A Comparative Study of MERN and MEAN Stacks Based on Scalability, Performance, and Developer Experience

The emergence of full-stack frameworks built on JavaScript has seen widespread implementation of both MERN (MongoDB-Express-React-Node) and MEAN (MongoDB-Express-Angular-Node). Comparisons of their efficiency in terms of scalability, performance, and development ease have not been made systematically, however. The current paper presents an experimental study that compares these technologies within controlled four-node cluster environments orchestrated by Docker Compose through simulation of real-life CRUD operations, real-time stream handling, and assessment of latencies via relevant performance indicators, such as throughput, average response time, CPU/mem usage, and scalability across different loads. In parallel, a survey is conducted to gauge developer experience in terms of learning curves, toolchain usability, debugging, and productivity.