Not at all. N-API was specifically added to make multiple back-ends possible (by removing dependency on the V8 FFI). You can currently use either Chakra or V8.

Not at all. N-API was specifically added to make multiple back-ends possible (by removing dependency on the V8 FFI). You can currently use either Chakra or V8. Spidermonkey could be added (there's an outdated spiderNode around) if Mozilla ever got their act together. EDIT: I really wish Apple would add JSC support to node. It would potentially allow more standard integrations on iOS. Aside from that, JSC is very fast (faster than v8 at quite a few things) and also supports proper tail calls (as specified by the ES6, 7, and 8 specs).