Tired of confusing guides on tech stacks? We’re here to help. Tech stacks can be tricky but crucial for developers, executives, and startup founders to learn.
In this article, I’ll explain tech stacks clearly and easily. Whether you’re a developer looking to improve your skills, a business executive, or a startup founder building a new company, this article will help you understand tech stacks.
Let’s dive in!
What Is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack combines the technologies, software, and tools to build and run an application or product. Tech stacks include everything from programming languages, frameworks, and databases to servers, operating systems, and other infrastructure components.
Tech stacks can vary greatly depending on a project or organization’s needs.
You can categorize them based on the type of application, such as web development, mobile development, data science, or DevOps.
But wait, what does a ‘stack’ mean?
What Does a Stack Mean?
In the context of tech stacks, a stack refers to a collection of components that work together to achieve a specific goal. A stack can include programming languages, frameworks, databases, servers, and other tools.
Think of it like a layer cake, where each layer represents a different component that builds upon the previous one. Hence why it’s a ‘stack.’
When combined, they make you better at programming and drive optimal software design and problem-solving.
Now that we have a solid understanding of a tech stack let’s explore some of the most common and widely used ones in software development.
What Are the Basic (Traditional) Tech Stacks?
Basic or traditional stacks are the foundation of many applications and are usually the starting point for new projects. Think of them as the fundamentals needed to build applications.
Here are some of the most essential ones to know about.
Web Development Tech Stacks
Web development is the process of creating and building websites and web applications. It involves coding, designing, and building sites online.
Here are the primary languages for web development.
LAMP Tech Stack: LAMP combines Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Python/Perl to create dynamic web applications. It’s reliable for building websites, e-commerce platforms, and content management systems.
MEAN Tech Stack: MEAN includes MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js and is a popular choice for building modern web applications. It’s known for its flexibility, scalability, and ability to handle large amounts of data.
MERN Tech Stack: MERN includes MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, and Node.js. These technologies are all JavaScript-based, making it easier for developers to work with a single language throughout development and providing a smooth user experience.
Aside from web development, there are also mobile development tech stacks. We talk more about that in the next section.
Mobile Development Tech Stacks
Mobile development is creating and building applications that can run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Like web development tech stacks, this one is straightforward.
The essential ones for mobile development include the following:
iOS: This stack includes Swift, Xcode, and Cocoa Touch and is used for building native iOS applications. It’s a popular choice for building apps that require high customization and integration with iOS features in iPhones, Macs, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.
Android: This tech stack includes Java/Kotlin, Android Studio, and Android SDK and is used for building native Android applications. Like its iOS counterpart, it’s a popular choice for building apps with Android features.
Data Science and Machine Learning Tech Stacks
Data learning and machine tech stacks refer to the collection of tools, frameworks, libraries, and technologies used in data science, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) projects.
These include various stages of data processing, from data acquisition and cleaning to model building, deployment, and monitoring.
Here are the primary ones to know:
Python Stack: This includes libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, and TensorFlow. Python is an efficient language for data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It’s famous for building predictive models, natural language processing applications, and data visualization tools.
Essentially, basic tech stacks provide a solid foundation for building various applications. They’re often used as a starting point and can be customized to meet your company’s project requirements.
What Is a Modern Tech Stack?
A modern tech stack is a set of technologies that efficiently build, deploy, and manage software applications.
In other words, these are flexible and scalable and utilize the latest frameworks and tools to be effective. Modern tech stacks allow faster development, easier maintenance, and optimized performance compared to traditional ones.
Modern tech stacks include tools for containerization, performance monitoring, business intelligence, event processing, data lakes, cloud services, microservices, and analytics.
We’ll talk more about them below.
Critical Components of a Modern Tech Stack
Frontend Tech Stack:
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are foundational for building dynamic and responsive user interfaces. Anything that users see and experience is called the front end.
Utilizing frontend frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.js provides robust environments for creating interactive and responsive user interfaces.
Backend Tech Stack:
Languages and frameworks like Node.js, Python, Ruby on Rails, or ASP.NET Core execute business logic, handle data storage and retrieval, and integrate with databases and third-party services. Anything dealing with servers and data is called the backend.
Cloud Computing:
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the Internet. These services include storage, processing power, and software applications, all provided on-demand. Cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform offer scalability, cost-effectiveness, high availability, and rapid resource provisioning.
Containerization and Orchestration:
Containers powered by Docker technologies provide lightweight, isolated environments for applications and their dependencies.
Container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes simplify deployment and enhance resilience by automating scaling, load balancing, and management of containerized applications.
Data Management and Analytics:
Database technologies like SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or MySQL store and manage persistent data.
Data analytics and visualization tools like Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, or Elasticsearch enable businesses to derive valuable insights and make data-driven decisions.
DevOps and CI/CD:
DevOps practices help combine with continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to streamline development and operations workflows.
Tools like Jenkins, GitLab, or CircleCI facilitate automated builds, testing, and deployment, reducing time to market and ensuring faster iteration cycles.
Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC):
Tools like Terraform or CloudFormation simplify infrastructure provisioning and management by automating and replicating infrastructure setups without manual errors.
Benefits of a Modern Tech Stack
A modern tech stack can benefit your company with efficiency, scalability, security, and agility, improving performance and speeding up production time.
- Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and improved automation reduce development time and costs.
- Scalability: Effective stacks can grow with your user base without sacrificing performance.
- Security: Built-in security features and regular updates protect your applications from security risks and threats.
- Agility: Modern tech stacks enable rapid development and deployment, allowing businesses to stay competitive in today’s tech-driven markets.
Now that we’ve covered tech stacks in detail, the next question is, what is the best one to use?
Let’s cover that in more detail in the next section.
Which Tech Stack is Best?
Choosing the right tech stack for your project can be daunting.
With so many options available, it’s crucial to consider your project’s specific needs, your team’s expertise, and the stack’s scalability and maintainability.
Here are things to consider when choosing a stack to use for your project:
Project Requirements
The first step is to assess your project’s functionality, scalability, and security requirements.
What features do you need to build? Do you require real-time data processing, machine learning, or data analytics?
How many users do you expect, and will your application need to handle a large volume of traffic or data?
What level of security do you require, such as encryption, authentication, or access control?
Ask yourself these questions when considering which to use.
Team Expertise
Next, consider your team’s expertise.
What programming languages do your developers know best? Are they familiar with specific frameworks or libraries? What tools and technologies do they prefer or have the most experience with?
Determining the extent of your team’s skills will help you decide which tech stack is best for you.
Scalability and Maintainability
Finally, consider its long-term scalability and maintainability. What is your budget for infrastructure, software, and maintenance? How easily can you adapt your stack to changing requirements or new technologies?
Based on these factors, you can narrow the options and choose the tech stack that best fits your project’s needs.
If you’re a startup, you might wonder what the best tech stacks are for your company. In this stage, you’re looking for the most effective yet budget-friendly one to use.
Read the following section to learn more about the best startup tech stacks.
What Is the Most Popular Tech Stack for Startups?
The challenges of tech startups go beyond breaking into the tech industry. Finding the right tech stack for your product is crucial to producing a great product that people will buy.
Startups can’t go wrong with choosing the MERN Stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js) for their business.
As mentioned, the MERN Stack leverages JavaScript, making it a flexible and scalable option for developers.
Another option for startups is the Serverless Stack, a cloud-based architecture enabling developers to build and run server applications. Serverless stacks utilize cloud-based services such as AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB.
Serverless architectures provide benefits like scalability, less infrastructure management, and pay-as-you-go pricing, making them appealing for startups with limited resources.
You can’t go wrong with these stacks because they’re efficient and cost-efficient. As a startup, you want the quality and the best value these languages deliver.
Find the Right Developer Here
Overall, choose your tech stack depending on your project needs and goals. You can’t go wrong with stacks such as MERN, MEAN, and Serverless Stacks, which have already been in the business or are starting to become popular.
Still don’t know which stack best suits your goals?
We’ll gladly help you find the right developers to take your company to new heights.
If you want to learn more about how we can help you grow and scale your business, book a free consultation and tell us your goals. We’ll be glad to help you.
