Full Stack JavaScript: Exploring MERN, MEAN, and MEVN

Since JavaScript’s inception in 1995, it primarily functioned as a client-side (front-end) programming language. In its early days, it also gained a reputation for having poor performance capabilities. However, since then, a significant amount of time, money, and energy has been invested in improving the language.

This investment led to the development of many popular libraries and frameworks using the language. Some notable examples include jQuery, React, AngularJS, Vue, and Node.js.

Full stack JavaScript is the practice of using JavaScript on both the front and back end of an application. JavaScript is widely known for its front-end libraries and frameworks, but on the back-end, it now has Node.js.

Although Node.js wasn’t the first attempt at utilizing JavaScript on the server side of software development, it certainly was the most successful attempt. Today, server-side JavaScript is synonymous with Node.js, and JavaScript is officially a full-stack programming language with three very popular stacks.

JavaScript’s MERN stack is arguably the most popular stack, consisting of four major technologies. On the front end of these applications, you have the React library, a popular JavaScript library developed by Facebook. This library owes most of its popularity to several different factors, including its flexibility, performance optimization, and its rapid adoption by major tech companies.

The other three technologies in this stack are Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. These technologies work together on the backend of the MERN stack.

Node.js (also known as NodeJS) is more than just a framework. It is an asynchronous JavaScript runtime environment that operates on an application’s server side to manage specific processes. The developers of Node.js place emphasis on the software’s non-blocking I/O operations. This feature gives Node.js an advantage above some of its competitors, by allowing you to develop applications without the concern of deadlocks.

Another important feature of Node.js is that it is event-driven. This means that it uses an event loop as a runtime construct, rather than as a library. This event loop is responsible for Node.js’ ability to perform non-blocking I/O operations.

Express (also known as Express.js) is a Node.js framework that enables Node.js to accomplish specific tasks. For example, Express plays an instrumental role in how Node.js handles the routing of an application, by simplifying the process. In most Node.js applications, Express handles all the HTTP requests.

MongoDB is a NoSQL database management system. Like Node.js, MongoDB is a trailblazer in its field. For the longest time, MongoDB has been synonymous with NoSQL databases. Developers love using MongoDB because it is easy to use and less rigid than its SQL counterparts.

What distinguishes the MEAN stack from the MERN stack is the technology on the front end, which is Angular. Angular has a complicated history. The first version of Angular (AngularJS) was built solely with JavaScript. However, the Angular that you know today is a TypeScript (which is a superset of JavaScript) web development platform.

Angular is a component-based framework that provides built-in support for essential web development mechanisms, such as routing. Additionally, Angular serves as a development platform, offering advanced features that you would typically need to source from external libraries or frameworks. One such advanced feature is Angular’s internationalization tool.

The internationalization tool facilitates localization by extracting tagged text for translation into different languages. This tool supports multiple translations and even allows you to format data based on the location of the application’s user. On the back end of the MEAN stack, you have Node.js, Express, and MongoDB.

Though the MEVN stack is arguably the least popular among the three major JavaScript stacks, it still maintains a strong community. The MEVN stack consists of Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and Vue.

Vue (also known as Vue.js) is a JavaScript framework. Similar to React and Angular, Vue uses a component-based model that allows you to develop both simple and complex user interfaces for your applications. This framework boasts two core features, it provides declarative rendering and reactivity.

The Vue framework achieves declarative rendering by allowing you to describe a UI’s output through a JavaScript state. JavaScript state also plays an important role in this technology’s ability to be reactive, as it allows it to update the Document Object Model (DOM) when changes occur.

The comparison among the three major JavaScript stacks essentially comes down to the three technologies on the front end. Therefore, the table below evaluates the stacks using React, Angular, and Vue.

MERN

MEAN

MEVN

Learning Curve

React has a smooth learning curve.

Angular has a steep learning curve, due to its extensive list of features and its usage of TypeScript.

Vue is considered more beginner-friendly compared to React because it uses a template syntax closely resembling HTML, whereas React uses JavaScript XML (JSX).

Ecosystem

License and Community

Flexibility

React is very flexible in terms of project structuring and component reusability.

Angular is opinionated about project structure due to its many built-in features and conventions.

Vue falls somewhere between React and Angular. It provides a high level of flexibility while also offering its own set of conventions when needed.

Security

React doesn’t provide any built-in security features.

Angular has a built-in security feature that helps to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Vue also has a built-in security feature that helps to prevent XSS attacks.

Rendering Performance

React uses a Virtual DOM (VDOM), which is a copy of the actual DOM. When the application’s state changes, React creates a virtual representation in the VDOM, which later updates the actual DOM in a process called reconciliation. This approach minimizes the amount of actual DOM manipulation (which is an expensive operation).

Angular uses a change detection mechanism that monitors the application state and updates the DOM when it detects changes.

Vue utilizes React's Virtual DOM and combines it with its own reactivity system. This essentially provides Vue with the best of both worlds when it comes to rendering.

Accessibility

React does not support accessibility.

Angular has several tools and features that support accessibility.

Vue does not support accessibility.

An obvious advantage of full-stack JavaScript is that it reduces the learning curve for developers who choose to use it for full-stack development. It is also inherently asynchronous, enabling you to develop more scalable applications. Performance-wise, JavaScript runtime (particularly Node.js) is among the best, providing impressive server-side processing.

However, there is a notable disadvantage to having full-stack JavaScript. While server-side JavaScript excels in both I/O-bound and event-driven processes, it is still not the ideal choice for CPU-intensive tasks, especially when more powerful languages like Python and Java are available.