What is the difference between MEAN.js and MEAN.io?

MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS (or Angular), and Node.js) is a free and open-source software stack for building dynamic web sites and web applications. The acronym MEAN was given by Valeri Karpov when he introduced the term first time in a blog post in 2013. The framework uses JavaScript for both client and server-side interaction. The framework is often compared with the traditional LAMP framework(Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). With the widespread popularity of Angular versions, MEAN stack became widely popular among the developers, especially in the American and South Asian subcontinent.

Mean.io and Mean.js: Amos Haviv, an Israeli software developer was the first to notice that most of the project he made for his clients involved using similar technologies and frameworks. Later, he asked other developers in the community if they felt the same about the problem and got a positive response. That was when he came up with Mean.io. Mean.js is simply a fork out from the original idea of Mean.io. It was based on the core idea of using four technologies MongoDB as the Database, Node.js & Express as the backend framework, and AngularJS as the front-end framework. With this key point in mind, he started building a boilerplate code to help jumpstart these kinds of projects. Haviv together with a company named Linnovate open-sourced the boilerplate. Because of the difference in objectives Haviv left to start a new project of his own called Mean.js.

Difference

Field	Mean.io	Mean.js
Build System	It uses gulp as a build system. Gulp is an open-source JavaScript toolkit used as a streaming build system in front-end web development.	It uses grunt as a build system.Grunt is a JavaScript task runner, a tool used to automatically perform frequent tasks such as minification, compilation, unit testing, and linting.
Structure of Module	Mean.io uses more like self-contained node packages for client and server interactions.	In Mean.js, Angular connects with Express for front-end and back-end interactions.
Community Support	Community support is large but stagnant.	Community support is large and is growing because of its popularity.
Documentation	The documentation of Mean.io is relatively less descriptive.	Because of the community support, it has a well-explained documentation
Community	The Community of MEAN.io is wider compare to MEAN.js.	The Community is smaller but it is gaining popularity and creating strong community.

In recent years, Mean.js has outgrown its popularity in huge numbers. Since Mean.js and Mean.io are branches of the same tree, both these stacks can be chosen by developers for different reasons. The differences above aren’t that significant so as a developer, than that to the production team.