LAMP vs MEAN: Which Tech Stack Should You Choose?

LAMP vs MEAN: Which Tech Stack Should You Choose?

Businesses around the world require enterprise-level applications, websites, and servers to run their everyday operations smoothly. Whenever a business is planning to create a web app, then they should choose a standardized tech stack that is consistent and scalable.

The tech stack is nothing but a collection of technologies or software that are used in a systemized way to build a web application. For a developer, it has become harder to choose the right tech stack to create a web app. In this article, we will like to compare two popular web development stacks called MEAN and LAMP. They are quite different from one another as they use different technologies for the backend languages, database, and server environment.

Get a brief introduction about the LAMP web stack and also know about its pros and cons.

What is LAMP?

It is a collection of software subsystems that in combination perform various tasks without relying on external software or data. It includes programs like Apache, PHP, Linux, and MySQL.

  • Linux: It is a dynamic and powerful open-source operating system that is available for free.

  • Apache: It is a web server that processes requests and serves up web assets through HTTP. It allows anyone to access the web app that is in the public domain over a web URL.

  • MySQL: It is a highly secure open-source database, wherein you can store all your web app data.

  • PHP: It is an open-source scripting language that works perfectly with Apache to help you create dynamic web pages.

All these software programs seamlessly integrate to give you a very robust platform that helps you to create a web application.

This technology stack has various advantages as well as disadvantages some of which are given below.

Advantages and Disadvantages of LAMP

What are the Advantages of LAMP?

  1. PHP and MySQL, two major components of LAMP, are a well-known backend tech stack that is supported by multiple hosting providers. This gives you the ability to host your web application virtually from anywhere and also make use of high-performing CMS engines.

  2. LAMP is an open-source technology stack that allows customization of the interaction between the end-users and the source to fulfill the requirement of the developer.

  3. MySQL and PHP programs are relatively easier to understand, which makes LAMP good for beginners. Furthermore, as it uses PHP and Apache facilities and modules, its deployment is easier as it allows PHP files to be uploaded through the MySQL database.

  4. It has a non-blocking structure that allows you to not only develop the web app based on this technology stack faster but also scale it up as and when required.

  5. This technology stack is flexible enough to customize the modules as per your requirements.

What are the Disadvantages of LAMP?

  1. One of the biggest drawbacks of this technology stack is that it only supports the Linux OS.

  2. It is harder to switch from PHP or Python and use HTML or JavaScript.

Get to know more about the MEAN web stack and also the pros and cons associated with it.

What is MEAN?

It is a bundle of software that includes MongoDB, ExpressJS, Angular, and NodeJS. These four programs working in combination helps to simplify the web development process.

  • MongoDB: It is a database server that queries in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation. It stores data structure in a binary JSON format.

  • ExpressJS: It is a server-side JavaScript framework.

  • Angular: It is a client-side JavaScript framework.

  • NodeJS: It is a premier JavaScript web server.

The primary programming language of the MEAN stack is JavaScript that helps in giving more cohesiveness to this tech stack and making its integration seamless.

In this web stack, all the components are written in JavaScript and the data is stored in the JSON format. This powerful stack allows the developers to create high-performing web apps that are flexible, extensible, and highly scalable which makes them perfect for cloud hosting. Furthermore, as the primary programming language of this is JavaScript, the developers can use the code across the application.

Some of the pros and cons of this web stack are listed below.

Advantages and Disadvantages of MEAN

What are the advantages of MEAN?

  1. This technology stack uses the JavaScript language that allows the developers to easily switch between the client and the server.

  2. It helps you create simple open-source solutions, which can be further used to build high-performance and maintainable applications.

  3. Express.js is not only an essential part of this stack but also one of the best web application frameworks{:rel=“nofollow”}. The reason is it offers better flexibility in web app development. Moreover, it acts as a modular framework for Node.js to provide top-notch performance in web apps.

  4. Node.js helps you to enhance horizontal and vertical scalability in your web app.

  5. Angular makes it possible to reuse code and add more functionality to the web app with simple code.

  6. This technology stack gives you the option to make real-time changes in your app at the development stage.

  7. It can be easily hosted on the cloud, and as cloud functionalities have become a crucial part of modern apps and websites, with the help of MEAN you can create, test and deploy the functionalities quite easily in the cloud.

  8. It is cost-effective and also saves you time. If you are using the MEAN technology stack, then you don’t have to hire the services of multiple experts for each task. A JavaScript developer can build an app from scratch all by himself.

What are the disadvantages of MEAN?

  1. MongoDB is a part of this technology stack that is perfect for small and mid-size applications. However, in the case of large-scale applications, it can sometimes lead to loss of data during the networking partitioning.

  2. Express offers limited isolation of servers from the business logic. This in turn can limit the reuse of specific services such as batch operations.

Conclusion

You must choose the right web app tech stack{:rel=“nofollow”} for your project to get the optimum performance from it. Until now, you have got a good insight into the two popular tech stacks for web applications.

Now it is up to you to explore the advantages and disadvantages associated with these two tech stacks to find out which one of these fulfills all your requirements. You may have to look at the various trade-offs you have to do to figure out the best among the two for your unique needs.