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The role of the database in the MEAN stack is very commonly filled by MongoDB because its use of JSON-like documents for interacting with data as opposed to the row/column model allows it to integrate well with the other (JavaScript-based) components of the stack.cite-ref-14[14]

Express.js (also referred to as Express) is a modular web application framework package for Node.js.cite-ref-15[15]

While Express is capable of acting as an internet-facing web server, even supporting SSL/TLS out of the box, it is often used in conjunction with a reverse proxy such as NGINX or Apache for performance reasons.cite-ref-16[16]

Typically data is fetched using Ajax techniques and rendered in the browser on the client-side by a client-side application framework. However as the stack is commonly entirely JavaScript-based, in some implementations of the stack, server-side rendering is used. Here the rendering of the initial page can be offloaded to a server. It is used so that the initial data can be prefetched before it is loaded in the user's browser.cite-ref-17[17]

Node.js is the application runtime that the MEAN stack runs on.

The use of Node.js, which is said to represent a "JavaScript Everywhere" paradigm,cite-ref-18[18] is integral to the MEAN stack which relies on it.

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