People do write entire conventional web apps (e.g. REST APIs) with Node, so I'd say they are competitive and that it comes down to taste.
If you're being drawn to Node because of real-time stuff, though, I personally would suggest a mixed architecture. I'm a fan of using Django for the conventional stuff and then something else alongside it for real-time. You can use a reverse proxy in front to make the services appear to be unified.
If you're being drawn to Node because of real-time stuff, though, I personally would suggest a mixed architecture. I'm a fan of using Django for the conventional stuff and then something else alongside it for real-time. You can use a reverse proxy in front to make the services appear to be unified.