaScript.

Both languages can be used to swiftly create a basic MVP if done by skilled developers. Because Python is so easy to read and debug, complex projects can be completed faster. Python promotes effective teamwork.

Things can easily get very complicated while using JavaScript, which could lead to longer development times. As a result, many companies have switched to TypeScript, which some developers say is even easier to understand and use than Python.

Python Vs JavaScript Scalability:

Apps built on Python operate one thread at a time, which is why they are less scalable. However, JavaScript apps have a multi-threading feature that makes them highly scalable.

The JavaScript frameworks allow web applications to scale and meet growing business demands. Whenever required, you can easily scale the application and increase the number of threads. Scalability and facilitating asynchronous programming are two major goals of JS-based frameworks. Thus, JavaScript is much better suited for the creation of programs that depend on execution speed.

Python, on the other hand, uses the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), which hinders the utilization of many processors with threads and does not support concurrency well. However, its multiprocessing library allows you to take charge of distributed workflow.

JavaScript vs Python Inheritance:

There are four major principles of object-oriented programming languages, one of which is inheritance. It entails the capability of a class to inherit the characteristics and methods of any other class, including its parent class.

Python is a true OOPS language as it employs a class-based inheritance system. However, JS is not a completely OOPS language. Though it introduced the concept of classes, it is dependent on a methodology based on software prototypes to implement inheritance.

JavaScript vs Python Numeric Types:

If we compare JavaScript vs Python for the backend, you get a huge range of numeric data types in Python, while only floating-point variables are available in JavaScript. Numeric data is highly important as it can be calculated mathematically and statistically. Modern V8 engines and browsers also enable a new basic type despite JavaScript’s constrained set of variables. In Python, you get multiple kinds of numeric data variables, including float, fixed-point decimal, and int.

Python Vs JavaScript Implicit Conversion:

When it comes to implicit conversion, Python is strongly typed, while JavaScript is weakly typed.

To put it simply, Python doesn’t convert data types implicitly. It does, however, enable both dynamic and strong typing. Because JavaScript provides implicit data type conversion, it is weakly typed in this situation.

Python Vs JavaScript Modules & Libraries:

There are limited built-in modules in JavaScript, such as JSON and Math, while Python has a plethora of ready-to-use modules and libraries.

Python Vs JavaScript Web Development & Mobile Development:

For web development, Python responds relatively slower than JavaScript, and JavaScript web apps code better, function quicker, and manage a lot more data.

In JavaScript frameworks, asynchronous programming capabilities provide high-end scalability to the apps. On the other hand, Python is a good choice for server-side programming. It paces up the development process and builds a stable environment with frameworks like Django, Pyramid, and Flask.

You can use Python to design GUI applications, but it does not facilitate the creation of native-looking mobile apps. JavaScript was initially developed for only web development, but now developers leverage it for mobile application development as well.

Read More: React vs Vue: Which Javascript Framework Is Best

Python Vs JavaScript: Rich Text Editor Integration

For content generation in web development, it’s crucial to utilize the correct rich text editor to guarantee performance levels work well for your project and use case. There are more rich text editors utilizing JavaScript, which makes sense with browsers running JavaScript as a standard. Each of these editors has integrations for prominent frameworks that can execute JavaScript.

However, there are choices available for web developers who utilize Python. Django is a popular framework for developers who want to get their web development projects up and running as quickly as possible using Python.

Python Vs JavaScript Machine Learning:

When it comes to machine learning, most of the developers prefer Python. This is due to the reason that a huge amount of data needs to be processed in machine learning development. Python has long been the industry standard for data science due to its simplicity and understandability, which makes programmers’ lives easier by eliminating ambiguity.

TensorFlow, Scikit-Learn, and PyTorch are among the most widely used machine learning (ML) frameworks. They are all primarily written in Python and have specialized Python APIs, which is the most common way to use them.

Future for Python and JavaScript

We believe that the comparison of two languages is still not fair. There are differences in how these two languages are employed in the software development industry, as they were created with different purposes in mind. However, if we still need to make a decision, then it is evident that JavaScript currently appears to be the most effective toolkit for developing websites and mobile applications. It is becoming more of a broad programming language, although it is questionable if it would be a suitable replacement for Python. Python will most likely dominate both the machine learning and educational sectors due to its readability, simplicity, and capacity to manipulate data.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have covered all the major aspects of the comparison of Python and JavaScript and identified that JavaScript is more suited for application development while Python is inclined towards machine learning development and data analysis.

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