In the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, the battle of MERN Stack vs MEAN Stack shows a marked preference among professional developers.. React, a pivotal component of the MERN stack, emerges as the favored web technology for a substantial 44.31% of these experts, whereas Angular, a key element of the MEAN stack, claims the top position for 23.06% of professionals.
There is more … insights from Stack Share that consolidate the popularity. React, part of the MERN stack, demonstrates its pervasive reach, finding favor with a whopping 11,000 companies and a staggering 126,000 developers who incorporate it into their regular workflows. In stark contrast, Angular, a pillar of the MEAN stack, is embraced by more than 7,000 companies and utilized by 47,000 developers.
These statistics underscore the enduring popularity of both MERN and MEAN stacks within the developer community, highlighting React’s prominence as a dominant force in the web development arena.
This automatically does not imply that businesses should choose the MERN stack. It depends on the size of your project. Is it a large-scale development? Do you want a fast-to-market product? Consider all factors before going either way in Mern Vs Mean Stack selection. Our iTech Experts walk you through a guide on MERN Full Stack and MEAN Stack.
What is a tech stack?
A technology stack is a set of programming languages, libraries, frameworks and development tools that the application is built on.
Building a virtual application follows the same principles of construction. Different building materials are used for different areas. Reinforced concrete poured along a gridwork of steel for the foundation. The weight of the structure is borne by the building core, the exterior walls merely enclose the structure and are made of glass, metal or stone bolted to angle brackets secured to floor slabs or support columns.
The Netflix streaming app, OneDrive storage or Facebook are prominent examples of the millions of applications and websites that use tech stacks.
To explain it further, your web application may be created using Ruby on Rails – this is the language and framework. It might use MySQL as the database for storing data. You might decide to host it on the Cloud and use AWS which in itself provides users access to EC2, Amazon’s virtual machine service, Glacier, a low-cost cloud storage service, and S3, Amazon’s storage system. All these components form the server-side tech stack.
The client-side stack you choose could be HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This translates your application to a front-end format that is the interface users will interact with. If you are developing a native mobile app, the tech stack is even smaller, using XCode or Android Studio.
Also read: Generative AI Will Redefine Business Operations – Generative AI Use Cases
Choosing the right stack for your Development Project : MERN vs MEAN Stack
Choosing the tech stack that best applies to your project can often be a choice between MEAN stack and MERN stack. There is another term that we hear often and that is Full Stack. So, let’s have a look at what they are all about.
1. What is Full Stack Development
Many companies are recruiting full stack developers and there is a clear reason for their popularity. These engineers with full stack developer skills are comfortable both in front end and back end technologies and can complete a project from beginning to end. Previously, companies hired specialists separately for each of the functions but with a full stack developer, they now have a developer that can work on the database as well as build user-facing websites.
The main difference of MEAN Stack vs Full Stack is that the latter is not restricted to a particular programming language while MEAN stack is based on Java framework.
Full-stack development requires knowledge of
Front-end technologies for Full Stack
- HTML, JS and CSS for web development
- Responsive Front-end frameworks like Foundation or Bootstrap
- JavaScript frameworks AngularJS or React
- Libraries like jQuery or Backbone.js
- AJAX for creating fast, dynamic web pages
- Server-side languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, .NET etc.
Back-end Technologies for Full Stack
- Familiarity with databases like MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB
- Web server technologies like Node.js, J2EE, Apache, Nginx etc.
- Expert in API design and development
Also read: Guide to Business Process Automation: All You Want to Know
2. What is MEAN Stack Full Form?
The main advantage of MEAN stack is that it uses only open source technology and uses a single language which is JavaScript.
MEAN is an acronym got from
- MongoDB (NoSQL database) that saves documents in JSON format
- Ejs backend web framework (on top of Node)
- Ajs frontend framework
- NodeJS open-source, back-end framework
MEAN stack is considered the best technology for mobile app and web development because of its speed. This speed is due to it being written in a single language making communication lightning quick between client and server. Unlike other technologies, it is developed as a single-page application (SPA) and therefore the webpage does not need to be updated for every request to the server.
The biggest advantage of using the MEAN stack is that it reduces development costs. This is because using open-source JavaScript software stack is free and there is no dependence on software vendors.
This technology is used in PayPal, Netflix and New York Times because JavaScript can be used for both the backend and frontend.
3. MERN Full Form
MERN full form ( MERN Stack meaning) stands for MongoDB — document database. Express(.js) — Node.js web framework. React(.js) — a client-side JavaScript framework. Node(.js) — the JavaScript web server. MERN is a Full Stack solution.
The main difference between MERN vs MEAN stack is what the difference in the one letter between the two denotes. MEAN stack uses AngularJS (backed by Google). MERN stack uses ReactJS Library (from Facebook). Both MERN and MEAN stacks use JavaScript as the programming language, make coding much faster.
WHEN to CHOOSE One Over the Other: MEAN Stack vs MERN Stack
When it comes to MERN stack vs MEAN stack, here are a few pointers. If you want to build an enterprise-level application or a large-scale operation such as an Ecommerce site then MEAN stack would be the preferable option. This is because of its ability to upgrade code as needed. If smooth user interaction is your priority then MERN stack would be the technology stack to choose.
When working with the React JS library in the MERN stack, developers often rely on a plethora of third-party tools and libraries to accomplish their goals. While these resources provide the means to create a robust application, they come with the caveat of requiring additional configurations, which can lead to a slowdown in both development and deployment.
In terms of project scope, MERN is ideally suited for smaller endeavors such as single-page applications and mobile apps. If the aim is to develop larger, more complex applications, opting for the MEAN stack would be a more suitable choice.
Your final decision on choosing the best tech stack for your product should be based exactly on what technology you need. Don’t add additional techniques which could just add an extra load.
