Electron vs MEAN

Overview

MEAN

Stacks337

Followers617

Votes594

GitHub Stars12.1K

Forks3.4K

Electron

Stacks11.6K

Followers10.0K

Votes148

Electron vs MEAN: What are the differences?

Introduction: Electron and MEAN are both popular frameworks used for web development, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features.

Architecture: Electron is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the other hand, MEAN is a full-stack JavaScript framework that consists of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. While Electron is focused on desktop applications, MEAN is used for building dynamic web applications.
Platform: Electron applications run on desktop operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. In contrast, MEAN applications are typically deployed on web servers and accessed through web browsers. The target platforms for Electron and MEAN differ, with Electron targeting desktops and MEAN targeting web servers.
Development Focus: Electron is primarily used for creating desktop applications with native capabilities, utilizing web technologies. MEAN, on the other hand, is ideal for building scalable and efficient web applications, leveraging the power of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. The development focus of Electron is on desktop applications, while MEAN focuses on web application development.
Data Management: Electron applications can interact with the file system and access native APIs, enabling them to store and manage data locally. In contrast, MEAN applications typically utilize MongoDB as a database for storing and managing data on the server-side. Electron focuses more on local data management, while MEAN focuses on server-side data management using MongoDB.
Community and Ecosystem: Electron has a large and active community of developers contributing to the framework and providing support for building desktop applications. MEAN also has a significant community backing, but it is more focused on web development and the individual technologies that make up the MEAN stack. The communities and ecosystems around Electron and MEAN differ in terms of focus and support for different types of applications.
Purpose: The primary purpose of Electron is to enable developers to create cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, providing a native-like experience. In contrast, MEAN is designed to offer a full-stack solution for building dynamic web applications, emphasizing efficiency and scalability. Electron is focused on desktop application development, while MEAN caters to web application development needs.

In Summary, Electron is tailored for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, while MEAN is a full-stack JavaScript framework for developing dynamic web applications.

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Advice on MEAN, Electron

Semih

Software Engineering Manager

Oct 1, 2020

Needs adviceon

JavaScript

HTML5

.NET

Hi,

We are planning to develop a brand new UX for an already existing desktop software. The previous version is developed on C#.NET with Winforms & WPF. Our plan is to use JavaScript/HTML5 based frontend technologies for the new software. For some components, we are highly dependent on .NET/ .NET Core because the JS-based versions are not mature enough.

What would you choose for a desktop-based Engineering Software that supports multi-OS and has rich UI capabilities considering the .NET dependencies?

Thanks in advance,

Semih

57.9k views57.9k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

MEAN	Electron
MEAN (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node) is a boilerplate that provides a nice starting point for MongoDB, Node.js, Express, and AngularJS based applications. It is designed to give you a quick and organized way to start developing MEAN based web apps with useful modules like Mongoose and Passport pre-bundled and configured.	With Electron, creating a desktop application for your company or idea is easy. Initially developed for GitHub's Atom editor, Electron has since been used to create applications by companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Slack, and Docker. The Electron framework lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It is based on io.js and Chromium and is used in the Atom editor.
-	Use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with Chromium and Node.js to build your app.;Electron is open source; maintained by GitHub and an active community.;Electron apps build and run on Mac, Windows, and Linux.;Automatic updates;Crash reporting;Windows installers;Debugging & profiling;Native menus & notifications
Statistics
GitHub Stars 12.1K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 3.4K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 337	Stacks 11.6K
Followers 617	Followers 10.0K
Votes 594	Votes 148
Pros & Cons
Pros 86 Javascript 62 Easy 58 Nosql 52 Great community 50 Mongoose	Pros 69 Easy to make rich cross platform desktop applications 53 Open source 14 Great looking apps such as Slack and Visual Studio Code 8 Because it's cross platform 4 Use Node.js in the Main Process Cons 19 Uses a lot of memory 8 User experience never as good as a native app 4 Does not native 4 No proper documentation 1 Each app needs to install a new chromium + nodejs
Integrations
MongoDB Node.js ExpressJS AngularJS	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to MEAN, Electron?

Node.js

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Laravel

It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.

Android SDK

Android provides a rich application framework that allows you to build innovative apps and games for mobile devices in a Java language environment.

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Electron vs MEAN: What are the differences?

Introduction: Electron and MEAN are both popular frameworks used for web development, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features.

Architecture: Electron is a framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. On the other hand, MEAN is a full-stack JavaScript framework that consists of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. While Electron is focused on desktop applications, MEAN is used for building dynamic web applications.
Platform: Electron applications run on desktop operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. In contrast, MEAN applications are typically deployed on web servers and accessed through web browsers. The target platforms for Electron and MEAN differ, with Electron targeting desktops and MEAN targeting web servers.
Development Focus: Electron is primarily used for creating desktop applications with native capabilities, utilizing web technologies. MEAN, on the other hand, is ideal for building scalable and efficient web applications, leveraging the power of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. The development focus of Electron is on desktop applications, while MEAN focuses on web application development.
Data Management: Electron applications can interact with the file system and access native APIs, enabling them to store and manage data locally. In contrast, MEAN applications typically utilize MongoDB as a database for storing and managing data on the server-side. Electron focuses more on local data management, while MEAN focuses on server-side data management using MongoDB.
Community and Ecosystem: Electron has a large and active community of developers contributing to the framework and providing support for building desktop applications. MEAN also has a significant community backing, but it is more focused on web development and the individual technologies that make up the MEAN stack. The communities and ecosystems around Electron and MEAN differ in terms of focus and support for different types of applications.
Purpose: The primary purpose of Electron is to enable developers to create cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, providing a native-like experience. In contrast, MEAN is designed to offer a full-stack solution for building dynamic web applications, emphasizing efficiency and scalability. Electron is focused on desktop application development, while MEAN caters to web application development needs.

In Summary, Electron is tailored for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies, while MEAN is a full-stack JavaScript framework for developing dynamic web applications.