Advantages of using const on var in JavaScript

By using const you are telling the JavaScript engine that that data will not change, so you are giving it the opportunity to apply optimizations that would not be possible using var . For example, when the engine compiles the code (which modern JavaScript engines do ), you can replace all references to the constant directly by the value of it, instead of having to insert instructions that access memory to read the value each time.

Besides that, as you mention, the code is more readable: the programmer who reads it knows that this value will not change during the execution of the code. This advantage is by no means secondary, the code must be readable first and foremost.

The second way:

var CONSTANTE = 'soy una constante';

Do not create a constant but a variable

The only way to create constants in JavaScript ( ES 2015 ) is through keyword const

The difference between a constant and a variable is that the the reference can not be altered , that is, the operator = can not be used to modify its value :

A constant (as its name implies) does not change its value during execution

For example:

var a  = 1;
a = 2;
console.log(a); //Imprime 2, puesto que es una variable y su valor ha sido modificado

Instead:

const b = 3;
b = 4; // A diferencia de otros lenguajes esto no es error de sintaxis
console.log(b); // Sin embargo imprime 3 ya que el valor de 'b' no puede ser modificado.

It is important to note that this does not convert the object to which the constant refers to be immutable, that is, the value can be modified but not the reference.

For example:

const c = { nombre : "Juan", edad : 30 };
c.nombre = "Lucho";
console.log(c.nombre); // Imprime Lucho. c.nombre sí puede ser reasignado

However:

c = { nombre: "María", edad: "30"};
console.log(c.nombre); // Imprime Lucho. c no puede ser reasignado.

If instead you also want to make the immutable object you can use Object.freeze() .

Example:

const d = Object.freeze({ nombre: "Pedro": edad: 25 });
d.nombre = "Juana"; // No es error de sintaxis pero no hace nada
console.log(d.nombre); // Imprime "Pedro", ya que el objeto d es inmutable

Object.freeze() is not unique to constants, it can also be used in variables:

var e = Object.freeze({ nombre: "Rosa": edad: 28 });
e.nombre = "Jaime"; // No es error de sintaxis pero no hace nada
console.log(e.nombre); // Imprime "Rosa", ya que el objeto e es inmutable

However, since the variable e can not be a constant, it can be reassigned:

e = { nombre: "Tomás", edad: 23 };
console.log(e.nombre); // Imprime "Tomás", el objeto anterior sigue siendo inmutable y no 
                       // ha sido modificado, simplemente ya no es referenciado por la
                       // variable e que ahora apunta al nuevo valor.

Another important thing to note is that although the operator = can be used to "try" to reassign a constant (although this accomplishes nothing), trying to declare a constant again is a SyntaxError

const f = 5;
const f = 6;  // Uncaught TypeError: Identifier 'f' has already been declared(…)