Choosing the Right Technology Stack: A Guide for Startups

Developing a startup without a proper technology stack is like climbing a mountain peak without proper equipment. While a startup doens’t put your life at risk unlike climbing, you can’t expect great success in your business without the right technical preparation. This article discusses popular tech stacks you may leverage to help your startup thrive. 

What is a tech stack?

The tech stack is a set of technical solutions essential for creating and maintaining your digital project. 

Here is the list of the key tech stack layers.

• Front-end framework and libraries
• Back-end framework and libraries
• Operating system
• Programming languages
• Database
• Servers 

If you’re wondering which tech stack best suits your needs and looking for quick and high-quality results, consider opting for software development services for startups.

Why do you need a proper startup tech stack?

Your startup’s success crucially depends on having a suitable tech stack. Without one, you may waste time, resources, and business opportunities. Plus, it’s quite challenging to replace a tech stack once you’ve established one, so you must thoroughly investigate the best tech stack for your startup from the beginning. 

Which factors to consider when choosing a startup technology stack

• Project size: Simple projects like developing an app with a few functions require just a few solutions, while multi-layered projects would demand complex infrastructure.
• Scalability: If you plan to scale your project over time, consider technologies with scalable capabilities. 
• Budget: Consider the cost of hiring the right development team and other initial and long-term expenses. 
• Time-to-market: If development speed matters to you, consider using tech stacks with Node.js and React frameworks, which ensure quick prototyping and development cycles. 
• Ease of maintenance: Complex or unique technologies will require more costly maintenance and frequent updates.
• Active community: An active community around a tech stack helps solve issues more quickly and efficiently.

Top-5 tech stacks for startups

We’ve compiled a breakdown of the most common tech stacks you may want to use for your startup.

MEAN stack

MEAN is an acronym for MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node – the core tech stack’s technologies.

• MongoDB is a NoSQL object-oriented database for cloud applications.
• Express.js is a web application framework for Node.js that allows interaction between the frontend and the database.
• Angular.js is a client-side JavaScript framework for creating dynamic web applications.
• Node.js is a JavaScript web server for building scalable network applications. 

Many startups choose this tech stack for the following reasons:

• Scalability
• Flexibility
• Ease of use
• Developer familiarity
• Great for real-time apps

However, it would help if you considered some disadvantages of the MEAN tech stack such as

• Frequent updates of its components
• Not ideal for large-scale projects

MERN stack

MERN is similar to MEAN but differs in just one element—it uses React instead of the Angular framework. React has robust libraries that enable coding on both the server and client sides.

The MERN stack is even more flexible and has an easier learning curve compared to MEAN. However, it still may not perfectly suit large projects involving many developers, and React dynamic typing can lead to runtime errors. 

LAMP stack

LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It’s an open-source technology stack primarily used in web app development. While the MEAN stack is more suitable for heavy logic processing on the frontend, LAMP is great for large-scale websites with high traffic. 

• Linux is an open-source operating system favored by many developers.
• Apache is an open-source web server that stores website files and exchanges information with a browser.
• MySQL is an open-source relational database management system for storing, managing, and querying data.
• PHP is the default scripting language for LAMP used to run dynamic processes. However, developers can replace it with Perl or Python. 

• Easy to set up
• Flexible
• Free and open-source
• Secure architecture
• Reliable

• Support only for Linux OS
• Performance issues under heavy workloads

Companies like WordPress, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Slack initially used LAMP. 

Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Ruby on Rails (RoR) is an open-source tech stack built on Ruby, a dynamic programming language, and Rails, a web app framework. This stack best suits developing easy-to-maintain, scalable, and lightweight applications.

The advantages of using RoR are as follows:

• Free and open-source
• Time-efficient
• A wide range of libraries and additional tools
• Active community

Yet, RoR has some disadvantages such as:

• Longer run time compared to alternatives
• Smaller developer talent pool

Such companies as Shopify, GitHub, Etsy, and Airbnb use RoR.

Flutter stack

Flutter is a tech stack for cross-platform app development released by Google in 2017. It uses the Dart programming language. Other core components are the Flutter Framework, Skia Graphics engine, and multiple widgets. 

What are the advantages of Flutter?

• Free access to components and tools
• One codebase for multiple platforms
• Real-time monitoring of changes
• Customizable widgets

Some of the Flutter disadvantages are:

• Fewer third-party libraries compared to alternatives
• Learning curve
• Lower performance compared to native apps

Conclusions

• MEAN is the best choice if you’re looking for scalability and flexibility.
• MERN is great for React framework fans developing projects without heavy loads.
• LAMP is well-suited for developing large-scale web applications.
• RoR is suitable for lightweight and easy-to-maintain applications.
• Flutter fits projects that require cross-platform development.

If you’re looking for a team with proven expertise in software development for startups, we recommend DigitalSuits as a reliable partner. Look no further to start your business growth.