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Is the MEAN Stack easier for a beginner to get up and running than LAMP stack?

I want a career in IT but I have trouble learning. I will often have to re-read a page 3 times for it to sink into my brain. This makes it extremely difficult for me to learn programming languages. Learning web development has been difficult for me because it goes from HTML/CSS to Javascript, then PHP, then MySQL and its hard for me to jump from 1 language to the next. I'm thinking of switching to the MEAN stack (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node) because this means learning 1 language, and just really diving deep into 1 language. I feel like that might be more focused than switching around to different languages and platforms. Am I right in assuming that a MEAN stack is more focused than learning a LAMP stack?

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Chalmers Brown

Techstars-backed Founder & Engineer

I would like to start by saying that I am a big believer that coding is not for everyone. It is popular and there is definitely plenty of job opportunities out there, but if it's not your thing and you have difficulty learning, maybe another career path is best.

As for LAMP vs MEAN, I would say in general LAMP is taught before MEAN for a number of reasons such as being well known longer, fewer steps to get up and running, and a general agreed upon consensus that it is good for beginners.

That all being said, I don't want to discourage you from learning. It could just be that you need to be taught a different way. I have taught a number of programming languages if you want to hop on a call and dive more into your specific case.

Hope that helps :)

Answered almost 8 years ago

David Favor

Fractional CTO

The big challenge using MEAN over LAMP will be deployment.

Time to setup + manage MEAN stacks will likely be considerably longer.

Also, you'll have to write all your code.

Whereas with LAMP, you can do a WordPress setup in a few minutes.

A better question to consider is what project(s) you'll be implementing using your stack.

For example, trying to duplicate WordPress on a MEAN stack... well... requires you write your own WordPress equivalent or find an equivalent.

Start with your application/project + then determine you best runtime environment/stack.

Answered over 7 years ago

Sk Imtiaz

Self-taught/Self-made Software guy.

This is a loaded question. Short answer is no: as a technology stack LAMP is "easier" to get up and running.

However the answer you are looking for is quite different. Programming in general is only as easy or hard as the person doing it has the patience to deal with. For me it was fun hacking on a PC but less fun learning the specifics of how it all worked. No matter what stack you choose you will face ups and downs in your journey. However there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Once you get the hang of one stack you will find that there are similarities across different stack and that you are able to get the hang of new ones pretty quickly. Since you want a career in IT you should know that depending on the kind of work you are doing you may need to choose certain technologies that are new or difficult.

So instead of getting worked up over what to choose, just pick one that you like or try both and get a feel for what works best. Personally I would go for a JavaScript stack since it's so ubiquitous in the web. Hope this gives you some clarity.

Answered about 6 years ago