A guide to MEVN

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MEVN stands for Mongo DB, Express JS, Vue JS, and Node JS. It is a technology stack used by developers to create full-fledged web applications. Most of the applications created in the MEVN stack are single-page applications. But it is up to you if you want to single page or multi-page web application.

Table of content

  1. What is MEVN ?
  2. Why MEVN ?
    • Same language for frontend and backend
    • Easy deployment
    • Seamless user experience
    • APIs for mobile apps
    • Mongo DB is scaled horizontally
    • Short learning curve
    • Better support for sockets
  3. Future of MEVN
  4. Projects developed in MEVN
  5. Where to learn MEVN ?
    • Official documentation
    • YouTube
    • Blogs
  6. Issues you will face in the development

Let’s get started.

1. What is MEVN ?

MEVN is a technology stack used to develop full-fledged web applications. You can easily create scalable web applications either single-page or multi-page applications. It is a new yet quickly evolving technology stack that has been adopted by a lot of developers already. Learning this will not only make you a frontend developer but a backend developer as well. Thus increasing your demand and reputation in the community.

Hiring a developer in this stack is easy for companies as well. Hiring individual developers for the backend and frontend is costly, especially for startups. So they end up looking for someone who knows both the backend and frontend.

2. Why MEVN ?

If you learn this technology stack, your demand is automatically increased since companies would love to have a developer that can handle both frontend and backend tasks. Even if you didn’t get a job as a full-stack developer, you can still get a job as either a frontend or backend developer since you can work in both.

Same language for frontend and backend

In this stack, the primary language is Javascript. Node JS is a Javascript runtime environment, Vue JS is a Javascript frontend framework and Express JS is a framework of Node JS for creating APIs. Mongo DB syntax is also very similar to Javascript. So you do not need to learn Javascript for the frontend and PHP or Python for the backend. One language i.e. Javascript is used for both sides (frontend and backend).

Easy deployment

Vue JS builds are minified code of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. So they can easily be deployed on most servers. You do not need to worry if your hosting supports PHP, Java, Python, or any other language. If your hosting supports HTML (which almost every hosting does) then you are good to go.

Node JS can also be easily deployed on Virtual Private Servers (VPS) or dedicated servers. You can check our detailed guide on how to deploy Node JS on VPS or dedicated servers.

Mongo DB can also be deployed on VPS or dedicated servers. But it can also be deployed on Mongo DB’s official site. You can check our tutorial for Mongo DB deployment.

Seamless user experience

Most of the apps created in this stack are single-page applications. They provide a better user experience since there is no page reload on any link. Only the required section of the page changes dynamically. Some of the websites that are single-paged are Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter.

APIs for mobile apps

Most of the rendering is done on the client side. This means you have to create APIs for each request. This helps you in the future when you want to develop mobile apps for your website. Android and iOS apps can easily communicate with APIs developed in Node JS.

Mongo DB is scaled horizontally

Horizontal scaling is performed by adding more nodes to the servers. Horizontal scaling is best for a non-relational database like Mongo DB since all the data is stored in a single document.

Moreover, if you have to add one more attribute to a single entity, you can easily add it to that document only. Unless in MySQL, where either you have to create a column that will result in assigning the value to all rows. Or you have to create a separate table and join them in each query which will slow down your application.

In Mongo DB, all data required for an entity is stored in a single document. No relationships are made. So data can be saved on different servers without being dependent on each other.

Short learning curve

If you know Javascript, you already know Vue JS. Unlike in React where you have to use JSX syntax, in Vue JS you can use legacy HTML and CSS code and use Javascript with it. If you know the basics of Javascript, spend a few hours on Vue JS official documentation and you will become a Vue JS developer.

Better support for sockets

Sockets are used for real-time communication. Like on Facebook, you do not have to refresh the page to check new notifications. Whenever a new notification is received, it automatically displays an alert. If you develop your web application in the MEVN stack, you will be able to add real-time features like alerts, notifications, chat messages, real-time collaborations, etc.

3. Future of MEVN

MEVN proving itself a bright future. A lot of developers are moving to this stack. It is in the race with MEAN and MERN stacks. It has solved a lot of issues that developers faced in web development. For example, during infinite scroll, the web page hangs due to too much data. Vue JS solved this by using the useVirtualList component. Node JS has solved real-time communication problems via sockets. And Mongo DB has solved the scalability problems and also the problems that came with tightly-coupled databases.

4. Projects developed in MEVN

To show you how easy it is to develop websites in this technology stack, we developed some projects in it. We have developed a chat app, a customer support ticketing system, and more.

5. Where to learn MEVN

You can learn this technology stack from many sources.

Official documentation

To stay updated with the latest versions and features, check out the official documentation of Vue JS. Node JS can also be learned from their official documentation. Mongo DB also came with outstanding documentation.

YouTube

Check this playlist to find a lot of tutorials on the MEVN stack.

Blogs

We have created many text-based tutorials on this stack.

6. Issues you will face in the development

You need to spend a lot of time to make the application up and running. The first version of your product might take more time and effort because you need to set up the APIs and basic functionality. However, we have created a boilerplate for authentication that will save you 100% time on rewriting the authentication code.

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