HACKER Q&A
📣 bsldld

What tech stack would you recommend for a single-page web application?


I am developing a web application. The users of this application will be mostly from well-to-do background. So the devices they will be using, to access the application, will be latest. Hence old browser compatibility is not the requirement. What tech stack would you recommend for a single-page web application in this case?


  👤 el_dev_hell Accepted Answer ✓
Since there's not much of a spec (past users on newish devices), I would default to:

* Next.js - React on the frontend with endpoints handled by Next.js.

* Postgres for the DB

* Hosted on Vercel (unless otherwise specified).

* S3 for binary files.

If the project scope was anything past what Next.js APIs can reasonable handle (heavy DB migrations required, an admin panel, etc), I'd go with:

* Django Rest (or Django Graphene for GraphQL if it's a better fit) on the backend.

* React on the frontend (possibly still with Next.js if server-side rendering is high priority).

* Postgres for the DB.

* Frontend hosted on Netlify or Vercel.

* Backend hosted on Elastic Beanstalk, DB hosted on AWS Aurora, and S3 for binary files.


👤 codingdave
Use whichever stack you know best. This is always the answer. Learning a new stack for a new app is a great learning experience, but not the most effective way to launch a product.

Likewise, if you are concerned about mobile usage, that has nothing to do with the stack - you can code responsive design and accessible markup on any stack.


👤 Jugurtha
>The users of this application will be mostly from well-to-do background. So the devices they will be using, to access the application, will be latest.

How did you check that assumption?

>What tech stack would you recommend for a single-page web application in this case?

Does the stack to be used represent the innovation itself? Are you doing this in order to learn a new stack (i.e: a fun project where the objective is learning about single page application stacks)? If not, I'd disregard that and go with the stack I'm most productive with to solve the actual problem at hand and deliver value.



👤 subrat_rout
I'd suggest go for the tech stack with which you are the most familiar with.

👤 giantg2
Depends on what it has to do.

If it's a simple static site just use S3 static hosting and the language of your choice (maybe Angular).


👤 brianjunyinchan

👤 slipwalker
svelte is refreshly simple, for some use cases. https://svelte.dev/