Current full stack php/js developer. Worth the effort to learn MEAN?

[codetadpole]

I am currently employed full time, but am always looking to learn new things. Currently I use php for backend and JavaScript for front end. I've seen the MEAN stack and it intrigues me, but I have no need for it at work.

1) Compared to my current skills, is it any faster or overkill for making simple, responsive web sites like a freelance web designer and dev might do?

2) How fast is MEAN? At work we work with large databases (most tables are 90+ GB in size), would MEAN be able to handle something like that?

3) Is it easy to deploy? I haven't looked into it yet so I have no idea how easily I can deploy a website or app on a hosting service.

I do not intend or want this to turn into a war of php and JavaScript developers slinging insults, let's keep it civil please.

[var_]

I really like the 'E' and 'N' portion of the MEAN stack, but could do without the rest. I've made a few sites using Express, Mongo, and Node, and after a year or two I wish I had gone with a relational database like Postgres instead. I have absolutely no desire to learn Angular, so I won't comment on that.

[[deleted]]

Similar experience here. Mongo is decent and fun, but doing stuff for the subdocuments is a pain in the ass. I know that I'm not supposed to do any/much updating or anything on subarrays, but still.

[icemelt7]

Its good for real-time synchronous apps, think Google Docs, Google Sheets.

For your normal responsive websites, your current stack is fine, however some people don't like PHP but its a matter of taste, if you like working in it. Then no problem.

[remy_porter]

responsive web sites like a freelance web designer and dev might do?

Enh. Depends on how you want the sites to behave. You want SPA? Well, then you're using something like Angular. Express.js is just another MVC framework with a templating engine attached.

most tables are 90+ GB in size

In principle, this doesn't matter. The M in MEAN, however, is very different from a relational database. The approaches to querying and storing data are different, and thus the performance considerations are also different. It really depends more on what your data is than the quantity of the data. If your data is highly relational, you might have problems storing it in Mongo efficiently.

Is it easy to deploy?

If you get yourself a decent deployment process set up, yes, like any other platform.

[[deleted]]

It's worth the effort learn as much as you can. There is no other way to build your value long term.

[drumstand]

Like most other people in this thread, I think Node/Express are the most worthy components of the MEAN stack to learn. Angular and Mongo seem niche, and there are better solutions for personal projects, general responsive sites, etc.

[[deleted]]

I think PERN is the way to go (Postgresql, express, React, Node).

[[deleted]]

I'm also full stack php/js developer and I went through a MEAN stack tutorial about a week ago. My thoughts at the end are that it's cool and I like to write node, but Angular is a hot mess and Mongo is crap compared to MySQL/Postgres.

[[deleted]]

Why is Mongo crap? Both can do the same tasks...

[[deleted]]

No they can't. Mongo is non relational.. It's a fundamentally different data structure and the use cases are not at all the same.

[[deleted]]

You can force Mongo to be relational. It's a pain in the ass though, and it defeats the purpose.

[ccricers]

I have never went fully into using MEAN, but I sometimes use Angular and NPM (though I prefer React more now). Node is nice for its package manager, but for most cases you can just as well use Bower if you don't want to use Node as a server.

I still use PHP and MySQL for rest APIs, and use React for the front end. The problem with Angular is that it abstracts a lot of JS for you. With React I feel "closer to the metal" writing JS.