Tech stack help
I've got an idea for a data product. The data is delivered via (maybe) email and (moreso) text messages and for the purposes of this point, I don't think it matters what it is. I'm a low-level dev and have worked on embedded systems as well as HPC and big-data processing software. I'm confident I can manage the technical side of making the data and delivering it into inboxes.
But I still need to build a website to permit people to sign up and see some information about the data which has been delivered. I also really want to collect payments, too, from day one. I have no experience with front-end, web frameworks, or payment subscriptions. I know python well but have never used django. I know ruby but have never written a single line using rails. I know erlang and elixir but have never used phoenix. Maybe you have detected a pattern here? A "backend" kind of pattern?
I'm tempted to use a really lightweight "framework" like bottle or flask, which I see supports basic things like user accounts and sessions, and smash something together which works. But what I really want is a super simple framework which will also let me interact with paypal or stripe or some reasonable payments processor to handle recurring billing. What exists for that?
Honestly just save yourself time and effort and buy a template like this: https://www.saaspegasus.com/
Implementing user auth and all of the other SaaS website plumbing is a hassle and takes time away from you making your actual product.
Check out Memberstack, it will handle all of your authentication + payment related stuff through Stripe, and then you can build the rest however you choose - you can code it, use Webflow, it's up to you. But this way you won't need to worry about the auth stuff
I pulled my credit report from MYFICO and it gave me the usual report. However, when I went to my bank to apply for a small loan they said there is no credit history of my Equifax report and when I contacted Equifax directly they said the same thing. I have to write SKYLINK CYBER SERVICES via SKYLINKCYBERSERVICES@GMAIL.COM in less than 16days my report was corrected and my score raised to 815, yes I doubted at first until it was pulled again at the bank and I was qualified for the loan this time. All thanks to them.
Or why don't you go with Shopify? I'm not a coder and Shopify is my go-to when I want to be able to charge (one time or recurring), have a nice website, etc.
If you need some help dealing with the authentication part, reach out to my team at Kinde. We can help with offloading the responsibility of user authentication with things like passwordless and a variety of social auth providers. Our pricing is effectively free for founders until you start getting larger volume and we have a bunch of SDKs for integration into hopefully whatever framework you end up landing on.
From my own experience with payments, I would suggest using Stripe's "SAQ-A" methods from their support docs, which looks like Checkout and Elements. They expose you and your product to the least amount of risk. https://stripe.com/docs/security/guide#validating-pci-compliance
I'd probably go with a scaffold that has most of what you need implemented, and that you can build on top of. I don't know enough about your data collecting and processing needs so can't recommend a stack based on that (things like the number of concurrent connections, etc matter).
If your data processing isn't crazy in terms of real-time concurrency I'd go with the Rails Jumpstart (https://jumpstartrails.com/) because the last thing I want is to be noodling with payment processing and user accounts when I should be focusing on the core business logic.
If your data processing IS crazy in terms of real-time concurrency I'd try to find an equivalent to the above in the Elixir ecosystem.
Good luck!
Take a look at https://supastarter.dev. The stack is especially interesting for solo founder and everything is built upon serverless tools like Supabase and Vercel, so you can focus on the features of your application instead of having to rebuilt auth, i18n and all this stuff on your own.
If you have any questions, you can reach my on twitter @jonathan_wilke!
Have a great day and wish you all the best with your idea!
Of the languages you listed all have libraries that support minimalist web services. It just depends on what you're the most comfortable with.
Python = flask/bottle/fastapi/tornado/etc
Ruby = sinatra/probably some others
Elixir/Erl = cowboy (+plug)
In most of these I'm pretty sure you're going to be manually gluing all the required components (accounts, sessions, etc) together, which is the trade off for not going with a larger framework.
If you want the easiest learning curve, flask could be a good option. I used flask for a school project. Prior to that, I knew python but had no backend experience. I was able to set up a server and have it query a database. It was pretty simple.
Why not start with a no code site builder like www.Bubble.io or similar if all you need is a front end to show off what you are delivering and to collect payments? Bubble has stripe integration.
This doesn't seem like the right fit for me. The backend will deliver the data via email or text but I still need to, for example, show the user something about the data which they've been sent. I think the interaction is not extremely complicated, but it seems non-trivial. This is why I asked for something with user accounts, sessions, but also if possible some integration with payments.
https://saasbox.net/
PS: I have no affiliation with this. Nor have I tried it out
Most of the payment integrations support rest api. Python/Flask supports calling api. Sessions and user management boilerplate also available with flask.