In the rapidly evolving landscape of JavaScript runtimes, developers are facing more choices than ever before. The recent emergence of Amazon’s AWS Labs’ experimental Low Latency Runtime (LLRT) has sparked considerable debate among industry professionals, particularly those working in serverless environments.

The New Contender in JavaScript Runtimes

LLRT represents a significant departure from traditional JavaScript runtimes like Node.js. According to Slashdot, this lightweight JavaScript runtime was specifically designed to address the growing demand for fast and efficient serverless applications. Unlike Node.js, which relies on garbage collection that can introduce unpredictable pauses and performance lags, LLRT employs manual memory management through Rust, effectively eliminating these issues.

One of LLRT’s most impressive features is its remarkably small footprint. With a runtime under 2MB—a dramatic reduction compared to Node.js’s typical 100MB+ requirement—LLRT offers significantly lower memory usage, enhanced scalability, and potential cost savings for organizations deploying serverless applications at scale.

“For JavaScript developers, LLRT offers the best of both worlds: rapid development with JavaScript’s flexibility, combined with Rust’s performance,” notes Slashdot. “This means faster, more scalable applications without the usual memory bloat and cold start issues.”

The State of JavaScript Runtimes in 2025

LLRT joins an increasingly competitive field of JavaScript runtime environments. As detailed in JavaScript Plain English, developers seeking improved performance without changing their code now have multiple options beyond the traditional Node.js environment.

The runtime landscape now features several notable contenders:

• Node.js: Still the established standard with the largest ecosystem
• Deno: Offering impressive performance metrics with 148,309.34 requests per second and an average latency of just 0.04ms in benchmark testing
• Bun: A newer alternative gaining traction
• LLRT: The newcomer focused specifically on low-latency serverless applications

According to Seven Square Technology’s recent comparison, Deno consistently outperformed Node.js with approximately 61% higher throughput while maintaining better memory efficiency in basic server operations. However, Node.js remains competitive in complex applications where developers leverage its mature ecosystem of performance-enhancing tools.

Industry Adoption and Use Cases

Deno has already secured adoption from notable companies including Netlify, Slack, and SupaBase, with its community growing to approximately 400,000 active users and over 100,000 GitHub stars. Its ecosystem now boasts more than 2 million community modules available.

LLRT, though still in beta, shows particular promise for specific use cases. Its elimination of garbage collection results in faster cold start times, with initialization occurring in milliseconds—a critical advantage for latency-sensitive applications deployed in serverless environments like AWS Lambda.

The Future of JavaScript Backends

The choice between these runtimes ultimately depends on specific project requirements. Deno particularly excels in API development, edge computing, middleware applications, security-sensitive projects, and TypeScript-focused development according to Netguru’s analysis.

For serverless applications where every millisecond counts, LLRT’s approach of combining Rust’s performance characteristics with JavaScript’s flexibility presents an intriguing new option. If it continues to evolve as expected, LLRT could become a core offering in AWS Lambda, potentially transforming approaches to serverless JavaScript development.

As these technologies mature, developers face a fundamental question: stick with the established ecosystem of Node.js, embrace security-first alternatives like Deno, or pursue ultimate performance with newcomers like LLRT? The answer will likely vary based on specific project requirements, but one thing is clear—the JavaScript runtime landscape is more diverse and capable than ever before.