Full-Stack vs MEAN Stack

Full-Stack vs MEAN Stack

The websites you see on the internet have two sides. The first one is the one you see, and the other one works in the background to manage the data of the same. The former is called front-end development, and it consists of web design and its interface. The latter is called back-end development, and it deals with databases and server-side programming.

A website wouldn’t look great if it doesn’t have proper front-end development. Similarly, it wouldn’t be able to process its data if it lacks adequate back-end development. Both of these sectors are quite complex. Due to this reason, some experts specialize in one of these two branches of web development. However, some professionals are proficient in handling both of these sections of a website. They are called full-stack developers. Full-stack developers learn many programming languages and tools. These tools help developers in creating websites faster.

Full Stack Development

Full-stack development is considered as one of the sought after and in demand in the software industry as it is inclusive of both front end and back end technologies like Python, Ruby, Java, PHP, J2EE, C#, Perl etc. A full-stack web developer is proficient in varied technologies and is generally looked out by varied organizations as their team leads for bigger projects.

In the present day technological scenario, front end technologies are becoming very prevalent in terms of product and project development. A project or product is deemed to be successful when the customer interface is intuitive. Such a situation happens when the front end technology implemented in its best version. Thus a full stack web developer needs to master some of the basic front end technologies namely HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript, and also be aware of third-party libraries such as JQuery, LESS, SASS, AngularJS, React JS etc…

A full-stack developer also uses back end technologies to administer and manage the processes carried out by the database. It is used for giving user authentication and to put up the website content.  As a full-stack web developer, one needs to be proficient in a few back end languages such as Node JS, PHP, Python etc…

Advantages of Full Stack Developers

• Extensive knowledge of UI/UX and suitable architecture.
• They can easily switch between different programming languages and frameworks.
• Knowledge of various databases like MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server.
• Can deal with server setups and deployments and perform API development.
• They can work upon a range of programming languages for frontend and backend such as Java, C#, .NET, Python, and JavaScript.
• Familiar with modern architectural concepts like cloud, microservices, containerization, and orchestration.

Disadvantages of Full Stack Developers

• They sometimes lack in-depth knowledge and that leads to delay and misperceptions.
• The dependency of an Organization on a Full Stack developer is higher making them difficult to replace.
• It’s difficult for full-stack developers to stay updated with all frameworks/technologies.

MEAN Stack

Mean Stack is a technology stack that is a combination of JavaScript-based technologies that are being used for developing web-based applications. The MEAN stands for MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and NodeJS. It can be defined as follows: M stands for Mongo DB, which is a NoSQL database system E stands for Express JS framework which used for building Node-based web application A stands for Angular JS which is a Google-developed JavaScript framework. N stands for Node JS which is a JavaScript-based execution environment.

With better support and modern designing culture, the MEAN stack developers can be treated for modern and more reliable web designing than the full-stack developers. The mean stack development can be considered as a branch of full-stack development. Here the developers need to focus on certain databases and scripts. This makes the mean stack developers more specialized web developers than the full-stack developers.

Advantages

• MEAN Stack JavaScript which works for both server-side and client-side needs.
• It uses MongoDB as a relational database saving the documents in JSON format. It is prefered by techies in varied app development stages.
• MEAN Stack is cost-effective for businesses as it does not require many hands to work on. A JavaScript developer would do the job well.
• MEAN Stack is highly flexible as it can be tested in the development stage as it uses NodeJS and is beneficial for startups to SMEs
• MongoDB is cloud compatible in the MEAN Stack and can be use for implementing cloud functionalities for your app.
• It is open-source and available for free.

Disadvantages

• MEAN Stack has poor isolation of server from the business logic leading to the prevention of re-usage of certain services like batching operations etc. This is because the MEAN stack uses ExpressJS.
• It does not provide the same kind of relational databases as compared to other Full Stacks.
• MEAN Stack is beneficial for small to mid-size applications
• It is not flexible to be changed to other stacks
• One can lose records and it does not hold any proper guidelines for JS coding.

Conclusion

The demand for both of these areas of expertise is high. While MEAN stack developers have a better grip on JavaScript related projects, full-stack developers have more knowledge. As a result, companies benefit from hiring both of them. MEAN stack is a branch of full-stack. So, if you’re aspiring to become a full-stack developer, you will have to learn the MEAN stack properly.

Full Stack is increased in popularity due to its versatile role in this product-driven world. To make your customers happy, you need to develop faster and release faster and to accomplish this, organizations need skilful and responsible developers that save time and achieve goals using innovative and modern approaches. Full Stack developers are the most sought-after professionals in the upcoming years. Choosing the technology and approaches depend on requirements along with factors like timeline, budget, and resources.