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61 Comments

How many of us are full-stack developers?

I wonder how many of indie hackers here are actually full-stack developers.

I'm full stack myself. I use mostly Laravel + Vue. It would be interesting to know if others do everything in house or hire developers for specific parts of the project like front-end or backend.

  1. 4

    Full stack here, everything I do dev wise is in house at the moment. Use to be Laravel + Vue, but over the past year have switched to a full clojure stack with Reagent on the front-end.

    1. 1

      I got interested in Clojure a while back but never did anything professionally in it. My first job out of university included working on a Common Lisp app. How is the tooling for Clojure these days? When I was looking it was pretty rough.

      1. 1

        I've found the tooling to be good, with stuff like https://leiningen.org/ it's pretty easy to spin up projects quickly. There's a bit of leaning curve, but I've found that to be true to any new language, can't say transitioning clojure was any more difficult than other language ecosystems.

    2. 1

      Interesting that you moved away from Laravel. It the current stack better?

      1. 1

        I wouldn't say it's better, just a different way of thinking. Functional programming is something I've found to be a great for a lot of problems and I really enjoy using it. Certainly a new way of thinking, but not necessarily better.

        1. 1

          I use Clojure in one of my projects (with Ring, Compojure API & HoneySQL). While programming in Clojure is quite pleasurable, the problem I see with it as opposed to something like Rails or Laravel (perhaps) is that there is no good web framework for Clojure, so you tend to reinvent the wheel quite a bit. Since Rails comes batteries included for most things web dev related, getting things done is very easy with Rails. What has been your experience in this aspect?

          1. 2

            This is a good point and actually something I struggled with coming from Laravel; Clojure felt very disjointed. After a bit of time I found the general philosophy is to "build your own framework" pulling in the libraries you need. There's pros and cons to this thought process, but suffice to say it is different than a lot of other ecosystems I've worked with and a bit intimidating at first.

            The closest thing I found was https://luminusweb.com/ which I've used and liked. I think it provides a good mix customization and presets to allow for a wide range of projects. I think this is a good place for new Clojure devs to get their feet wet and start with a set of sensible defaults.

            Lastly, I've found the general ecosystem to eventually feel more cohesive than things like NPM. I find Clojure has less clutter and more quality, but I could be biased in that assessment since I really enjoy clojure.

  2. 3

    Full stack here as well. C++ background, learned Vue/Nuxt.js + AWS + Docker/Kub to complement web dev skills.

    1. 1

      Didn't see too much C++ devs here.

  3. 2

    Full Stack - ASP.Net Core + Angular. Just started checking out NodeJS recently.

  4. 2

    Starting to do fullstack, with Node & Express, React and Postgres. If SEO is important, then use NextJS with Express.

  5. 2

    I used to lead a frontend team in a big co, but I've became a fullstack person myself, primarily Javascript and some Python. If anything, my biggest weakness was infrastructure/ops. Lots of pain points there. I am the sole developer of my indie project.

  6. 2

    My current stack is MongoDb + NodeJs + GraphQL + React. So I guess I'm a Full JS Stack Dev.

  7. 2

    Nodejs, ruby, dabbled in a bunch of others
    mysql, cassandra, sqlite, redis
    rabbitMQ

  8. 2

    Full stack here.
    Backend: Crystal, Rust, and OCaml
    Frontend: Preact

    1. 1

      What kind of business and/or technical requirements lead to using those three together on the back-end?

      1. 2

        Oh haha. These are the languages I use as a “full stack” developer. I don’t use them on the same app. Crystal is the language on my current side project.

        1. 1

          Ah that makes more sense then. I could see Rust being used with just about anything, but was thinking Crystal was also in a relatively close high perf bucket!

  9. 2

    Full stack here. Vuejs + AWS. For back-end: Ruby, python or Rust depending on the need, also PostgreSQL if needed.

    I'm curious how many devs (full-stack or not) are also interested in the the visual design aspect of the process. I like drawing and illustrations (I'm very bad at both at the moment), but I do spend quite a bit of time playing with ideas visually in Affinity Designer / Procreate.

    1. 2

      I can't really sit and design something. I find that I can kind of code and design as I go. It might lead to trying to re-position things and such for a better/new layout, but the amount of time it takes to faff around in Photoshop, or free equivalent to come up with something I can code up the same result in that time.

      Anyone else do this?

    2. 2

      I do the designs in my projects by myself as well. I need more practice with it though and been slacking on picking up skills with Adobe tools, so far I've only used Sketch.

  10. 1

    I'm here 👋 I design, develop, deploy, and maintain web applications from scratch.

    I work in Spring Boot and MEAN stack. For frontend design, Bootstrap is my goto choice. For hosting, I mostly use AWS and DigitalOcean.

  11. 1

    i am web developer(Php-laravel and Js-Vue) and Desktop(C#,VB.Net) but i think its alot of work and takes time to deliver when building both front end and backend of your product alot

  12. 1

    Full-stack too. 😀 Back-end: Go & serverless-first on AWS. Front-end: React&Gatsby.

  13. 1

    Fullstack here. React for front, PHP using Yii or WordPress for the backend. Am I the only one using Wordpress's Json API as a backend? I find it quite cool.

  14. 1

    Full stack web developer here as well. Used jQuery for quite some time. Now I use vanilla but playing around with ReactJS. Used PHP over the years but now I'm looking into NodeJS for my side project idea. Knew some DevOps as well. I think every language has its own use case. :)

  15. 1

    I would consider myself a full stack developer. I’ve used a normal of stacks over the years, but right now I’m using the MeteorJS stack.

  16. 1

    Turned full stack as well. I have a Java background, but learned ReactJS / Redux.

  17. 1

    Yep I now call myself "full stack". That includes Dev Ops skills such as cloud and linux.

    I have been a professional dev for 20 years. I only started hearing the 'full stack' term in the last 10 years or so. My recollection is that people would prefer to describe themselves as 'back end' or 'front end' before that. Maybe it's because the front-end has moved more into frameworks, and hence there is a greater demand.

  18. 1

    Full stack here as well.

    Backend: mainly DotNet Core or DotNet and little bit Laravel
    Frontend: VueJs, NuxtJS, Gridsome, React, Next.JS, Angular, a little bit Blazor + TailwindCSS everywhere I can
    I also developed an iOS App with Swift. Stopped using Java years ago. And I love TypeScript.

    And I've worked 6 years as a Sysadmin for Windows environments so deployments or administration of Window or Linux servers isn't an issue.

  19. 1

    Full stack UK based dev here also. Been building using Laravel & Vue predominantly. Thinking of looking into NodeJs for backend as it really seems to be popular now and there's the case of keeping everything in the same language making a lot of sense.
    Have also delved in Python/Django in the past so may go back to that at some point.
    Lately been tinkering with Flutter for App development.
    So many tools, languages and not enough hours in the day for full time job, plus side projects!

  20. 1

    Full stacker :)

    Angular, Typescript, Javascript, Node, PHP

  21. 1

    Fullstack here as well. Vue/React, Apollo Graphql, Node, NoSQL/SQL, Dockers, etc.

    I am slower when it comes to doing CSS from scratch and I am still missing an eye for the good design :)

    1. 1

      hehe CSS is hectic i always copy other people css online and edit to suite my need

  22. 1

    Full-stack here.
    Backend: Java, Spring, Vertx
    Frontend: Angular

  23. 1

    Full-stack here, used to be laravel and cakephp but moved to nodejs for my backend now using react,. angular, stencil, google amp, or sometimes just pure html + javascript for my frontend..

  24. 1

    Full stack developer here. I've worked regular jobs for past 18 years, but left the corporate world in December to start working on my own projects. It's so early that I'm doing everything myself at this point... and loving it!

    Currently my stack is:

    • View.js, React, Material-UI for the front end
    • Node.js with Express on the back end
    • PostgreSQL and some kind of document store (TBD) for the databases

    Deploying to AWS (using Elastic Beanstalk, RDS, CloudFront, and Route 53).

  25. 1

    Full-stack as well. Node and recently Golang for the backend with gRPC. Vue for the frontend. Currently playing with Amplify.

  26. 1

    Yeah, Full-Stack, C/C++ guy. I use React/Rails and Golang. All in house. I miss C/C++.

  27. 1

    Laravel + React for me :)

  28. 1

    I am full stack, but super slow on the frontend.

  29. 1

    I'm a full-stack JavaScript (even for mobile) developer. Angular, Node, MongoDB, and GCP for the most part.

  30. 1

    I am. php, laravel, mysql and learning some vue to compliment laravel. (want to move away from using jquery).

    1. 1

      this is perfect i recently learned Vuejs too in order to use it with laravel and so far i think i made the best choice

  31. 1

    Might be the wrong place but I'm looking for a developer for my startup, more information in my bio if anyone is keen!

  32. 1

    I am also full stack, but I really enjoy doing a lot of different stuff. I did a lot of C++ before, now I do TypeScript + React + Node.js + MongoDB, I also have some PHP +MySQL projects and I have been playing recently with Python and TensorFlow.

    I realized that I can't really stay too long without learning something new. I love the feeling when I try to do something and it doesn't work. If it works the first time it's boring, expected, not exciting and I don't learn anything new. So if I use a language/framework that I am very familiar with, chances are that things will work and I don't learn anything new.

    You only really learn through mistakes.

    1. 1

      I am actually having a hard time being productive sometimes because of this, because instead of choosing the easy, straight-forward road and finish my project quickly, I choose the more exciting road.

  33. 1

    Hey, I consider myself super-fullstack (since I do mobile apps as well)!

    .NET for backend
    Angular, vue.js, jQuery for frontend
    Swift/objC, kotlin/Java, Flutter, Xamarin for mobile
    Firestore, MS SQL, Couchbase for DBs
    Azure for Cloud

    And I'm pretty sure I could do C++ if needed - had few years with it as well 🤣

    But who cares since for growing my projects I need all the non-tech skills 🤷‍♂️

  34. 1

    Full stack as well. React + Node + mongoDB or Postgres depending on the project. I recently got into react native as well. Showing my clear bias for JavaScript here.

  35. 1

    Full stack as well! (javascript all around the stack) React, Redux, Express, Node, Typescript

  36. 1

    Full stack, Laravel + GraphQL + Vue

  37. 1

    I do the codes for both of the ends professionally as well as for my side hustles.

  38. 1

    Full stack, lately using React (with Redux) + Node (with ExpressJS). However, I also previously also worked in C++, and latest project I am developing in Haskell (having great fun with that!).

    1. 2

      I'm also using Haskell for mine, didn't realize there's more people like me out there.

  39. 1

    Shows my bias, I just assumed most people here are full-stack devs.

    I personally build my projects alone and from the ground up. DigitalOcean Droplets (& Spaces) + Docker + Postgres + Node + React

    1. 4

      Really? I always feel like IH is just full of non-devs trying to schlep their web courses.

      1. 2

        And here I thought is was full of marketers teaching us to be marketers 🤣

        1. 2

          "Hello ____, I saw your product _____ on Indie Hackers. First I'd like to say congratulations on your success with _____.

          I built _____, which helps people fellow IHers like you do ______."

        1. 2

          Well then, welcome!

          You'll get the jokes between @alchemist and I eventually :)

    2. 1

      I'm also using small VPSs but prefer. MariaDB over Postgres.

  40. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  41. 3

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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