MEAN Stack Vs MERN Stack

No matter whether you are an IT expert in a company or an entrepreneur who has plans for launching web and mobile apps, the selection of the right technology stack is slightly difficult. And in this regard, you might have come across the comparison between the MEAN stack and MERN stack. The digital world is transforming every moment and we are experiencing a lot of tech advancements and new market demands daily. Hence, in this digital era, having an app or website is not the single way of growing your business. You must be smart enough in selecting the right tech stack for your project. Choosing the right technology stack for your business will impact your future development also. So, should you employ either MEAN stack or MERN stack? Which one will work greater for your business? In terms of getting answers to these questions, you must learn the basics like differences, similarities, and perks of these two. So, let’s begin with introducing both the MEAN stack and MERN stack first! What is MEAN Stack? This is full-stack and extremely popular technology stack. The term MEAN stands for MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js respectively. For developing mobile and web apps, programmers use this stack. MEAN is an open-source, JavaScript-based technology stack. Since this stack provides essential plugins and tools, it is helpful for developers for building mobile and web apps fast. Benefits of Selecting MEAN Stack It is less costly. Every technology in the MEAN stack is open-source that lowers the development cost. MEAN stack makes Isomorphic coding possible. With its help, you can easily move the code to another framework that is written in a particular framework. Angular is a JavaScript-based open-source framework that provides reusability, maintenance, testability, and high speed. It is cloud-compatible and open-source. MongoDB helps in sending cloud functions within the app by reducing the circle space cost. Easy switching between server-side and client-side is possible with MEAN stack. This is beneficial for developers for easy and quick development with JavaScript. Developers must know JavaScript to handle the whole project with it. What is MERN Stack? This is another open-source tech stack that can also be categorized as full-stack. The term MERN stands for MongoDB, Express.js, ReactJS, and Node.js. This helps build hybrid mobile apps and web apps with it. The MERN stack is created to provide a smoother development process. It is a group of JavaScript-based frameworks, databases, and runtime environments. This tech stack provides an end-to-end framework to developers, and it is becoming popular faster. Benefits of Selecting MERN Stack Set up with amazing community support. In-built wide suite of testing tools. React library gives you access to high-end tools for building apps. Developers are free to use the library for designing their web apps. It supports model view controller (MVC) architecture for a smooth development process. Developers must be experts in JavaScript and JSON to employ this JavaScript stack. This tech stack covers both the development cycles from front-end to back-end with JavaScript. Developers can use codes written on React on both browsers and servers. This JS stack gives the flexibility of making pages on the server when required. MEAN or MERN: Which One Is High on Demand? You need to select a popular tech stack and your scopes of finding expert developers increase if you select the right stack as more developers would possibly know it. The popularity of Angular vs. React inspires MEAN vs. MERN stacks’ popularity, respectively. Although Angular has been very famous, now React is beating it presently. According to the 2020 HackerRank Developer Skills Report, 32.3% of developers wanted to learn the React in 2020, which made it very famous. A similar number for Angular decreased to 27.6%, which signifies that React is becoming more famous than Angular. The 2019 StackOverflow Developer Survey report also supports the same observation that the React is becoming popular. According to this report, almost 74.5% of developers like to develop using React. The same number for Angular is 57.6%. Both React and Angular are extremely on demand. Nevertheless, with time, you will find it simpler to employ React developers than Angular developers. MEAN Stack vs. MERN Stack: A Detailed Comparison The main difference between MEAN stack and MERN stack is the use of Angular and React, respectively. Both the stacks have some positive and negative characteristics. Aside from the advantages provided by both the stacks, some factors make the variation between them. Let’s move directly to the point to conclude! 1. Learning Curve Node.js, MongoDB, and Express.js are very popular and they contain great documentation. There is no apparent difference in the learning curve of MEAN and MERN. Nevertheless, your learning curve will change between React and Angular. The Angular framework utilizes templates and Typescript. You may discover a steeper learning curve with Angular, while the React does not contain much learning curve. 2. Profitability Since Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB are common to both MERN and MEAN stacks, the profitability comparison between these two would reveal between React and Angular. Angular, being a complete framework, provides better profitability. Generally, you would use third-party libraries associated with React that provide lower designer productivity. Angular features a CLI (Command Line Interface) and this enhances the productivity of designers. And when you redesign your code, you will discover that the Angular CLI makes it easier. Due to the existence of outsider libraries, updating your React code is a more added exertion. 3. Data Flow In the case of Angular, the data flow is bidirectional, i.e. if you alter the UI, then it transforms the model state automatically. In the case of React, the data flow is unidirectional. So, if you use React, you can alter the UI only after transforming the model state. React’s unidirectional data binding gives a better data overview, which helps handle large projects. And this makes the MERN stack more favorable for handling large projects. In case you are working on a small project, the bidirectional data binding provided by