Which tech stack is good for newbies?

Ruby on Rails for web, Go for apis, Postgres for DB, analytics (timescaledb)

With RoR you just focus on business logic instead of tackling issues with package upgrades and stuff stopping from working.

I’ve used Node.js for web, we also have a few micro-services on it at work. Always takes more time to develop and maintain. Even with TypeScript.

Laravel is better but not as good :)

Ps I’m a principal engineer in a bootstrapped SaaS with a multi-million ARR

I would say the easiest way to ship a MVP would be the following stack, but I don't think it's really new-developer friendly:

• Next.js (React with SRR. It is awesome for SEO. It will also be your backend)
• Typescript (please don't go with javascript, you will realise down the road that having type safe definitions is really handy)
• For styling, go with TailwindCSS, it's probably the easiest solution out there
• Supabase to handle your authentication and host your Postgres database
• Prisma as your ORM

I haven't found another stack I could ship faster with.

If you need to ship fast and you're new to web development, I'd suggest you go with a no-code solution.

If you already know HTML, CSS and PHP I highly suggest learning Laravel. Check out laracasts.com for some top shelf tutorials, and some of them are even free. Your effort to learn Laravel will save you lots of time later on things like routing, authentication, and architectural design decisions.

As many have said in other threads, the one that allows you to get a product out. If that means no-code, do that.
If it means the same language or tools you already know, that's fine.
You can choose to write in something new, but it'll be slower probably. If that's okay with you, then the world is your oyster, and use whatever floats your boat!

You should use what you’re comfortable with. If that’s php - use that. If that’s maybe something like Bubble - use that. If there are Wordpress plug-ins you can combine to create your MVP - use that.

I’m a strong believer in using what can get you from 0 to MVP the fastest.

Good luck!

React & Node.js but:

1. for React you can actually auto generate basic components automatically based on Figma design with tools like https://www.animaapp.com/ . You will need to write the logic that connects to the API, most likely this will consist mostly in data fetching React hooks
2. For Node you can use amplication.com to auto-generate the code for backend GraphQL CRUD API for you in like minutes/hours not months.

P.S. future self-plug I am building useGenerated.com that makes the GraphQL CRUD API and also the data fetching React hooks so ideally anything that is standard create read update would be auto-generated and you only extend on that with the custom stuff here and there a custom validation for forms connecting to a Chart and a custom field that is based on other fields.

I would say React & Node.js would probably be the best tech stack to start with. It will be a little intensive to learn at first, but is easy to pick up. The great thing about React & Node is that it sets your business up to grow. There are vast communities for each so finding help when you run into issues and finding developers with that skill set to join your team will be easier than other stacks.

There is also plenty of support from a platform perspective like Vercel, which will remove the burden of managing servers and infrastructure.

I recommend using Nocode for MVPs. It's easy to get started, and it's simple to use. Great for prototyping!

The LAMP Stack

As some have already pointed out, and as the great Pieter Levels has said many times -- it does not matter. What matters is launching your product using any language you know. (For reference, Facebook was initially built in PHP and I believe it still is to some extent).

Once you need to scale or improve your tech stack, you do that. For now, work with what you know/are more comfortable with. Whatever you don't know as you go, just google it. But don't waste time trying to learn the "perfect" stack -- it always evolves.

Hey, i think you go with bubble no code web app builder for a Saas MVP. Well, the good thing about bubble is that you can scale it as per your requirements.

Can I ask a favor from the community? Can you list low code tools that you like, and also rate them on how easy they would be for a newbie, non-developer like me to use?

I'd appreciate any few suggestions you may have. Thanks!!

If you're non coder, looking into no code tools might be preferable to get MVP out. Learning to code and then doing MVP might take a lot of time.

There are indie hackers that had great success sticking to just what they know as well. Like Pieter Levels who uses PHP mostly. https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1577086792695975936?t=klIPHrCNcHX8ZwgKx3CYnA&s=19

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I recently decided Svelte (and Go when i need a backend -- i use Go professionally. So it's a language I'm really comfortable with). So far really happy. Both are simple.

May be it's just me. I tried NextJS, NextJS with TRPC, React with Go, Vuejs with Go, etc. All felt too complicated 😅

(Svelte does not have a big community though. So there's a small risk when you get stuck)

There was an interesting thread from @volkandkaya about this... https://www.indiehackers.com/post/your-tech-stack-does-matter-f80626a7fa

tldr; react, tailwind, supabase