If you’re planning to get a custom application developed for your business, there are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself and find answers to. We are sure that you are doing all the research right now to understand the best ways to make your application stable, robust, future-proof and most importantly, scalable.

While going through tons of articles on development frameworks, you are bound to come across two frequently-occurring terms thrown around all over the articles and resources - MEAN stack and MERN stack. For those who are less familiar with the technicalities of mobile app development, these jargons could be overwhelming and this is exactly why we decided to shed light on this topic.

While tech enthusiasts, specialists and developers out there would go on to give their own recommendations, what you need is an objective analysis of both the models to arrive at an ideal conclusion that works best for your app and its market segment.

In this post, we will look at the fundamental differences between the two full stack app development frameworks, understand the pros and cons of each and find out which stands out in 2021 without any bias.

Let’s get started.

What Are Full Stack App Development Frameworks?

Today, the market is increasingly becoming more volatile in terms of consumer behaviour, rapidly evolving technologies, advancements in Big Data and software development methodologies and more. With everything so dynamic around us, you need to establish a solid foundation for your app’s development. Efficiency, scalability and flexibility are key for the ideal functioning of your app and this can be achieved through full stack web app development.

For the uninitiated, full stack app development is the end-to-end mobile application development model that comprises modules - frontend, backend, database, DevOps, testing and mobile app. Full stack app development is a self-sustaining operational module in organizations that completely take care of all development aspects. However, in this umbrella concept, there are present two development frameworks, which offer unique advantages and application development approaches to developers. These are MEAN stack app development and MERN stack app development methodologies.

Let’s break them down further for better understanding.

MEAN Stack App Development

This is probably the more prominent full stack web app development framework out there. MEAN is an acronym for MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js. This framework is open source and based on JavaScript. Developers ideally prefer MEAN stack for the swiftness it offers in the development process.

Benefits

• All aspects of MEAN stack are open-source, making your development costs less expensive.
• It enables isomorphic coding, which makes code porting possible.
• It allows developers to seamlessly switch between client side and server side.
• Circle space expenses are reduced thanks to MongoDB’s ability to send cloud functions within an app.

MERN Stack App Development

This is open source as well. Abbreviated as MongoDB, Express.js, React.js and Node.js, developers prefer this stack for the development of hybrid applications. One of the major competencies it brings to the table is the smoothness in the development process. Thanks to its capabilities and features, MERN stack is fast becoming more prominent among developers around the world.

Benefits

• It enables both frontend and backend development.
• MVC architecture is supported by MEAN stack for a faster and a smoother development process.
• It offers a library of tools you can use to develop your app.
• A range of testing tools are available pre-loaded.
• The community support is excellent and all your questions are answered on resources and forums.

MEAN Stack VS. MERN Stack - Key Statistics

While choosing the right development framework, it is important to consider the popularity of both. The prominence of a framework will give you an idea on how many developers are preferring it to develop their applications, the availability of a solid community for assistance and support and the demand for the framework.

To compare which is more popular, the primary criteria boils down to the popularity of the only two defining elements in these two stacks - Angular and React. While the former is owned by Google, the latter is owned by Facebook.

React is fast becoming popular among the developer community. In the year 2020, close to 32% of the developers out there wanted to get hands on with React and learn the language. If the popularity of React soared, Angular’s comparatively decreased to around 27%, which nailed the fact that React was getting more attention than Angular.

Not just in 2020, even in 2019, a similar pattern was observed where a report revealed that close to 75% of developers preferred React to develop their applications. The numbers for Angular, on the other hand, were around 57.6%. While the competition is stiff, react is gradually leading the demand.

MEAN Vs. MERN: A Complete Full Stack App Development Comparison

Comparing Other Important Aspects Of MEAN Stack App Development And MERN App Development

Mobile Application Development

One of the crucial factors to analyse which framework is better is mobile app development. Both have their own distinct advantages.

As far as Angular is concerned, it is the Ionic framework that enables the app development process. By nature, it is a hybrid framework that allows developers to code an application just once and push it to both Android and iOS platforms. These help you save significantly on development expenses and time.

With that said, the experience they offer is nothing like that of native apps.

React Native, on the other hand, is also a cross-platform hybrid app development framework but it offers a native-like experience to users. This gives it an edge over Angular.

Testing Capabilities

MEAN and MERN app development teams have two distinct testing experiences. Apps developed on MEAN can be tested easily as Angular requires just one tool - Jasmine - for testing.

But this is not the case with MERN. React Native demands the availability of multiple tools to test your code. For instance, you would need Jest to test your JavaScript code, Enzyme to test your elements and more.

In this case, Angular gets a point for seamless testing capabilities.

Application Maintenance

App maintenance is one of the long-term commitments of developers and app development companies. Apps are never about the present but the future in terms of what significant features and advantages they would offer to their customers.

In that sense, MERN app development fits the bill perfectly when you have long-term plans with your app and look forward to easy maintenance. React Native is swiftly gaining popularity and more developers are resorting to the framework, making it more inevitable.

Security

Today, an app’s features and functionalities are secondary. Consumers are more woke on how secure the app they use is and the type of data transactions and interactions that happen in the backend.

They don’t want any loophole to be left unnoticed that could possibly be exploited by a hacker. That’s why security is of top priority for businesses around the world. In the same context, both MEAN and MERN offer exceptional security standards to their apps. There’s no difference between the two on this actually.

Wrapping Up

While comparisons can be drawn from all aspects, the real validation of the frameworks boils down to your brand’s individual requirements. Your ideas, the market segment you intend to venture into, the scale of application you have in mind for your audience, the features and functionalities you want to incorporate and more factors influence the effectiveness and efficiency of the chosen full stack web app development framework.

That’s why we recommend getting in touch with us to get your app developed. The best full stack developers work with us and they will ensure they choose the right framework for your app’s development. We will keep in mind all the factors that we discussed and put to use the most ideal framework for the development process.

All you have to do is reach out to us and discuss your idea to take the collaboration forward.

Reach out to us today.