Web development is a diverse field that deals with multiple business and end-user requirements. For instance, many companies need enterprise-level web portals for their employees to sign in and carry out their daily tasks. Meanwhile, other companies wish to provide various services to users such as file hosting, media streaming, or social media connectivity.
For each requirement, one technology stack is always more suitable than others. For instance, for single-page websites, MEAN and MERN stacks would be better alternatives. Similarly, for enterprise-level web applications that deal with heavy traffic and data transfer daily, the LAMP stack would be the better option.
The LAMP stack has always been one of the most preferred choices for web development. The popularity of Apache and PHP made this technology indispensable for the most powerful web applications that were built in the previous decades. PHP is one of the most popular programming languages for web development and is still used by many developers even to this day.
However, modern requirements and a need for dynamic pages or interactive GUIs (graphical user interfaces) demand newer technology stacks such as MERN or MEAN. Why? These technology stacks allow platforms to be more responsive, fast and hardware-efficient. Platforms made with stacks such as MERN are also cross-platform and highly secure, as compared to LAMP-based applications.
Businesses wish to stay ahead of the competition and having an impressive web presence allows them to do so. Even a small delay in the loading time of a web page can lead to visitors leaving the page. Older stacks such as LAMP experience server errors, optimisation issues and rendering problems. Meanwhile, stacks like MERN or MEAN are excellent for building responsive web environments that allow end users to seamlessly interact with various features and functions of the application.
However, when it comes to handling heavy traffic and the sheer capacity of the technology stack, LAMP comes out on top in most cases. Applications built with MERN or MEAN allow us to run them on most browsers and devices. Let us learn more about these stacks and how they compare against each other.
What is the LAMP Stack?
The LAMP stack consists of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. It is one of the most powerful technology stacks out there for enterprise-level web applications. The stack is known for being open-source and a free alternative to other commercial solutions such as the ones offered by Windows. The LAMP stack is especially known for developing and hosting large-scale web applications.
A lot of the advanced applications that are hosted online were made with this popular technology stack. The older version of Facebook was based on the LAMP stack. Other websites such as Tumblr, Slack and Wikipedia also use technologies that are a part of the LAMP stack. As a matter of fact, most WordPress sites are using the LAMP stack as well.
What are MERN and MEAN Stacks?
The MERN stack stands for MongoDB, Express, React and Node. Meanwhile, the MEAN stack stands for MongoDB, Express, Angular and Node. These two technology stacks are extremely popular for building highly dynamic web applications due to their frontend tools. Angular and React have an amazing frontend framework/library in their own right. The other components of the stacks are MongoDB for databases and Node with Express for backend development.
Both of the technology stacks are JavaScript-based, thus, it is quite easy for developers to single-handedly tackle MERN- or MEAN-based projects. MERN and MEAN also allow us to create truly modern visual layouts that seamlessly integrate with backend functions. For example, these stacks are great for building single-page web applications that render elements or features without reloading the current page.
LAMP Stack vs MERN and MEAN Stacks
When it comes to the programming language for each of these stacks, the LAMP stack relies on PHP while MERN and MEAN stacks are JavaScript based. PHP is an older backend language that can create certain compatibility issues. PHP also does not integrate effectively with newer frameworks and libraries. Meanwhile, one can write in JavaScript for the MERN stack. JavaScript is easy to learn and offers a host of libraries and frameworks to enhance your development experience.
JavaScript is also extremely popular and keeps receiving updated features. For MEAN, you must write in TypeScript, which is also a variation of JavaScript. Due to JavaScript being extremely compatible with most browsers and native devices, it is one of the best options for web development. JavaScript also offers increased stability, speed and ease of use when compared to PHP.
However, due to the LAMP stack being around for longer, more developers have used the stack and have shared their knowledge and code. But, MERN and MEAN keep getting better with tools like Node.js getting regular updates. Node.js also helps in securing the project and making the platform’s server-side more reliable.
MERN and MEAN stacks are known for being able to produce fast and powerful web applications. However, when it comes to heavy data requests and massive traffic, LAMP always comes out to be the winner. Node.js is not the best solution for massive amounts of data storage or large-scale requests. However, MySQL in the LAMP stack is excellent for handling large amounts of data due to being able to process both dynamic and static requests.
When it comes to the actual performance of the portal, MERN and MEAN stacks produce better web applications. Further, web applications built with these two JavaScript-based stacks are also known for being very responsive and highly optimised for all kinds of devices and resolutions.
Finally, MERN and MEAN are much better alternatives when you expect regular maintenance. Even where it is a large-scale web application that multiple developers are working on, MERN and MEAN come out as better alternatives than LAMP. Besides, LAMP is best-suited for small-scale projects that are vast in terms of architecture. Meanwhile, MERN and MEAN are great for large-scale projects that have comparatively simple backend infrastructure.
In terms of customisation, MERN and MEAN allow us to customise both the frontend and backend much more than LAMP. Notably, LAMP is quite limited due to how old PHP is whereas MERN and MEAN benefit from the large list of frameworks and libraries for JavaScript. MERN and MEAN stacks are also known for their scalability and flexibility.
Conclusion
When it comes to speed, security and performance, MEAN and MERN always come out on top. But, when we need to build enterprise-level applications with a small team, the LAMP stack brings us a solid solution. The LAMP stack is also much better than other alternatives that involve .NET development or other solutions from Microsoft.
Now, if you wish to mix it up, instead of PHP, you can easily use Python and instead of MySQL, you can use PostgreSQL.
Also Read: Running an Elastic LAMP Stack on AWS
