MEAN Stack Development, How Can It Be The Future Of Web App Development?

Are web apps going to decay? Well, no. but aren’t they becoming too basic in this high-end mobile users market? Well, yes, you can say that. 

With the increased popularity and dependency on mobile apps, people believe there is no future for web apps and that the future market is about mobile users. Well, people are wrong, as web apps are retaking the market. 

Everyone can see today mobile app users have increased, and this has increased the expectations of the customers to access every website via mobile devices.

For a business, web apps and mobile apps both are necessary. Their main goal is to reach as much audience as possible. Leaving behind the web app’s users is not justifying their deeds. 

Thus, web apps have secured their position in the market and, believe it or not, are somehow better than mobile apps. To improve the website user’s experience, developers need a development stack that fulfills all their needs under one roof.

The answer is MEAN stack.

It is revolutionizing web app development and taking the market swiftly. 

If you haven’t heard about MEAN stack and does not know how it can help business to scale with innovative web apps, then you are on the right track. Let’s explore more about the MEAN stack and how it works.

What do you MEAN by MEAN stack? 

Mean and stack.

Stack specifies the collection of required technologies to create a web app. MEAN stands for (MongoDB, Express, Angular.js, and Node.js). 

The MEAN stack is a JavaScript-based framework for developing cloud-ready web applications.

All these four technologies are bundled together to develop a fantastic outstanding web app from head to toe. It is a part of full-stack development.

OnGraph is an established company offering expertise in MEAN stack development. 

MEAN cooks up using four main ingredients that create all the difference, adding a unique flavor every time you create web apps. Let’s discuss more those ingredients.

Four ingredients of MEAN

Bringing all the fantastic technologies together in a single platform isn’t a dream for every developer, where they can integrate and work together seamlessly. 

This is what MEAN stack offers you. A MEAN stack developer leverages the individual benefits of these technologies to develop dynamic web apps and deliver the best version of the app. 

To better understand how MEAN works to improve your app efficiency, you must understand the role of each ingredient (say components). 

M- MongoDB (database)

E- Express (back-end framework)

A- Angular.js (front-end framework)

N- Node.js (back-end runtime environment)

MongoDB

Every business tends to grow quickly or slowly, resulting in growing data over time. But how can you help your business’s data to scale smoothly? 

It depends on which database you store, edit, and access your data. Earlier, relational databases took the market by storm, but with technological advancements, NoSQL databases are in trend, making query execution faster than ever.

In the top list of NoSQL databases stands MongoDB. 

With its features and characteristics, people can get answers to their queries in real time, making the user experience even better. Also, this database is highly scalable and capable of catering to your increasing traffic. 

On top of it, MongoDB Atlas is now available in the market as a multi-cloud development data platform, simplifying the way you work with your data.

Today, MongoDB has been widely adopted globally due to its several benefits over relational databases. Thus, it is making the MEAN stack one of the preferred stacks nowadays.

Express 

In 2010, StrongLoop, TJ Holowaychuk, and others introduced this open-source Node.js framework. It is a well-suited back-end development framework for creating dynamic web apps. Express’s wide range of features and functionalities can save development time and effort. 

Today, Express framework comes in the top Node.js framework. 

Many companies in the market have leveraged Express to create a high-end web app. It handles all the interactions between the web app’s server side and the database that is  MongoDB.

Angular.js

While Express works as a back-end framework, Angular.js is a front-end development framework. It is Google’s in-house JavaScript front-end framework, capable of creating dynamic web apps with impressive user experience. 

It is one of the best options for developing high-performing, scalable, flexible, and stable web applications. With the power of programming languages HTML, CSS, and TypeScript, Angular.js facilitates the development of dynamic and web-responsive web apps. 

It has a vastly growing community working for its improvement.

Angular.js is expanding its market and has become one of the top JavaScript frameworks.

Today, major companies are using Angular.js for developing their web app’s front end.

Node.js

Some confuse Node.js as a programming language or framework, but it is a runtime environment. It is based on Google’s V8 engine that executes the JavaScript code server-side. 

It is lightweight, versatile, and simple to deploy, enough to accelerate the performance and speed of your application project while maintaining efficiency. Node.js has been adopted widely by several companies due to the following reasons.

Today, top companies are leveraging the immense benefits of Node.js.

Combining the power of all these four components, the MEAN stack can do wonders in delivering the most powerful web apps of the time. 

But, as a developer, you must understand how these components work together and interact to deliver a high-performance web application. So, let’s take a look at how the MEAN stack works.

How does MEAN stack work?

MEAN stack consists of JavaScript technologies that work together seamlessly to develop the most dynamic web applications. The below architecture shows how the request and data flow using these technologies. 

• Client-side 

Angular, a JavaScript MVW Framework” comes at the top. It helps the developers to extend the HTML tags with metadata to create interactive web experiences. It includes form validation, localization, and communication with your back-end service. 

• Server-side 

Then comes the (back-end server) Express.js and Node.js. Express.js runs on a Node.js server and handles URL routing, HTTP requests, and responses. By creating XML HTTP requests (XHRs), GETs, or POSTs using your Angular.js front end, you can connect to Express.js functions powering your application. These functions will use MongoDB’s Node.js drivers, either using callbacks or promises, to access and update data in your MongoDB database.

• Database

Then there is the MongoDB database that stores the data in JSON documents format.

Reasons to choose MEAN stack for your business-

MEAN stack is a complete JavaScript development from client to server-side to database. Thus, you will undoubtedly get unexpected performance and versatile web applications that will help your business to scale. 

So, what reasons make the MEAN stack perfect for any business?

• Improved app startup time

Due to the usage of Node.js on both client-side and server-side, many companies are switching to using Node.js. It reduces the time and effort for writing everything double for error handling, activity tracking, and debugging by using Node.js for both client and server-side. 

Using Node.js, people have experienced a reduction in startup time from 40+ minutes to less than a minute. Thus, companies like Netflix and others have shifted to Node.js. 

• Scalable stack

The four technologies are known for creating scalable apps, thus making the MEAN stack highly scalable. It means whenever there is a surge in traffic, your app will function as expected without impacting its performance. MEAN stack is a perfect solution for small and large businesses with growth in mind.

With the unique features of MongoDB, such as auto-sharding, replication, and high availability, it helps scale apps without any failover. Also, with Node.js, single-threaded asynchronous architecture amplifies the scalability. 

• Secured web apps

Different attacks can reduce the performance and reputation of your web apps your business. It is essential to keep your web apps safe against cyber attacks, which is possible if you choose your technology stack well.

When we talk about security, the MEAN stack is one of the secure and stable platforms. MongoDB, a non-relational database, is not impacted by SQL injection as the data is stored as JSON objects that cannot be easily manipulated, improving database security. 

Node.js is a core contributor and addresses the security of the Node.js project and its users. 

• Low development cost and high-quality product

Each technology is open source. Thus, it requires no additional cost to buy software or any tools for developing a fantastic web app. 

• Isomorphic code

JavaScript is a commonly used programming language in the industry.

The MEAN stack uses isomorphic coding, i.e., you can easily and quickly transfer the code written in one specific framework to another. JavaScript is a common language for both the client and server sides, making it easier for any developer to understand how the data flows through the MEAN’s components.

You only need a specific web browser where you can execute the JavaScript web application.

• Suitable for For Multi-Tiered Web Application Development

With the fantastic combination of Angular, Node.js, and MongoDB, any developer can quickly create complex, multi-tiered, and dynamic web applications. 

• Easy To Maintain CodeBase

Each technology offers necessary libraries that are a cherry on top to include the latest features and functionalities to the web apps. With every library bundled with the MEAN stack, developers do not have to invest time searching for them online. 

MEAN stack has a simple and easy-to-maintain codebase. Thus, developers can focus on development and deployment work without worrying about the configuration details. Even a beginner can start quickly with this stack.

• Responsive user interface

Today, the number of people using mobile phones is skyrocketing, thus increasing the demand for web apps that can run on mobile devices. These apps must be able to adapt quickly to different screen sizes. 

In simple words, any web app must be mobile responsive. But the challenge is with the traditional web apps that are not mobile responsive by default, thus requiring extra coding efforts. 

But with MEAN stack, developers can create mobile responsive web apps.

• Improved user experience

Any app will only be successful if it has a great user experience. All efforts are wasted if the app cannot attract and engage customers.

Today, customers have high expectations of web apps, such as fast response time, no reloading of web pages, interactive UI, and smooth navigation. You can also call such apps single-page apps that are easy to create with Angular.js. 

• The active and global community

MEAN is globally adopted, and many developers prefer it due to the involved technologies. Each technology has enormous community support who pay scale t help, share, and discuss new projects.

• Creating real-time applications

Nowadays, customers prefer real-time apps for a better experience. These apps help them get updated facts and information to help them make calculated decisions. These real-time apps keep the customers engaged, such as video calls, live chat, online games, and others. 

MEAN stack is capable of creating real-time apps. Some examples are- LinkedIn, Walmart, and others are using Node.js for real-time apps.

When can you consider using the MEAN stack?

MEAN applications

Looking at the reasons to choose MEAN or say benefits, and it is well-suited for every type of business, especially startups looking for affordable technology for their business to grow. 

Each technology has its benefits and a place in the developer-preferred list. MEAN stack can handle simple to complex web apps with great ease. 

You can use MEAN stack to create different web apps, such as Web Apps for Bigdata, Real-Time Applications, Streaming Apps, Enterprise complex apps, and Secondary business apps.

Some of the top market giants have leveraged the MEAN stack’s benefits.

The successful adoption of the MEAN stack depends on the developers’ skills. 

Skills of a MEAN Stack Developer

They must possess the following skills.

• Core knowledge of database architecture and frontend and backend processes.
• Frontend and backend languages include HTML/ CSS, JavaScript, XML, jQuery, C#, Java, and Python. 
• Able to work with MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js.
• Should be able to create templates and architecture design guidelines.
• Should be able to understand the concepts of Web Development, continuous integration, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Agile methodology, and cloud technology.

Due to this enormous skill set, MEAN stack developers are in great demand. Thus, they have a high pay scale.

MERN

Unline MEAN, MERN stands for MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, and Node.js, which is another JavaScript stack commonly used for web app development. 

Instead of ANgular.js, MERN is using React.js. This is where the entire difference holds. 

• MERN stack comes with excellent customer support.
• With wide range of React libraries, you can access high-end tools for developing web apps. 
• MERN tech stack has MVC architecture for a simple development process.
• To employ a JavaScript stack, a developer should know JavaScript and JSON.

With the increased popularity of React.js over Angular.js, developers are moving to the MERN stack.

Head-to-Head Comparison: MEAN vs. MERN

Build dynamic web apps with MEAN stack and OnGraph

Considering the requirement of today’s world, each technology is improving and getting better to fulfill that demand. The same goes with the MEAN stack, which is improving daily and bringing much to the table for the developers. 

So far, the MEAN stack is handy for companies and developers who want to create dynamic web apps. If you are looking for companies to help you develop a fantastic web app and improve your brand value, then at OnGraph, we have a skilled team of MEAN stack developers.