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web development stacks such as the LAMP stack, the components of the

MEAN stack are higher-level including a web application presentation

layer and not including an operating system layer.cite-ref-9[9]

The acronym MEAN was coined by Valeri Karpov.cite-ref-mongodbmeanstack-10-0[10] He introduced the term

in a 2013 blog post and the logo, initially created by Austin Anderson

for the original MEAN stack LinkedIn group, is an assembly of the first

letter of each component of the MEAN acronym.cite-ref-meanstacklinkedin-11-0[11]

Following the adoption of the MEAN stack, alternative versions emerged

to accommodate different front-end preferences while maintaining the

same JavaScript-based architecture. The MERN stack substitutes Angular

with React.js, a declarative, component-based library developed by Meta

(formerly Facebook), which allows for greater flexibility in building

dynamic user interfaces. Meanwhile, the MEVN stack integrates Vue.js, a

progressive front-end framework known for its gentle learning curve and

ease of integration into existing projects. Both variations preserve the

core back-end technologies—MongoDB, Express.js, and Node.js—while

catering to developers who prefer a different approach to front-end

development. These stacks reflect the growing diversification of the

JavaScript ecosystem, offering developers choices based on performance,

learning preferences, and community support, while still enabling

full-stack development using a single programming language.cite-ref-1-1-1[1]cite-ref-12[12]cite-ref-13[13]

The components of MEAN, MERN, and MEVN are:

MongoDB is a NoSQL database program that uses JSON-like BSON (binary

JSON) documents with optional schemas.

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]

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