A Beginners Web-app Tech Stack
Building a web app is easy.
Just kidding, it’s not. It took me a frustratingly long time to figure what exactly the required high level parts of a web app were when I first built one.
Here is my boiled down explanation + a suggestion at the end for what I wish I used from the get go.
There are 3 main parts;
1. The frontend -> This is what the user actually uses on the internet. Generally you create this using a ‘reactive’ frontend framework like Vue.js, Angular or React.
2. The backend -> This is what serves data to the frontend. The frontend makes web requests to the backend for certain pieces of data or sometimes to perform computation.
3. The Database -> This stores all of your data for users to access. There are broadly 2 key types — SQL and No-SQL databases. If you’re not sure what to learn first, checkout PostgreSQL.
Now that we’ve got the main topics covered — onto the opinionated tech stack (as of 2021).
We’re going to assume that speed is the priority.
Front End: React.js. Super popular framework with lots of easily downloadable plugins. I’d use “Create React App” or, if you’re interested in something a little more extensible, “Next.js”.
Backend: Google Firebase. Makes it super easy to save and query data and has great resources to use with React! If you’re looking for a relational database, the Heroku Postgres databases are great too.
Hosting: Netlify. Super easy to deploy a React application. Google Firebase does the hosting for the backend.
DNS/Domains: Namecheap. I find AWS Route 50 complicated (AWS in general is very complicated), and I have not had a great time with Godaddy (lol).
Drop a comment if anyone has other advice around this!
