LAMP Stack or MEAN Stack — Which One to Choose For Your Next Web Application?

LAMP Stack or MEAN Stack — Which One to Choose For Your Next Web Application?

A few years ago, LAMP stack used to dominate the market of building web-driven applications. At that time, MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js were independent identities.

But over the years, these independent identities have emerged out and come together to do some serious work, by forming a new stack called MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js) stack.

And now the scenario for LAMP stack has completely changed. MEAN stack is giving it a tough competition and clearly winning the contest.

What is LAMP stack?

LAMP stack is an open source and free stack for web development that contains Linux OS, Apache web server, MySQL database, and PHP. It is still a popular choice among some developers because of its open-source nature and ease of deployment and customization.

It has a large community for support and works as an alternative to costly software packages. Both individuals and enterprise developers can use it for the development of web apps and servers.

What is MEAN stack?

MEAN stack, on the other hand, contains MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js and Node.js. This combination makes MEAN a simple and easy-to-use stack for web development.

What makes MEAN different and unique from LAMP is that it is entirely based on JavaScript. Big firms like Google, Uber and Netflix are using MEAN to power their web apps.

MEAN stack vs LAMP stack

One of the main reasons the developers are making their move from LAMP stack is because it is less flexible than MEAN. When it comes to simplicity and flexibility, MEAN is far better than LAMP.

Let’s dive in deep to understand things related to MEAN and LAMP better and learn which one is better for your next application.

Modern Web App Development Using MEAN Stack

MEAN is an ideal choice for developers who expect high traffic and engagement on their web app project. It is not an easy task to manage an app when the engagement is high. The developers need to work hard on it, hence they want a technology that is flexible, scalable, and extensible.

That’s where the MEAN stack comes into the play. It is an open source web stack for modern web app development, especially for cloud-hosted apps. The stack comes with its own web server so that the app can handle the traffic efficiently if the usage spikes.

Components of MEAN:

MongoDB: MongoDB is a non-relational and NoSQL database used to store the backend data of the app in the form of JSON documents.

Both the MEAN stack and the database use JavaScript, hence the developers don’t need to translate anything when the app fetches database and other elements.

Express.js: Express.js is a web app framework for Node.js that forms the backend for the MEAN stack and takes care of the communication between the front-end and the database. This makes the data transfer to users smoother, even when there are a lot of features in the app.

Angular.js: Angular is a front-end web app framework created by Google. It is the preferred choice of developers when it comes to front-end development. Most of the web apps built using JavaScript make use of Angular. In the MEAN stack, Angular helps developers to build the front-end of the app using JS.

Node.js: It is a JS framework that helps the app to process a number of connections simultaneously by scaling requests on demand. Based on Google V8, the Node.js is used as a runtime environment for most of the well-known apps, including Google Chrome.

Node.js works as the backbone for the MEAN stack, where the Express.js works on top of Node.js, and Angular.js interacts with Node.js to serve the data faster.

Why Should You Use MEAN Stack Over LAMP Stack?

If the reasons mentioned above are not enough to convince you to make a shift to MEAN, then following are a few more reasons that show why MEAN is better than LAMP.

• Same language for every part of the app development

JavaScript is an easy-to-use, dynamic, and flexible language. MEAN stack uses only this language for every part of the app development, whether it is front-end (Angular), back-end (Express), or the database. This makes the interaction between all the parts of the app smoother.

It also allows companies to streamline their development teams. A single team of developers who know JS can work on an app, whenever and wherever required. Further, at several places, the developers can reuse the same code for multiple parts of the app.

On the other hand, if you use LAMP stack, you will need to shift between PHP or Python, and then move to JavaScript or HTML. This makes things challenging and complex.

• Cost-effective

Using MEAN stack, a single pool of developers can work on both server-side and client-side of the app. This will eliminate the need for hiring separate teams of developers for both sides. Eventually, it can help enterprises to save on costs.

• Not limited to Linux only

The LAMP stack can be used only with the Linux operating system. This means that the developers have to work on Linux if they want to develop an app using LAMP.

Whereas, it is not the case with MEAN. It supports cross-platform operating systems. This doesn’t limit developers to only a single operating system.

• Support from a broad community of developers

All the technologies in the MEAN stack are supported and backed by a broad community of individual and enterprise developers. This community is always there to help and support you in case you face issues in code lines or unable to debug the code.

Wrapping up

Since its launch in 2014, the MEAN stack has been dominating the market of web application development. If you want to develop apps that will need to handle large amounts of data or if it is based on cloud, then MEAN stack will be the right choice.

The LAMP stack is good for simple and small projects which aren’t supposed to face spikes every now and then.

If you have any queries, let us know via the comments section below.