The terms MEAN, MERN, LAMP, PERN, etc are often encountered while using the internet. These are web stacks consisting of a bundle of software and frameworks or libraries which are used for building full-stack web apps. A stack usually consists of a database, server-side and client-side technologies, a web server, a particular Operating system. Sometimes back-end technologies are cross-platform hence no particular OS.
PEAN STACK
PEAN is a web application stack consisting of PostgreSQL, Express framework, NodeJS, and AngularJS as a frontend framework. It has the following features:
- It is open-source and easy to learn as JavaScript is involved in both segments of development(Client Side and Server Side).
- It is not as popular as MEAN or MERN though yes is used when data integrity and consistency is significant for a company as it has PostgreSQL which is an SQL-based database and hence is more organized and structured than NoSQL.
Components Of PEAN STACK:
Let us have a look at the components of the PEAN stack in detail.
1. P stand for PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL has the following features:
- A SQL-based database management system that can be used to store, manage, and manipulate data.
- Stores data in tabular form in rows and columns and is also ACID-complaint and transactional.
- As an SQL-based database, it is more suited for storing the most complex workloads.
- It is a better choice than NoSQL if complex transactions are in concern.
Why use PostgreSQL?
- Protects data integrity and maintains consistency.
- Has fault-tolerant environment.
- It is free and open-source.
- It is also available in multiple languages.
- It is highly extensible.
- It has a robust access control system.
2. E stands for ExpressJS: The ExpressJS has the following features-
- A server-side framework based on NodeJS helps in routing and managing client requests to the server and responses.
- It is used for building web applications and also APIs.
Why use ExpressJS?
- Makes backend coding simple and easy.
- Supports many middlewares.
- Minimal and flexible web application framework.
- Robust set of features for both web and mobile applications.
- Creating efficient and robust API is quick and easy with ExpressJS.
3. N stands for NodeJS: NodeJS has the following features-
- A server-side technology that runs on a V8 engine(also used in Chrome browser).
- It helps us run JavaScript outside the browser and build web and network apps.
- Node helps in setting up a web server.
- It runs on many platforms and is free and open-source.
- It is used to build fast and scalable network applications.
Why use NodeJS?
- Highly scalable.
- Highly extensible.
- Provides event-driven asynchronous features which makes it lightweight.
- No buffering hence is fast.
- Provides caching.
- Contains a vast number of libraries.
- It handles thousands of concurrent connections with a single server.
4. A stands for AngularJS: AngularJS has the following features-
- A frontend JavaScript framework that lets you extend HTML.
- It binds data to HTML.
- It is open-source and mainly used for developing single-page applications(SPAs).
Why use AngularJS?
- It is easy to use.
- Converts static HTML to dynamic HTML.
- It has ready-to-use templates.
- It is time-saving.
- MVC architecture.
- Another benefit of Angular is Dependency injection.
Advantages of PEAN:
- The biggest advantage of PEAN is that JavaScript is used on all levels of development which simplifies and makes the process speedy and efficient.
- It is platform-independent and open-source.
- For applications that involve complex transactions of data, SQL is a better fit as it maintains data integrity and consistency with integrity constraints.
Disadvantages of PEAN:
- NoSQL is considered a more scalable database than SQL.
- Postgre as an SQL-based is less flexible than MongoDB(NoSQL).