What tech stack should I use?

For most web apps in 2025, Next.js + PostgreSQL (via Supabase) + Vercel is the fastest path to production. It handles routing, server-side rendering, API routes, and auth in one framework. If you want more backend separation, Next.js + tRPC + PostgreSQL + Fly.io is a strong production setup. For solo developers shipping fast, Supabase handles your database, auth, and storage in one service.

The best stack is the one you can ship fastest with. Next.js + Supabase + Vercel is the current default for early-stage web startups — minimal infrastructure decisions, excellent free tiers, scales reasonably well. Once you have product-market fit, you can migrate databases or switch infrastructure. Don't optimize prematurely.

Default to PostgreSQL unless you have a specific reason not to. It handles the vast majority of use cases, has excellent free hosting (Supabase, Neon, Railway), and you'll never regret choosing it. MongoDB makes sense for highly variable document structures or very rapid prototyping. Redis is for caching — not primary storage.

For Node.js: Express (battle-tested, huge ecosystem), Hono (fast, edge-ready, excellent DX), or NestJS (large teams, enterprise). For Python: FastAPI — modern, typed, auto-generates OpenAPI docs. For Go: Gin or Echo — excellent performance for high-throughput APIs. The framework matters less than your language fluency.

Vercel for Next.js/frontend, Fly.io for containers/backends (generous free tier), Railway for simplest Dockerfile deploys, Render for good free tier on small projects, Cloudflare Pages/Workers for global edge. Avoid AWS/GCP/Azure for side projects — the complexity isn't worth it until you need enterprise features.

Use TypeScript. The upfront cost of adding types pays back immediately when refactoring. Every major framework has excellent TypeScript support. The only exception: quick one-off scripts where you'll never touch the code again.

React has the largest ecosystem and job market — safe default for anything team-maintained. Vue is more approachable, great docs, smaller but solid ecosystem. SvelteKit compiles to smaller bundles, excellent DX, but smaller ecosystem. For personal projects where you want to learn, try SvelteKit. For production or team projects, React is the safe call.

For fast development: Node.js + Hono or Python + FastAPI. For performance at scale: Go + Gin or Rust + Axum. FastAPI is particularly strong because it auto-generates OpenAPI docs, has excellent async support, and Python's ecosystem is unmatched for data-heavy APIs.