Full-Stack vs. MEAN Stack vs. MERN Stack: How to Choose the Right Stack?

Developers build applications with the help of different technologies. All these technologies are put in one basket, which we call a stack. So every application ever built has its technology stack. 

As a developer, the issue you will most commonly face is which tech stack to choose, in other words, which technologies you must use to build the application you want. Because just like all web application developers, you need your application to work efficiently. 

Along with this, you must build a solution that is easy to use, can be scaled, and is flexible enough to make changes according to the changing requirements.  Now to create an application that stands true to all these requirements, you need to choose a stack that can make it possible. 

Choosing a stack is the first of many requirements every custom software development company must follow. While doing so, they need to address their needs and requirements to make a choice regarding which tech stack is best suited for the project. 

This article is dedicated to helping you choose one out of the three tech stack types and understand their use cases along with the benefits.

Must Read: Top Benefits Of Choosing Cross-Platform App Development in 2021

Full-stack Development Technologies 

Full-stack development comprises the four critical aspects of building the same. These are front-end, back-end, testing, DevOps, Database, and mobile app. The full-stack developers are highly intelligent and experienced people who can build the solution from the get-go by using the relevant technologies. 

So, instead of building a team of developers to work on different aspects of the solution, a full-stack developer can build the solution single-handedly. In other words, full-stack development is about taking care of the client-side and server-side development collectively. 

While doing so, full-stack web developers use the required languages and frameworks for building the components related to each segment of the web application. Different languages and frameworks are associated with front-end and back-end operations. Ergo, it depends on the full-stack web developer to choose the stack they have experience in to build the required project. 

Along with working on the front-end and back-end operations, they also need to work on building the right database for the project and test the same to ensure a bug-free solution. 

Full-stack web developers are efficient enough to switch roles as and when required. On day one, they are front-end developers, and on the second day, they work as back-end developers. 

Why Should You Choose full-stack for Development?

The reasons to choose full-stack development is equally dependent on the intelligence and ability of your full-stack developer and the requirements of the project. Here are the reasons to go for full-stack web development. 

• Effective Team Management: With full-stack development, you will have to hire less number of developers, which means that it will be easier to manage the team. In a small team, communication is easier, more transparency in the team, and ideas can flow smoothly amongst the team members. 
• Easy to Switch: A full-stack developer can easily switch between different technologies as and when required. This becomes even more important when you are facing a complex project where A/B testing is more effective than planning. 
• Faster project Delivery: Since there are fewer people involved in the process, full-stack development takes less time than other forms of development exercises. The reason being that full-stack developers do not have to depend on other developers to complete a piece of work. They can switch roles and do the work required themselves. 
• Multiple Technologies: Every component of full-stack development can be completed with multiple technologies. Here is a list of technologies for your reference;
• • • Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AngularJS, React.js, Bootstrap, jQuery, SASS, Semantic-UI, Materialize, Backbone.js, Express.js, Ember.js, etc. 
    • Back-end: PHP, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Django, C#, Ruby, Rails, Laravel, Spring, REST, Go, etc. 
    • Database: Oracle, MongoDB, SQL, NoSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Clusters, etc. 

• DevOps: CI/CD Pipelines, SDLC Creation
• Easy to Maintain and Support: Since only a few people are associated with full-stack development, managing everything and supporting the project becomes easier. The developers receive better and quick support from their peers, and it is easier to find code scripts and make changes accordingly. A single developer can also fix all the issues of the application and run testing easily. 

Full-stack development has tremendous potential and wide applicability, but there are some issues with this development strategy too that you should know about. First, exclusively relying on full-stack development can lead to overburdening the developers, which can delay the projects and pile up the projects over time. 

Secondly, since a full-stack developer works on different development technologies simultaneously, it becomes challenging to keep up with the trends in every technology used in the development process. Staying behind on these new developments means the developed products will lack on some aspect or the other. 

MEAN Stack Development

MEAN stack is a JavaScript-only focussed cluster of development technologies including MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js. So, we have four technologies used to build components and elements of four different structures required to develop websites and web applications. 

MongoDB is used to create database solutions, Express.js is used for back-end systems, Angular.js is used for front-end development, and Node.js is the runtime environment used to implement back-end applications in the JS. 

MEAN stack development and MEAN stack developers have quickly become popular clusters for building web applications and websites. Besides these four major technologies, MEAN stack developers also utilize several compatible tools and plugins to enhance their solution building system further. 

MEAN stack developers are also high in demand because they are working with a technology that allows delivering high-performance digital solutions that offer swift development and organized execution. 

This means that since the MEAN stack developers have only one core programming language to work with, it becomes easier to build the solution without dabbling with different technologies. 

Benefits of MEAN Stack Development

• Versatile Development: MEAN stack developers can easily switch between server and client-side operations, making them versatile developers. Secondly, they have access to a common coding language, which further streamlines the development solutions. 
• Easy Testing: Just like development testing, the applications built with MEAN stack is also easier. Moreover, suppose the developers are leveraging cloud solutions for building and testing the solution. In that case, that too is easier than what they will experience while developing the same solution with other tools. 
• Quick Incorporation: If and when required, any new element can be added into the solution under development because the MEAN stack developers only need to add another field in the existing form. For this purpose, they leverage the features of MongoDB as they are tailored to help developers work smoothly with the cloud and provide automatic replication. 
• Fast Development: Developing an application with the MEAN stack is faster than others. This ability to build the solution faster is specifically efficient to build the MVP version of the application.
• Isomorphic Coding: MEAN stack developers need not write the code for iOS and Android applications separately. They can write the code once and execute it for both platforms individually. This is called isomorphic coding, which is an inherent feature of MEAN stack development. It also means that a developer’s time spent on writing the code will be cut in half, and costs required to create the same will also reduce. 

MEAN stack development is considered more efficient and faster than full-stack development because the developers have to face less uncertainty and complexity in the entire process. Since the number of technologies used here is limited, it becomes easier to manage everything for a single person. 

On the other hand, the same aspect can also be hurting if the MEAN stack developers are using these technologies for large-scale development. This is because you have to work with a fixed number of technologies and adapt according to the limitations that come with them. 

Secondly, after building the application with the MEAN stack, you cannot move or shift to another technology. This sets some rigid boundaries for a developer and limits the ability to innovate or use other modern-day technologies for building the application. 

MERN Stack Development

MERN stack is the updated version of MEAN stack. All the technologies used in the MEAN stack are also present in MERN except one. Here Angular is replaced with React.js as the front-end development framework. React has been added to the stack because it is one of the latest development technologies and provides better outcomes in some circumstances, if not in all. 

MERN stack developers work with four open-source development technologies with end-to-end framework support given to the developers. The technologies herein are;

• MongoDB for database development. 
• React to build front-end user interfaces. 
• Express.js is used as a web framework for Node.js.
• Node.js is the JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 engine for executing the JS code outside the web browser. 

MERN stack developers also work with a single programming language, that is JavaScript. As a result, there is no switching between different technologies or languages. 

Advantages of Using MERN Stack for Development

• Flexible and Scalable: MERN stack developers will resonate with the fact that working with this technology stack means that they can scale the solution as and when required. Additionally, it offers considerable flexibility in terms of building solutions while maintaining consistency with different data centers. 
• End-to-End Development: With the MERN stack, the developers get to work with a full-stack development environment. In other words, they get everything required to build full-scale applications within the stack itself, including the tools and technologies. 
• Dynamic Schema: MERN Stack technologies offers a flexible data model with dynamic schema. These functions are added with a robust GUI and command-line tools. Ultimately, the developers find the MERN stack faster, better, and better accustomed to build evolving applications. 
• MongoDB Benefits: MongoDB is used as a database management and development solution in the MERN stack. Due to this, the MERN stack developers can store data in flexible JSON file documents. With JSON-like file storage, the developers get better data persistence and find it easier to combine the same. 

The advantages of the MERN stack are great and visible. As a result, MERN stack developers are in high demand among the startups because they want to use cost-effective technologies and get faster performance. 

The MERN stack is also not without some drawbacks, most of which are related to MongoDB. As it turns out, MongoDB does not support relational databases, which causes issues in joins functionality. 

The MERN stack developers can write the joins code manually, but it will take a toll on the performance and slow down the entire process. Plus, no joins also means that there will be data redundancy leading to unnecessary utilization of memory. 

How to Choose the Right Stack?

After understanding the differences between Full, MEAN, and MERN stack, you will get some idea about which type of stack is best for your development project. However, it is not crystal clear as to which stack you must choose. 

It is unfortunate, but there is no direct answer. Your selection will depend on your circumstances and requirements. For example, if you are not able to find good full-stack developers, but there are some excellent MEAN stack developers ready to work for you, you are forced to choose the latter even though you wanted to go with the former. 

Ergo, these might be small things, but they matter in terms of making a decision. Similarly, you need to assess your requirements from other perspectives before choosing a tech stack. Here’s what you must consider. 

• Project Level: Identify your project level and requirements. Enterprise-level projects will turn out to be great if built with the MEAN stack. This is because here, the MEAN stack developers will get a complete architecture making it easy to maintain the application. Moreover, large applications require an organized development technology with MVC architecture, which is provided by the MEAN stack. 
• UI Requirements: MERN stack development must be your choice if you want to build an application with great UI elements. MERN stack developers use the technologies in the stack to build efficient systems to ensure high-performance user interaction. 
• Additional Third-Party Support: If your application requires an interface to support HTTP calls and interactions with the back-end systems, you need to go with MEAN. MEAN stack has Angular, which provides access to third-party support implementing the HTTP and back-end calls. With MERN, you have React, which has dedicated libraries to operationalize the same. 
• Scale of the Application: Large-scale applications like the ones you build for eCommerce stores must be built with MEAN. This is because the MEAN stack is dynamic and provides and helps prototypes systematically. 

Conclusion

We can safely say that there is no one-word answer to which stack is best for your development project. Full-stack developers, MEAN stack developers, and MERN stack developers have varied expertise associated with the development technologies manifested in these stacks. 

Different technologies mean varied execution and different functionalities. Hence, to choose the ideal stack, you need first to identify your requirements and understand what is required to build that project. Based on the requirements, it will be easier to choose a tech stack.