Node.JS is a free, open-source runtime environment for JavaScript. It is one of the most popular tools that allow developers to create web applications.
Check to see if you have Node.JS by typing in your terminal:
node -v
If you do not have it, you can install it online.
Node.JS is powerful, however utilizing its full potential requires a lot of work. Instead, we can use open-source frameworks and packages with Node Package Manager, or NPM.
To see if we have it installed, type into your terminal:
npm -v
If you do not have it, then type in:
npm install -g npm
Once again, frameworks are extremely useful. In fact, this website is running off of a Node.JS server using the Eleventy framework, along with a handful of integrated modules.