Top 8 Essential MERN Stack Developer Tools for Fast and Scalable Web Development

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The Essential MERN Stack Developer Toolset

Introduction

Developers need the right tools to keep pace as users' demands evolve. 
The secret to producing better web apps faster is at your disposal—discover the power of the MERN stack developer tools. These help develop robust, scalable web apps in record time. 

The MERN Stack is a potent combination of MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js. It bestows several advantages, such as good performance, modularity, and scalability.

For your app development needs, you should hire React.js developers who are equipped with the most valuable tools. They help you save time, minimize errors, and enhance the quality of your code.

This blog post will explore the top 08 tool sets that can help MERN stack developers. We will discuss their key features and benefits to help you decide which tools to incorporate in your development toolkit. But before we begin with this, let's discuss why MERN is the go-to stack for web app development.

Why is MERN the Go-To Stack for Prominent Web Development?

Here are some reasons for using the MERN stack for top-notch web development.

Open-source technology

The MERN stack is an open-source technology that helps in creating reliable web apps. Its large and active developer community offers countless guides, forums, libraries, and pre-built components. You can access these resources for top-notch development. This technology is continually evolving, thanks to the contribution of developers worldwide. 

Availability of free templates

Free MERN templates are pre-built components and layouts that help developers kick-start projects without building from scratch. They expedite the development process and allow you to concentrate on customizing features and functionalities. These templates come with professional-quality designs and UI components that can deliver visually appealing web apps.

Non-Relational Database

MongoDB in the MERN stack is a highly scalable and flexible NoSQL database. It helps produce modern web apps that can handle large volumes of data and traffic. Besides, MongoDB integrates well with the JavaScript-based MERN stack and supports high-speed querying and indexing. 

Scalability and Performance with Node.js

Node.js is designed on an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model. It handles multiple requests concurrently, resulting in fast performance. Moreover, this framework is excellent for horizontal scaling. It can distribute application load across multiple servers to handle growing traffic.

Full-Stack Development

This tech stack is effective for both front-end and back-end app creation. It uses JavaScript as a single language for the entire application, raising productivity and simplifying interaction between components. Besides, it enables developers to switch between front-end and back-end, reducing dependencies and allowing quick development and deployment. 

Top 8 MERN Stack Developer Toolset You Should Know

1. MongoDB Compass

MongoDB Compass is a robust graphical user interface for MongoDB. It allows developers to visually manage and interact with databases. This toolset has many features that make the development process easier and streamlined.

Features of MongoDB Compass

  • Schema Visualization lets you see your MongoDB data's structure in a graphical format. This makes it easier for developers to understand the schema, spot inconsistencies, and view how data is organized.
  • This MERN stack developer tool facilitates building and running MongoDB queries directly within the GUI. Developers can easily filter, sort, and execute aggregation operations.
  • Find a dashboard for monitoring database performance, including query execution times and database server status.
  • The index management feature of MongoDB Compass provides tools to manage, modify, and delete indexes within the database. It is crucial for optimizing query performance.

Benefits of MongoDB Compass

  • The graphical user interface eliminates the need to use the command-line interface for executing many tasks. 
  • Its novel features, such as query building, schema analysis, and real-time monitoring, enable developers to complete tasks more quickly and efficiently.
  • Its well-built interface makes it easier for freshers to interact with the database.

2. Nodemon

Nodemon automatically restarts the Node.js server when any file changes are noticed. This eradicates the need to manually restart it every time you make code changes, saving you time. 

Key Features of Nodemon

  • This Mern stack developer tool can be customized to watch specific files or directories. This ensures that Nodemon only monitors the necessary files and avoids unnecessary restarts.
  • Nodemon supports multiple file types and isn’t limited to JavaScript files. This flexibility is useful when working on full-stack apps.
  • Nodemon supports the Node.js debugger, allowing developers to launch their app in debug mode automatically.

Benefits of Nodemon

  • The automatic restarting allows you to focus on coding, leading to faster iteration cycles and more efficient back-end development.
  • It tests changes in real time, enabling developers to see the results of their work instantly. 
  • It helps run apps with different environment variables, ensuring flexibility when working in different scenarios.

3. Visual Studio Code

A free and open-source code editor, Visual Studio Code, offers a wide array of features, extensions, and tools. It supports full-stack development, ensuring easy customization of the coding environment.

Features of Visual Studio Code

  • IntelliSense in VS Code offers smart suggestions for code completion based on Variable types, functions, and imported modules.
  • Git integration enables developers to manage code changes directly within the editor. This can be done using features like branch switching, commit history, and diff checking.
  • The VS marketplace provides several extensions specifically designed for MERN stack development. They can install language-specific extensions, debuggers, and more.

Benefits of Visual Studio Code

  • This tool runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, offering cross-platform compatibility.
  • Its inherent debugger quickly recognizes and resolves problems in both front-end and back-end code.
  • Besides, the integrated Git functionality and live share ensure seamless collaboration among teams.

4. Express Generator

Express Generator is a command-line tool for setting up and structuring Express.js apps. More than 65% of developers use Express to build their Node.js projects. It helps generate boilerplate code for web applications quickly, saving you time and effort. 

Features of Express Generator

  • It automates the creation of the basic structure of Express apps, including routes, middleware, and views, with a single command. 
  • Find customizable directory structure for Express.js applications. This includes directories for Routes to manage API endpoints, Public assets for static files, etc. 
  • Get built-in support for templating engines like Pug, EJS, and Handlebars. It helps developers create dynamic web pages utilizing templates and use server-side rendering for their apps.

Benefits of Express Generator

  • It speeds up the development task by automating the creation of the initial application structure. 
  • Express Generator facilitates collaboration between teams for project development.  
  • This tool provides a consistent structure and layout for Express apps, making it easier to maintain, update, and scale the application over time. 

5. React Developer Tools

React Developer Tools is a browser extension that enables developers to inspect and debug React applications. It offers a detailed view of the React component hierarchy, the current state, props inspection, and more. 

Key Features of React Developer Tools

  • These tools display a component hierarchy in the React application. This allows developers to see the structure of React components—how they are nested within each other. 
  • State and prop inspection lets developers view the current state and props of components in real-time. This will help in the efficient testing and troubleshooting of codes. 
  • The profiler feature in React Developer Tools allows developers to record and analyze performance data for components. This assists in identifying performance bottlenecks, such as slow-rendering or unnecessary re-renders.

Benefits of React Developer Tools

  • React Developer Tools improve developer productivity by quickly identifying issues within components.
  • This framework helps developers understand how components are structured and how data flows between them. This helps them write clearer and more maintainable code.
  • Besides, its live editing and real-time updates reduce the need for constant reloading or rebuilding during the development.

6. Redux DevTools

Redux DevTools helps inspect and debug your Redux state management. It offers several key features to track state changes and monitor actions. Besides, it integrates seamlessly with several environments, making it accessible for developers with any preferred development setup. 

Features of Redux DevTools

  • Time travel debugging allows developers to replay actions in the past, enabling easy identification of when and where a bug occurred.
  • The tool provides current and previous state views, allowing developers to visualize how each action affects the state. 
  • Action Tracing offers a log of all actions sent to the Redux store. It allows you to track changes and determine potential issues.    

Benefits of Redux DevTools

  • This tool improves developer productivity by organizing the debugging and testing process for the Redux application. 
  • It perfectly integrates with popular browsers like Firefox and Chrome, ensuring accessibility to developers.
  • Advanced debugging techniques like code editing and hot reloading are completely helpful.  

7. Postman

A renowned API development tool, Postman, lets developers test and debug API endpoints. It helps send HTTP requests and analyze responses, which is crucial to build and integrate APIs in a MERN app.

Key features of Postman

  • An intuitive, user-friendly interface makes it easy for programmers to interact with APIs.
  • Its built-in automation feature allows developers to write scripts to test APIs with predefined conditions. Automation facilitates consistent and repeatable tests, which are essential when working on complex apps.
  • Postman keeps a history of all previous API requests. It helps developers to revisit and modify past requests quickly and easily.

Benefits of Postman

  • It helps you test RESTful APIs without writing additional codes.
  • The tool’s pre-built templates and user-friendly interface reduce the complexity involved in testing endpoints.
  • Postman can share environments and collections and request data across teams to enhance collaboration between front-end and back-end developers.

8. Mongoose

Mongoose is an object modelling tool that simplifies the interaction between apps and MongoDB databases. It supports pre- and post-hooks (middleware) to run specific functions before and after certain events (like saving or updating a document).

Key features of Mongoose

  • Mongoose allows developers to define schemas for their MongoDB collections. This makes it easier to validate and maintain consistency across the entire document.
  • Its in-built data validation at the schema level helps specify rules and constraints for the data. It ensures that only valid data is saved to the database.
  • Another feature of Mongoose is its support for ‘populating’ references between documents. It involves linking a document in one collection with a document in another collection and retrieving the related documents using a single query.

Benefits of Mongoose

  • This tool runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, offering cross-platform compatibility.
  • Its inherent debugger quickly recognizes and resolves problems in both front-end and back-end code.
  • Besides, the integrated Git functionality and live share ensure seamless collaboration among teams.

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From process planning and mapping techniques to building and testing apps, our specialists can handle everything with precision. Here’s why businesses around the world rely on us.

  • Flexible engagement model
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Let’s join hands to transform your concept into a performant application that fulfills your dreams.

Conclusion

These tools help developers streamline and accelerate the development workflow. To build apps more quickly, you should hire React.js developers who know essential MERN stack toolsets. 

 This blog presents the top 8 tools for building better apps faster. It includes MongoDB Compass, Nodemon, Express Generator, Visual Studio Code, Postman, etc. Engage a developer who knows these MERN stack developer tools. And, if you want to skip the candidate search process, connect with AIS Technolabs today.

FAQs

The best MERN Stack Developer Tool Sets include: 
  • MongoDB Compass 
  • Nodemon 
  • Express Generator
  • Visual Studio Code
  • React Developer Tools
  • Redux DevTools
  • Postman
  • Mongoose

Most of these tools are free to use. Whereas, some have both free and paid versions. Developers should choose the tool wisely, considering their precise needs and project requirements. 

To become the MERN Stack developer, you should-
  • Learn the foundational languages for web development
  • Learn to use essential MERN stack developer tools
  • Understand the basics of web design
  • Learn the React language 

The MERN Stack facilitates the speedy creation and deployment of full-stack apps. Its toolsets, like Nodeman and React Developer Tools, streamline the development process, saving you time and effort. You can also check out the detailed descriptions of each MERN Stack tool and how it will benefit you. 

This tech stack uses JavaScript for both front-end and back-end app development. It is efficient for small—to medium-sized apps, minimizing complexities and expediting the development process.
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Harry Walsh

Technical Innovator

Harry Walsh, a dynamic technical innovator with four years of experience, thrives on pushing the boundaries of technology. His passion for innovation drives him to explore new avenues and create pioneering solutions that address complex technical problems with ingenuity and efficiency. Driven by a love for tackling problems and thinking creatively, he always looks for new and innovative answers to challenges.

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