The traditional approach of combining HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to develop web solutions is no longer sufficient to deliver applications with rapid enhancements. Therefore a need for a web stack has been proven to significantly meet the increasing demands of the end users.
The term ‘stack’ came from LAMP stack, an abbreviation for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Linux is an Operating System, Apache provides a server, MySQL is a relational database and PHP is a programming language on which the application can be developed. Taking advantage of the latest web stack has been proven to meet the requirements of today’s web solutions.
There are two very popular stacks used by web developers:
- M.E.A.N. (MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, NodeJS)
- M.E.R.N. (MongoDB, ExpressJS, ReactJS, NodeJS)
NoSQL database, also known as Not-only-SQL is a database management system stores and retrieves in a non-relational form i.e. without defining any tabular schema for the database. NoSQL has gained popularity as it is simpler to design and is scalable in comparison to relational database systems.
In such stacks, a code is written in JavaScript, which means that less time is spent dealing with “context shift” between languages when you’re writing both browser and web server code. JavaScript being a relatively new programming language takes advantage from improvements in other languages when compared to other traditional web-server languages (e.g. Python, PHP, etc.). MEAN and MERN is two popular stacks evolved from JavaScript.
The choice of using either MEAN or MERN stacks depends solely upon the need of the project and familiarity of the developer with these technologies. Both of the stacks are open source frameworks which benefit from the contribution of the community and enhanced flexibility. Applications are built upon the Model-View Architecture. MongoDB is a popular database common in both the stacks, NodeJS which allows programmers to develop back-end applications by allowing JavaScript to run in on Server along with ExpressJS which is used to manage HTTP request, provide basic routing and produce an Application Programming Interface(API).
The choice comes down to Angular or React, which are both front-end frameworks suitable for your applications need. Angular JS is an open source JavaScript framework maintained by Google and the community. Angular JS most popularly used in SPA(Single Page Applications) which are known to provide seamless user experience as it allows rendering the entire page without refreshing it. On the other hand, ReactJS is another lightweight framework designed for developing single-page, multi-page and hybrid web user interfaces by Facebook. Both Angular and React allow writing smaller reusable modules instead of large pieces of code.
So if you are still confused about what to use for your next build and need someone else to help you with parts of the development then you must contact us for website solutions.