14 Aug 2024
Anyone who wants to become a web developer must know how to do full-stack development using MERN or MEAN. Although these two stacks are both JavaScript-based and powerful, they have critical differences in the aspects of their careers and employability. This blog is all about an extensive comparison between MERN and MEAN stacks, encompassing their components, learning curves, development speed, performance, flexibility, and market demand. Moreover, it will assist you in selecting the stack that is most compatible with your professional aspirations, hence enabling you to keep your head up high in the very competitive employment industry. You can use this comprehensive guide whether you are a newbie or already a pro to make a well-informed choice between MERN and MEAN for a full-stack development career path leading to success.
In the fast-changing web development world, being a master of full-stack technologies is becoming crucial for developers. Some of the most famous full-stack technologies include MERN and MEAN – two powerful stacks that allow end-to-end development using JavaScript. These two platforms have some similarities but also a lot of differences that can affect your career path, job prospects, and the technology in which you will work.
This blog will dive into deep details on both MERN and MEAN stacks while comparing them on components, career opportunities, market demand, and company requirements. In addition, we will help you pick one between them that suits your career goals best and stay ahead in the competitive job market.
What is MERN Full Stack?
MERN stands for MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, and Node.js. These technologies blend to create a robust stack for developing state-of-the-art web applications. Let’s break down each component,
MongoDB: It is a NoSQL database that stores data in JSON-like documents. MongoDB is popular among developers because it provides flexibility; it scales well and works smoothly with JavaScript thereby enabling handling large amounts of unstructured data.
Express.js: A minimalistic yet flexible framework used as part of Node.js-based web application development offering a set of strong features that can be used in creating single or multiple pages in web apps.
React.js: A Facebook-developed JavaScript library used to build user interfaces particularly single-page apps where data changes over time. React enables developers to build large-scale web applications that can update themselves efficiently as new data becomes available.
Node.js: This server-side platform runs on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Node.js has an architecture built around non-blocking I/O resulting in lightweight high-performance scalable systems that are ideal for building distributed systems with many concurrent requests handling many connections at the same time.
What is MEAN Full Stack?
MEAN is an acronym for MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. Like MERN, it’s a collection of technologies used to create full-stack applications, but with a key difference in the front-end framework,
MongoDB: It does the same thing as in the MERN stack which is data storage.
Express.js: Just like the MERN stack, it performs server-side logic.
Angular: This open-source web application framework was developed by Google and uses TypeScript. It provides various features such as two-way data binding dependency injection and directives hence making it easier to manage and scale complex applications.
Node.js: This has been discussed under the MERN stack as well, hence reiterated that this is used to carry out server-side operations.
Detailed Comparison of MERN and MEAN
1. Learning Curve
MERN: React being a library rather than a complete set framework offers more flexibility but also increases the learning curve considerably. Developers have to handle the architecture and structure of the application requiring deeper knowledge of front-end development principles.
MEAN: Conversely, Angular is an all-inclusive framework with plenty of built-in features and conventions. Although this might make it easier for beginners to develop apps but might be constrictive for experienced developers who want more control over their code.
2. Development Speed
MERN: Due to React’s component-based architecture developers can reuse components resulting in rapid development. However, setting up the initial project may take longer than in Angular though.
MEAN: Angular has structure and extensive tooling that makes it ideal for faster development, especially in larger projects with features like two-way data binding and form validation.
3. Performance
MERN: React is quick for creating large-scale applications because of its virtual DOM and efficient rendering process. Additionally, the unidirectional flow of data in React ensures a predictable application state making debugging easy.
MEAN: Angular is also performant, but it can be slightly slower than React due to its real DOM manipulation. However, Angular’s two-way data binding can make certain tasks easier at the cost of some performance overhead.
4. Flexibility
MERN: It is more flexible because React is a library-based framework that enables developers to choose their architecture, libraries, and tools leading to a more personalized development experience.
MEAN: On the contrary, Angular's opinionated framework provides a clear structure and guidelines which may be useful when developing teams look for consistency rather than flexibility.
5. Community and Ecosystem
MERN: React has a massive community, extensive documentation, and a vast ecosystem of third-party libraries and tools. This widespread adoption within the industry translates into many more employment opportunities as well as resources available.
MEAN: Supported by Google, angular has a strong community with lots of resources and tools too. It is majorly used for enterprise-level applications hence this could result in stable job prospects in the long run.
Career Opportunities in India
In India, both the MERN stack and MEAN stack are highly sought after by companies both small-scale startups to big corporates looking to hire qualified programmers. Although several considerations may determine whether one chooses MERN or MEAN.
1. Job Market Demand
MERN: React developers are highly desired due to the increasing number of modern web applications being developed. MERN stack is mostly used by companies that value performance, user experience, and scalability.
MEAN: Angular is the framework of choice for many organizations focused on developing large-scale enterprise applications in sectors such as finance, health care, and e-commerce. It is also an industry favorite due to its stability and robustness.
2. Salary Prospects
MERN: Depending on years of experience and location, a MERN stack developer in India can earn 6–12 lakhs annually while senior developers with deep React expertise can command even higher salaries.
MEAN: Just like their MERN counterparts, MEAN developers earn competitive salaries averaging between INR 5 lakhs to INR 10 lakhs per annum. And just as with MERN, senior professionals who have spent years specializing in Angular are highly sought after.
3. Industry Preferences
MERN: Tech-driven businesses prefer MERN stack or startups and firms involved in building user-centric applications social media platforms e-commerce websites.
MEAN: Preferred by companies with complex scalable applications and want to ensure long-term supportability and maintainability of “enterprise.”
How to Choose Between MERN and MEAN
Deciding between MERN and MEAN may not be an easy task but here are some factors you should consider,
1. Project Requirements
When your project requires high interactivity levels, and a big amount of user engagement alongside great scalability possibilities, then choosing MERN makes sense because React has flexibility along with performance.
In case your project needs structure, maintainability as well as enterprise-level features; this would perhaps be more appropriate for MEAN Junction’s Angular framework than any other choice.
2. Personal Preference and Expertise
If you prefer libraries and know JavaScript very well, MERN could be more up your alley.
For those who like working in a structure where there are strong guidelines, and built-in features MEAN is the right way to go.
3. Market Opportunities
Research the job market or industry of interest is the most important one before blindly applying for jobs. It means that if there is a higher React demand for developers then MERN may have better career opportunities while MEAN stack might be the best option if Angular is more popular.
Which Stack is Best?
For Flexibility and Performance: MERN works perfectly towards creating highly interactive web applications with user-focuses this way developers can have greater control over their apps.
For Structure and Enterprise-Level Development: For maintainability and long-term support purposes, it’s often said that MEAN fits in enterprise-grade application development.
Understanding Company Requirements
Here are some ideas on how you can determine what stack a company prefers,
Analyze Job Listings: Go through job ads available within your specified field to identify technology trends that are going on currently.
Network with Industry Professionals: Participate at meetups, conferences, or online forums to get information about which stacks are most liked by companies operating in your targeted industries.
Consider the Company’s Existing Technology Stack: Discover what programming language stack the firm you want to work with uses now by investigating their current technology stack to find out which framework suits them best.
Take the bold decision today
Are you ready to become a full-stack developer? In other words, mastering these technologies will make it possible for you to get into web development regardless of whether it is MERN or MEAN that you choose.
At Cokonet Academy, we provide comprehensive courses on both MERN and MEAN stacks meant to prepare you for the job market. Our courses are taught by professionals who have worked in the industry and offer practical experience through real-world projects.
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