What is Tech Stack and how to choose the best one for your project

In this article:

• What is a tech stack
• Overview of Frontend frameworks
• Javascript or Typescript
• CSS, Less, or Sass
• What to consider when choosing a technology stack for a project
• Examples of the technology stack of famous projects
• Final Words

When it comes to digital product development, be it a mobile app or a web app, the most important thing to decide is the technology stack on which your app will be built.

Choosing the right technology stack can affect development time, cost, application quality, and scalability, which is why it’s important to make the right decision, even if you need to spend more time analyzing the pros and cons of the available solutions.

In this article, we want to explain to you what a web application technology stack is, and in addition, we will look at the technologies available, their pros and cons, and try to choose which technology is suitable for a particular case. In addition, we have selected several important factors to consider before deciding on the appropriate technology stack.

Once the technologies are chosen, each external project still needs to make a few more decisions, such as the structure of your external application, to help you maintain and scale it.

Let’s start by explaining what technology stack is in the front-end.

What is a tech stack?

A technology stack is a combination of programming languages, frameworks, and software used to build an application.

In layman’s terms, web development requires an interface, a back end, and a database. All of these levels form a technology stack.

The client-side is everything that users can see on the screen. The most important elements of the client-side technology stack are:

• HTML, which is responsible for displaying content in the browser;
• CSS styles the content;
• Javascript is responsible for the interactive and functional part of the web application.

Angular and React are by far the most popular JavaScript front-end frameworks that allow you to create very attractive user interfaces.

The server side of the application is not visible to the end-user, it provides data to the client-side. On the server-side, we have to consider the choice:

• a backend programming language like Java or C#;
• frameworks like Spring or .NET;
• a database like PostgreSQL or MongoDB;
• a server like Apache or Nginx, or choose a serverless architecture.

When planning your next application technology stack, you must consider the server and client sides. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the front-end technology stack and look at the various front-end development options.

Overview of Frontend frameworks

Modern front-end frameworks can manage all three elements of the user interface; they have HTML templates, styles, and interactive features.

Right now, there are three of the most common frameworks to choose from; these are ReactJS, Angular, and VueJS.

It is good to know more about each technology to be able to choose any of them, so we will go through each and describe them in terms of the external technology stack and front-end architecture.

ReactJS

ReactJS is not a framework; it is a UI library created by Facebook and maintained by a huge community. ReactJS is suitable for less complex applications and is more focused on rich user interface and reusable components on very complex front-end logic.

ReactJS has a rich ecosystem that consists of ReactJS itself and the React-DOM library for manipulating DOM objects. Next is React-Router, which is responsible for routing. Plus, it comes with JSX, which is a Javascript syntax extension for templating in ReactJS. To make development easier and faster, React developer tools are very useful.

Also, if you are planning a mobile app for your project, ReactJS has a framework for mobile development called React Native, which is very similar to ReactJS itself.

From a company perspective, the most significant benefits of ReactJS are its relatively low development costs and short development times. In addition, it is not difficult to find developers with knowledge of ReactJS, and the technology has been on the market for a long time, supported by a large creator and a huge community. This means that ReactJS will not disappear or be out of support anytime soon.

Let’s quickly recap when choosing ReactJS for your next project is a good idea and why.

• If the application you are planning has a rich user interface with a lot of reusable components and a lot of DOM manipulation, then ReactJS is a good idea.
• If you’re on a tight deadline, ReactJS is also a good idea.
• If you have an average budget and at least one senior developer with experience planning and building ReactJS apps.

This is not the best choice if the application has advanced logic or cannot hire an experienced developer to plan the application workflow.

ReactJS is easy to learn, but it doesn’t require developers to write quality code, so you always need an experienced person on the team to take care of it.

Angular

ReactJS’s big competitor is Angular. Unlike the first technology described, Angular is a framework and is good for complex projects with more advanced logic.

Angular has a robust development ecosystem built-in like routing or state management. It also has a very clean architecture and everything is split into three different files (logic, template, and styles).

Another benefit of the Angular site is that it is easy to integrate with the MVC backend.

Angular also forces developers to plan and develop applications before they start working on them, which prolongs development and improves project quality.

From the point of view of the company and the management, Angular provides a very high quality of the developed project but increases the cost of the application, and the development time is slightly longer. Angular was created by Google and is backed by one of the largest IT companies, so you don’t have to worry about our code getting out of date quickly. The disadvantage of choosing Angular as the main project technology is that it is not easy to find developers who know this technology, and the training is not easy.

Let’s summarize for Angular as well.

• If the project is large and complex, with complex logic, but a fairly simple user interface, Angular is a good solution.
• If you care about code quality and want your project to have reliable scalability, Angular is your choice.
• If you have Angular developers on your team, choosing this framework is a great idea.

If the application you are planning is more user interface-oriented and has a lot of DOM manipulation, then it would be much better to choose something else.

VueJS

The latest of the most popular front-end technologies currently in use is VueJS. This is the youngest of the three. VueJS, like ReactJS, is a UI library that is a mixture of ReactJS and Angular concepts.

Vuex, which is a state manager for VueJS, is much easier to maintain than Redux.

VueJS, like ReactJS, requires external freedoms to create a complete ecosystem, but there are far fewer ready-made solutions, which makes it a little risky.

Also, VueJS doesn’t have a big company and is not supported by a huge community, so it is not known how long it will be supported.

From a management and company perspective, VueJS is a low-budget solution and developers can learn the structure easily, so you don’t need a highly skilled developer with years of experience in this technology. If you want to reduce development time and your project is small, VueJS is a great solution.

Let’s summarize the VueJS solution.

• If the application you are developing is a small side project or a small MVP, then VueJS is a great solution.
• If you are on a tight budget and are just beginning developers, VueJS is also a good idea.
• If the project doesn’t have a lot of logic and big user interface requirements, and the deadline is close, VueJS is a good solution.

Javascript or Typescript?

There are two solutions when choosing a primary programming language for the front-end; these are Javascript and Typescript, which are Javascript syntactic extensions.

In some cases, Typescript is required; for example when you decide to build your project with Angular. But VueJS and ReactJS do not require the use of Typescript, although they can have many benefits.

First, using Typescript reduces development time as it reduces errors, affects the maintenance of the application, and simplifies it. In addition, all modern frameworks support this technology. Also, it might be easier to design an interface with Typescript if the backend isn’t ready yet, but we know what kind of data we’ll get.

The only drawback of Typescript is that it is not very easy to set up with ReactJS or VueJS.

The good news is that Typescript is created by Microsoft, so there is very little chance that it will be forgotten and you have to rewrite your application.

To summarize, choosing Typescript can simplify and speed up the development process and help avoid frequent debugging, which can be very important, especially before the deadline.

What to consider when choosing a technology stack for a project?

At this stage, we would like to highlight some factors that should be important for everyone who decides the technical stack of front-end applications.

Application size

The first factor to consider when choosing a technical stack is probably pretty obvious because the most important is the size of the application. After all, complexity grows with the size of the project.

If you are not sure which category your web application project falls into, check the explanation below to categorize the size of your web application.

Small web application

Small web applications are similar to sites within up to 10 pages, portfolios, and other small web solutions.

Medium web application

Midsize web applications are mostly financial applications, online shopping, or corporate applications, which usually require a more complex technology stack than the small size category.

Such projects have more features and are usually developed using frameworks like Node JS, Angular, etc.

Large web application

On-demand marketplaces and social media are both large projects. These web applications demand better performance, serviceability, and top-notch scalability.

In large web applications, the complexity is higher because they require more technical layers and third-party tools to develop specific parts of the project.

In addition, it is recommended to have functional as well as non-functional requirements written due to its complexity.

Development time

Another important factor in choosing a technology stack for a project is time to market.

If time is short, you need to choose a technology that does not require lengthy planning, development is not difficult, and you can turn to developers who know this technology.

For a long time to market, there are several factors you can consider to make the right choice.

Safety

Considering that you are spending a lot of money on an app, you need it to be secure. Moreover, the number of cyberattacks continues to grow, you need to take this seriously to take care of the security of your data.

Most of the popular frontend frameworks contain some security guidelines. You need to take care to follow all of these guidelines throughout the development process.

The cost

For many companies, this is one of the most important factors. Most of the frameworks and tools are free and open-source, but you still need to hire developers, so you need to calculate how many developers you will need to complete an application in a given period using the technology of your choice.

Apart from development costs, you need to take into account maintenance and server costs. If you are looking to reduce maintenance costs, it might be worth considering a serverless architecture for your application.

Scalability and support

It is also important to think about the future of the application. If you want it to grow, it must be easily scalable and maintainable. This is easy to achieve; you just need to choose a good project structure and take care of using reliable technologies.

Depending on the type of project, you may need to pay attention to several other factors, such as performance. Remember to rethink every aspect of the application so you can plan before launching, and any architectural changes become costly to implement.

Examples of the technology stack of famous projects

Finally, what about the famous projects that you use daily? You probably want to know how they were created and what tools were used during the development process. We decided to list the five most popular examples.

Airbnb technology stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), Java, Ruby (back-end), Swift / Java for iOS / Android;
• Frameworks: React, Ruby on Rails;
• Database: MySQL, Redis (as a DBMS);
• Web server: Nginx;
• Supporting tools: Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront;
• Data storage: Amazon ElastiCache, Hadoop;
• DevOps: GitHub, Amazon CloudWatch, Webpack.

Netflix technology stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), Java, Python (back-end), Swift / Kotlin for iOS / Android;
• Frameworks and Libraries: React, Node.js, WinJS;
• Databases: MySQL, Cassandra, Oracle, Amazon EC2 (cloud services);
• DevOps: Jenkins, Gradle, GitHub, AWS Cloud Trail, etc.
• Auxiliary Communications: Amazon SES, Urban Airship.

Snapchat technology stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), Java (back-end), Objective-C / Java for iOS / Android;
• Frameworks and Libraries: jQuery, React, Angular, Cocoa Touch, Bootstrap, Moment.js;
• Web server: Nginx, Ubuntu (as an operating system);
• Supporting tools: Android SDK, Modernizr, Semantic UI;
• Cloud storage: Google Cloud Platform, Google Compute Engine.

Facebook technology stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), LAMP stack (back-end), Swift / Java for iOS / Android, C #;
• Database: MySQL, Hadoop, Cassandra;
• Web server: Apache;
• Frameworks: React, React Native (for hybrid apps), Relay;
• Utilities: Framer, Bitbar, Origami;
• DevOps: Jenkins, Datadog, Jest, Infer.

Spotify Tech Stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), Python, Java (back-end), Swift / Java for iOS / Android;
• Database: PostgreSQL, Hadoop, Cassandra;
• Web server: Nginx, Kafka;
• Frameworks: Bootstrap, Amazon S3, Google BigQuery;
• DevOps: Helios, Docker, Datadog.

Dropbox tech stack

• Programming languages: JavaScript (front-end), Python, Rust (back-end), Swift / Java for iOS / Android;
• Database: MySQL;
• Web server: Nginx;
• Frameworks: Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront.

Output

To make the right choice among all the interface technologies available on the market, you must carefully study the most important functions of the application and look at the factors that may somehow influence your decision.

Different applications need a different approach, so it’s worth remembering that if a previous project was done with Angular and was successful, the current one may need different technology.