[axlerunner]

I got on the Node thing for awhile too, but went back to Java/JBoss/Tomcat/Spring. If you are skilled with the Java stack it is hard to beat for performance and breadth. If you are not, well, I admit the learning curve is steep.

[bjhoops1]

I definitely agree for large applications.

But for quickly spinning up a few light service endpoints, Node can't be beat. Especially if you are using JSON-based persistence like MongoDB or CouchDB, using JSON all the way from database to the client is a huge win. I get tired of writing lots of JAXB POJOs to map my JSON objects to and from, especially early on in development when those definitions change rapidly. That's why enjoy using Node, especially for "toy" projects. Less boilerplate and more productive quickly.

Side note: I find myself wishing Node had Annotations and AOP... one of Java's coolest (though oft-misused) features IMHO.

[tensor]

You should look into clojure/compojure. You can get higher performance and write even less code.