The Modern Tech Stack: What We Use and Why

Choosing the Right Tools

Technology choices can make or break a project. We've spent years refining our stack to balance developer experience, performance, and long-term maintainability.

Frontend: React & Next.js

For most web applications, React with Next.js is our go-to choice:

Why React?

• Mature ecosystem - Thousands of battle-tested libraries
• Developer availability - Easy to hire and onboard
• Component-based - Promotes reusability and testing
• Performance - Virtual DOM for efficient updates

Why Next.js?

// App Router provides incredible DX
export default function Page() {
  return <h1>Server Components by default!</h1>
}

Next.js adds crucial features:

• Server-side rendering for SEO and performance
• API routes for backend logic
• Image optimization out of the box
• Automatic code splitting

Alternative: Svelte & SvelteKit

For projects where bundle size is critical or we want simpler reactivity:

<script>
  let count = 0;
</script>

<button on:click={() => count++}>
  Clicks: {count}
</button>

Svelte compiles away the framework, resulting in:

• Smaller bundles
• Faster runtime
• Simpler syntax

Styling: Tailwind CSS

We've moved away from CSS-in-JS to Tailwind CSS:

• Utility-first approach speeds development
• Consistent design through configuration
• Tree-shaking removes unused styles
• Great DX with IDE extensions

Backend: Node.js

JavaScript on the server provides:

• Code sharing between frontend and backend
• NPM ecosystem with millions of packages
• Async throughput for I/O operations
• TypeScript support for type safety

Database: PostgreSQL

For data persistence, PostgreSQL is our default:

• ACID compliance for data integrity
• JSON support when needed
• Excellent tooling and ORMs (Prisma, Drizzle)
• Scalable from MVP to enterprise

Development Tools

The game changers in our workflow:

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | Cursor | Smart code editor | | Replit | Rapid prototyping | | Lovable | UI generation | | Base44 | Backend scaffolding |

The Result

This stack enables us to:

1. Ship MVPs in weeks instead of months
2. Scale seamlessly as traffic grows
3. Maintain easily with clear patterns
4. Iterate quickly on user feedback

Learn More

Interested in how we'd apply this to your project? Get in touch for a free consultation.