Flask vs MEAN

Overview

Flask

Stacks19.3K

Followers16.2K

Votes60

MEAN

Stacks337

Followers617

Votes594

GitHub Stars12.1K

Forks3.4K

Flask vs MEAN: What are the differences?

## Introduction

Key differences between Flask and MEAN stack are outlined below:

1. **Architecture**:
   Flask is a lightweight web application framework that follows a microservices architecture where each component performs a specific task. In contrast, MEAN stack is a full-stack framework that combines four major technologies - MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js - for building dynamic web applications in a unified ecosystem.

2. **Programming Language**:
   Flask is primarily based on Python, offering simplicity and readability, whereas the MEAN stack includes languages like JavaScript for both server-side and client-side development. This difference can impact the choice of developers based on their language preference and expertise.

3. **Database Integration**:
   Flask allows seamless integration with various databases such as SQLite, PostgreSQL, and MySQL, providing flexibility in database selection. On the other hand, the MEAN stack leverages MongoDB, a NoSQL database, eliminating the need for separate configuration and abstraction layers commonly found in traditional relational databases.

4. **Front-End Development**:
   In Flask, developers have the freedom to choose front-end frameworks like React, Vue.js, or Angular for building user interfaces. However, the MEAN stack includes Angular as its default front-end framework, streamlining the development process with built-in features designed for single-page applications.

5. **Community Support**:
   Flask boasts a vibrant community of developers contributing to its continuous improvement and expansion through various plugins and extensions. Meanwhile, the MEAN stack benefits from the extensive support of developers worldwide due to the popularity of JavaScript and its associated technologies.

6. **Learning Curve**:
   Flask, with its minimalist approach, is easier to learn for beginners or those with a background in Python. In contrast, the MEAN stack may have a steeper learning curve for novice developers due to the integration of multiple technologies and intricate workflows involved in building applications.

In Summary, Flask and MEAN stack differ in architecture, programming languages, database integration, front-end development, community support, and learning curve, catering to diverse preferences and requirements of developers.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Flask, MEAN

Kristan Eres

Senior Solutions Analyst

Jul 30, 2020

Needs adviceon

Django

Python

Flask

My journey to developing REST APIs started with Flask Restful, and I've found it to be enough for the needs of my project back then. Now that I've started investing more time on personal projects, I've yet to decide if I should move to use Django for writing REST APIs. I often see job posts looking for Python+Django developers, but it's usually for full-stack developers. I'm primarily interested in Data Engineering, so most of my web projects are back end.

Should I continue with what I know (Flask) or move on to Django?

392k views392k

Comments

Saurav

Application Devloper at Bny Mellon

Mar 27, 2020

Needs advice

I have just started learning Python 3 weeks ago. I want to create a REST API using python. The API will be used to save form data in an Oracle database. The front end is using AngularJS 8 with Angular Material. In python, there are so many frameworks to develop REST APIs.

I am looking for some suggestions which REST framework to choose?

Here are some features I am looking for:

Easy integration and unit testing, like in Angular. We just want to run a command.
Code packaging, like in java maven project we can build and package. I am looking for something which I can push in as an artifact and deploy whole code as a package.
Support for swagger/ OpenAPI
Support for JSON Web Token
Support for test case coverage report

Framework can have features included or can be available by extension. Also, you can suggest a framework other than the ones I have mentioned.

337k views337k

Comments

Girish

Software Engineer at FireVisor Systems

Apr 17, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

Nameko

RabbitMQ

Which is the best Python framework for microservices?

We are using Nameko for building microservices in Python. The things we really like are dependency injection and the ease with which one can expose endpoints via RPC over RabbitMQ. We are planning to try a tool that helps us write polyglot microservices and nameko is not super compatible with it. Also, we are a bit worried about the not so good community support from nameko and looking for a python alternate to write microservices.

310k views310k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Flask	MEAN
Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind.	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.
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 12.1K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 3.4K
Stacks 19.3K	Stacks 337
Followers 16.2K	Followers 617
Votes 60	Votes 594
Pros & Cons
Pros 10 For it flexibility 9 Flexibilty and easy to use 7 User friendly 6 Secured 5 Unopinionated Cons 10 Not JS 7 Context 5 Not fast 1 Don't has many module as in spring	Pros 86 Javascript 62 Easy 58 Nosql 52 Great community 50 Modularity
Integrations
No integrations available	MongoDB Node.js ExpressJS AngularJS

What are some alternatives to Flask, MEAN?

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.

ExpressJS

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

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.

Related Comparisons

Flask vs MEAN: What are the differences?

## Introduction

Key differences between Flask and MEAN stack are outlined below:

1. **Architecture**:
   Flask is a lightweight web application framework that follows a microservices architecture where each component performs a specific task. In contrast, MEAN stack is a full-stack framework that combines four major technologies - MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js - for building dynamic web applications in a unified ecosystem.

2. **Programming Language**:
   Flask is primarily based on Python, offering simplicity and readability, whereas the MEAN stack includes languages like JavaScript for both server-side and client-side development. This difference can impact the choice of developers based on their language preference and expertise.

3. **Database Integration**:
   Flask allows seamless integration with various databases such as SQLite, PostgreSQL, and MySQL, providing flexibility in database selection. On the other hand, the MEAN stack leverages MongoDB, a NoSQL database, eliminating the need for separate configuration and abstraction layers commonly found in traditional relational databases.

4. **Front-End Development**:
   In Flask, developers have the freedom to choose front-end frameworks like React, Vue.js, or Angular for building user interfaces. However, the MEAN stack includes Angular as its default front-end framework, streamlining the development process with built-in features designed for single-page applications.

5. **Community Support**:
   Flask boasts a vibrant community of developers contributing to its continuous improvement and expansion through various plugins and extensions. Meanwhile, the MEAN stack benefits from the extensive support of developers worldwide due to the popularity of JavaScript and its associated technologies.

6. **Learning Curve**:
   Flask, with its minimalist approach, is easier to learn for beginners or those with a background in Python. In contrast, the MEAN stack may have a steeper learning curve for novice developers due to the integration of multiple technologies and intricate workflows involved in building applications.

Flask vs MEAN

Overview