Have you seen that KFC burger that comes as a perfect combination of layers of steaks, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, veggies and chicken piled on top of one another?
A perfectly functional website requires a similar set of tools used in a set sequence, one after another clubbed into a pack commonly referred to as a Tech Stack.
Your most popular applications like Uber, Swiggy, Facebook and Instagram are all examples of companies that have used the best tech stacks in the world and became market leaders in their domains.
Tech stacks are the flesh and bones of a website that is responsible for both the functioning and development of an application across all platforms. Choosing the right tech stack is important to ensure a smooth development phase that takes care of all your development needs during the process.
There are thousands of tech stacks available for development in the market making it difficult for developers to choose which one to opt for their individual projects. The available tech sacks vary in the combination of servers, operating systems, databases and frameworks clubbed together for better functioning. Therefore, choosing the right tech stack is important to ensure a cost-efficient and successful development project. You need to have a clear understanding of what these tech stacks are and what are the available options for you and your team in the market. This is a better approach that can help you save on a lot of bills that your company may have to shell out on your annual projects.
This article will walk you through the basics of tech stacks and give you an understanding on which are the best available options for you in the market. Just read along to know more…
What is a Tech Stack?
Tech stacks are a set of tools, technologies, programming languages, software applications, and frameworks that work together to build digital products or solutions such as websites, mobile and web applications.
There are two elements that comprise a complete tech stack i.e. frontend or the client/user side of the website and backend or the server-side. A set of technologies are clubbed together on both these ends to create interactive and user-friendly interfaces and appropriate databases with the help of right tech stacks.
Let’s know about them in greater detail…
Tech Stack Components
As mentioned above, a tech stack comprises two components — the frontend and the backend. We have professionals in the market who are specialized in particular domains. For example, you will find specialists in the industry having dedicated expertise in frontend development or backend development. Alternatively, you will also find developers that offer services in both or full-stack software development.
Front End Tech Stack
The client or user side of the application is the frontend that majorly focuses on delivering exceptional user experience. The developers here are responsible for developing fully functional, engaging and attractive UI/UX interface and straightforward internal structures to hold the attention of a user so-much-so that they convert into a repeated visitor and in turn become a loyal customer to your application.
There are two principal elements that contribute towards a Frontend Stack. These are:
- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
It’s a markup language responsible for the structuring and placement of the content on the webpage. It looks after the position and alignment of the content.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
This, on the other hand, is responsible for the overall representation of the content on the web page. It takes care of the font styles, sizes, layout, colour, and other aspects that work to make your web page look organized.
Backend Tech Stack
The backstage of the application that usually cannot be seen by the user is server-side, also called the backend. It functions at the back making sure the application functions smoothly without any glitches providing necessary support to all the stakeholders of that application.
The backend stack comprises of four basic elements:
- Programming languages
These languages help create codes for applications and websites that in turn links the web to a database. Some basic examples are JavaScript, PHP, and Python that are used worldwide.
- Frameworks
Frameworks provide support to your applications based on a single programming language. Laravel, Django, and Ruby on Rails are few of the popular frameworks that are used today.
- Servers
Backend servers are used for managing client requests on your website. These include forms, inputs, search requests etc. For example Apache, Nginx, and Microsoft’s Internet Information Server.
- Databases
The digital space used to store your application data is under databases. The most common databases used are MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
All of these elements are built on top of one another, more like a stack of block games therefore called a tech STACK. They work in coordination with each other to give the best results to your awesome website.
Now, let’s have a look at the best available software tech stacks for development in 2021:
1. The MEAN Stack
One of the most popular stacks amongst developers, MEAN Stack is an open-source full-stack JavaScript solution that helps developers build fast, robust, and maintainable web applications. It has four main components:
MongoDB:
The database management system that offers a cross-platform functioning for your applications. It allows your application to work on multiple operating platforms i.e.Windows, Linux, macOS, etc
Express.js
ExpressJS acts as the backend framework for your application letting you develop secure and fast applications.
AngularJS
This works on the front-end framework and helps reduce the efforts on manual coding.
NodeJS
NodeJS offers an appropriate runtime environment for your application.
MEAN.JS can be a preferred choice for a lot of developers because it helps avoid useless grunt work and common pitfalls while keeping your application organized.
2. The LAMP Stack
A LAMP Stack is open-source software that is used for creating attractive websites and web applications. Released in the year 1995, LAMP was the first open-source tech stack to be introduced in the market. The name LAMP is an acronym for four components that are:
Linux
It is the operating system of the application that makes up the first layer of the stack.
Apache
This is the webserver software of the application. These servers are responsible for translating from web browsers to their correct website. It’s responsible for getting a webpage to the user.
MySQL
This is the database system of your stack that stores details that can be queried by scripting to construct a website.
PHP
PHP is the server-side scripting language that provides the glue for all the other parts of the LAMP system.
One of the most economical options available for you, LAMP is a preferred choice mainly because of the easy availability of LAMP stack developers in the market with over a decade of experience in the field. It’s suitable for developing large scale applications with much ease.
3. The MERN Stack
One of the many sisters of MEAN stack, MERN stack is similar to MEAN is all aspects except the Angular JS is replaced by React JS. No matter what variant you use, ME(RVA)N is the ideal framework in the market.
Looking at the quick and effective user interface focus of ReactJS, MERN is chosen by a lot of new developers today for its fast response to coding. It is ideally suited for cases that are JSON-heavy, cloud-native, and have dynamic web interfaces.
4. The Serverless Stack
The serverless stack is a full-stack development tool that allows you to develop more agile applications that are innovative and fast. It uses serverless computing, that enables tasks like capacity provisioning and patching to be handled by vendors instead of developers that allows you to focus on writing efficient codes for your users.
Serverless stack comes with features like automatic scaling that ensures a reduction and increase in size as and when your users change; built-in high availability, and a pay-for-value billing model that ensures you pay only when the code runs on the app’s server.
If you have an application that can have irregular traffic during the course of its usage then opting for the serverless stack is the better choice for your company. It enables a reduction in cost at a great deal.
5. The Flutter for Web
Flutter is a cross-platform app for web development that depicts native app performance on diverse platforms and ensures the success of all your projects. Made by Google, Flutter is a User interface toolkit used for building engaging applications for mobile, web and desktop from a single codebase.
Fast Development
It comes with an exclusive feature of Hot Reload that allows you to observe the effects of modifications done on your projects instantly. It automatically reduces the time invested in development that helps you reduce your development cost. You can use a rich set of fully-customizable widgets to build native interfaces with much ease using flutter.
Expressive and Flexible UI
Flutter allows you to quickly ship features with a dedicated focus on native end-user experiences. It has a detailed, layered architecture that allows full customization, resulting in high-speed rendering, expressive and flexible designs for all its users.
Native Performance
Flutter’s widgets include all critical platform differences such as scrolling, navigation, icons and fonts, and it is compiled to native ARM machine code using Dart’s native compilers.
Why is it important to have the best tech stack?
The answer to this question is competition. There is a never-ending list of the most popular tech stacks used by famous applications like uber, Facebook, youtube, or ICICI bank for that matter. The stronger the tech stack, the easier it is to develop and maintain an application for a longer period of time.
All tech stacks are good. There is nothing like a bad tech stack. But the best one for your business will always depend on your business’ specific needs. The size of your project, your business type, the nature of your application and the kind of audience you wish to cater to, all these factors collectively contribute towards selecting the one that suits your business.
So How do you choose the best Teck Stack for your Business?
A better to approach for choosing the best tech stack for your next development project could be to allow a professional to guide you through this process. As we read above, there are a lot of permutations and combinations that are mixed together to make a perfect stack and a stack that worked well for a particular application doesn't ensure success for you too.
You need a professional software development company with a team of expert full-stack developers that can help you choose the right tech stack and build engaging applications to get the required competitive edge in the market.
