In this article, I will share with you my list of the top tools to use when building your next awesome web application using the MERN stack

What is the MERN stack

The MERN stack stands for MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js which are the tools used to make complete web apps from Backend to Frontend. The main advantage of this stack is the fact that it only uses Javascript in the complete development cycle.

What tools will you need on all your app ?

• Npm or Yarn and Node.js

What tools can you use on your Frontend ?

• Create-react-app npm package to generate your React frontend app. If you are building a static website, you can try Gatsby
• Redux package for state management, React-Router or some additional packages on your frontend
• Jest package and cypress package or similar tools to perform unit testing and end to end testing on your frontend code
• Firebase or some similar hosting platform to deploy your frontend app

What tools can you use on your Backend

• Express package to create your backend endpoints
• Express generator package to generate a boilerplate of your backend app
• Jest package to perform unit testing and integration testing on your backend code
• An account on Mongo Atlas to manage your MongoDB instance.
• Mongoose package to connect to your MongoDB instance from your backend
• Some hosting service like Firebase or Heroku to deploy your backend code

#react #javascript #nodejs #mongodb #expressjs