Nodejs

For self-hosting real apps in 2026, pick Node.js 24 LTS for stable long-running processes, Bun 1.3 for install speed, and Deno 2.8 for single-binary deploys. On my own box, Bun installs an 847-package monorepo in 1.2 seconds versus npm’s 32, but Node still wins the 3am stability test.

Three runtimes now fight for the same job: running your server-side JavaScript. Node.js is the 16-year incumbent. Bun bets on raw speed. Deno bets on security and a single binary. This post compares them for one specific use: self-hosting a real app on hardware you own, not a synthetic hello-world race.

Hono is a ~14KB TypeScript web framework that runs on every modern JavaScript runtime with the same API. Write your routes once and ship to Bun , Deno , Cloudflare Workers , Node.js , AWS Lambda , Vercel Edge, Fastly Compute, or Netlify. No code changes needed. Hono builds on Web Standard APIs (Request, Response, fetch), which makes it small, fast, and far lighter than Express . It ships with middleware, validation, RPC, and streaming. The current stable release is v4.12.

The Language Server Protocol (LSP) lets you write language smarts once and use them in every editor. You build one server that handles autocomplete, diagnostics, hover docs, and go-to-definition. Then you plug it into VS Code, Neovim, Helix, Emacs, or anything else that speaks LSP. This walkthrough shows how to build an LSP server in TypeScript for a custom .config file format, from setup through multi-editor support.

What the Language Server Protocol Actually Is

Before LSP, editor support for a language meant writing a separate plugin for every editor. Want Python support? Write a VS Code extension, an Emacs mode, a Vim plugin, a Sublime plugin. Each one redoes parsing, diagnostics, and completion from scratch. With N editors and M languages, that’s N*M plugins to maintain.

Passkeys swap passwords for a public/private keypair kept in the device keychain and unlocked by Face ID, Touch ID, or Windows Hello. The WebAuthn API does the crypto work, while @simplewebauthn/server version 13.3.0 covers Node, Bun, and Deno backends. Sign-up, autofill login, and account recovery all fit in one evening of work.

What Passkeys Actually Are and Why 2026 Is the Year to Ship Them

A passkey is a public/private keypair made on the user’s device. The private key never leaves the secure enclave (Secure Enclave on Apple hardware, StrongBox on Android, TPM on Windows). Only a signed challenge travels over the wire. Your server stores no shared secret to steal and no hash to crack offline. The signature is bound to your domain, so it can’t be phished. If a user visits examp1e.com instead of example.com, the browser refuses to sign. Credential phishing ends at the protocol layer.

Turborepo is a fast build system for JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos. It uses content-aware caching, parallel tasks, and smart dependency ordering. The result: multi-package repos that stay fast to work with. You define workspace packages in a pnpm-workspace.yaml file, then add a turbo.json that declares task dependencies and caching rules. Turborepo handles the rest. Running turbo run build only rebuilds packages whose source files changed. Cache hits restore build outputs in milliseconds instead of minutes.

A WebSocket chat needs two pieces. The server holds open connections and sends each message to every client. The browser client opens a socket, sends text on form submit, and shows new messages in the page. This build uses Node.js with the ws library and plain JavaScript on the client. No React, no Socket.IO, no build step. The whole thing fits in under 150 lines and handles dozens of users at once on a cheap server. This tutorial walks through every part.