There is no replacement because they're a fundamentally broken idea. They require the following to happen, in that order: * V8 needs to optimize try-finally *

There is no replacement because they're a fundamentally broken idea. They require the following to happen, in that order: * V8 needs to optimize try-finally * Node core needs to add try-finally at every single place where callbacks are invoked and make sure all state and resource cleanup is properly done to support domains * Popular libraries need to also add try-finally handlers for the above. As to why this is a problem in node and not so much in other languages, its because with node callbacks, the call stack goes both ways. In other languages, libraries mostly call their dependencies' code. In node's CPS style, you call the library but the library also calls your closure code. The semantics for the 2nd part aren't well defined in node - the loose law basically says: I wont call you twice, I'll try not to call you synchronously, and you wont throw (and if you do the behavior is undefined). With promises there is a contract and its enforced by the promise implementation. Since Promises actually have error semantics, you can build resource management strategies on top of them. http://promise-nuggets.github.io/articles/21-context-managers-transactions.html http://promise-nuggets.github.io/articles/21-context-manager... - and consequently there is no reason to crash your server on errors.