Node.js is an open-source project and there are times when we need one version over the other. The current version is preferred by hobbyist programmers or small start-ups which want to work with innovative technologies. Sometimes these new features break a lot of things, but mostly they are newer features than those that are available in the LTS version. In this version new features are added to the Node language. The other version is the Current version, which is a step ahead of the LTS version. This is the version which is preferred by Enterprise users as they do not want to run into any issues in their large production projects. As per the NodeJS official site also, this version is recommended for most users. There will be no new features added to Node in this version. Anything new that is added to this version will only be the bug fixes during this window. LTS is the stable version that goes through a lot of testing, and has a 30-month development cycle. The LTS version currently is 14.18.1 and Current is 17.0.1. If we go to the NodeJS official site at, we will see that there are two releases going on and they are LTS (Long Term Support) and Current.

NodeJS has two ongoing releases, LTS and current, and, therefore two different versions. As it is been used in all top tech companies, so it is backed by funding and support from most of them. It has a continually active development community.

NodeJS is a completely open-source project, as the code is freely available on GitHub. Companies like Netflix, NASA, Trello, PayPal, Uber, Yahoo use them for their large-scale projects. Node.js is the second most popular backend technology after Java and is preferred by both start-ups and enterprises to build MERN(MongoDB, ExpressJS, ReactJS, NodeJS), MEAN(MongoDB, ExpressJS, Angular, NodeJS) or MEVN(MongoDB, ExpressJS, VueJS, NodeJS) stack projects.

The npm package manager is required in all projects which need external node packages like ReactJS or Angular or Vue. It is not just another Backend technology, but also comes in-built with a package manager called npm. Node.js is the backbone of any modern project.

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