When you’re founding your startup, you must build it on a solid technical foundation. Choosing your startup’s technology stack is critically important. The decision you make regarding which tech stack to go with will have lasting effects on your company’s success.
Tech stacks comprise both the digital interface your users will interact with, known as the frontend, and the server and program this interface is built on, known as the backend. The tech stack chosen can dictate the performance, development speed, and even the amount of code needed to develop your product. The above are all criteria that should factor into your ultimate decision of what tech stack to use.
This article will explain how to choose a technology stack for startups.
A technology stack forms the foundation of any type of software. It is made up of programming languages, databases, and a software framework. A technology stack can also include choices like a hosting solution, a database engine, or code versioning solutions (SVN/Git). Different technologies used in popular stacks are usually designed to work together seamlessly to cover any development needs.
When you’re choosing a tech stack, there are several factors that you should consider. This section explains how to choose the best technology stack for startups.
Cost is one of the most important factors to consider. When you’re working with a startup budget, you no doubt want to cut down on costs where you can. It may be worth considering open-source technology and using beginner-friendly tools like Javascript, MySQL, or PHP.
Ideally, you want a tech stack with a large, passionate community already built up around it. The people in these communities are united by their desire to support and improve upon the technology, meaning that help is always at hand if you do come across any issues. It also means the technology is constantly improving at a rapid rate.
When you’re building a startup, time is of the essence. For one thing, the more time you spend developing your business, the more capital you’re going to burn. Furthermore, while you leave your particular gap in the market unfilled, you are allowing another company to come along and seize the market opportunity.
Even at this early stage in development, you should think about how much you want your business to grow. If you plan to grow your company, you’re going to need to make sure that you choose a tech stack that can scale alongside you.
When you’re starting up a business, you shouldn’t aim to establish a large company from the beginning. Rather, you should aim for more gradual company growth unless you are highly capitalized and the market demands rapid growth
To start with, you should aim to make an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that will assist in collecting feedback from your target demographic. Once you have this feedback, you should have a good idea of other features you should implement for a better product market fit.
Depending on the type of project you’re looking to build, you’ll need different tech stacks. For example, online marketplaces and social media platforms both operate in different ways, so for each, you’ll need a specific kind of tech stack.
When trying to decide whether your audience is more likely to use a web or mobile app, it’s always a good idea to examine how your competitors are running things. Also, consider whether your project best suits a web or mobile application. You should always consider the needs of your target demographic, as well.
The amount of maintenance an application needs is based on its codebase and its software architecture. Different hosting solutions and software frameworks can give you better maintainability and control or become a constant painful spot.
One final point to remain aware of is the availability of talent. While there are many popular, rising technologies out there, it’s still difficult to find developers working in particular areas. This is because most of them have already been taken.
When you’re choosing a stack, think ahead. There may be good developers available to you now, but will they still be available later down the line?
When you’re initially planning your business, take the time to consider your tech stack as a separate issue. It’s important to consider your overall tech stack because so much relies on you choosing the right technology. Without a piece of tech that can scale, you’re left vulnerable to crashes; without a thriving community built up around the tech stack, you’re left without people to help you troubleshoot and fix issues, and so on.
Your fledgling business may start small, but you no doubt hope to see your company expand. This will not be possible without the best tech stack for startups providing you with a solid foundation.
Different tech stacks are available for different types of business startups. In this section, we’ll explain which startup technology stacks companies choose.
Node.js is the ideal choice for streaming apps, chat programs, and social media apps. This is because it excels in helping build quick applications, offering high performance as well as speedy development times.
Java is a platform-independent coding language popular for its security, accessibility, and cross-stage capabilities. This programming language offers a large talent pool for hire, a strong community, and easy integration with many third-party tools.
LAMP is one of the older tech stacks out there. While it isn’t as scalable as some of its competitors, it remains a popular choice due to its well-established community base and great development speed. LAMP also has the benefit of being interchangeable with other coding languages, such as Python.
The ROR stack—short for Ruby on Rails stack—is popular due to its high scalability, as well as its vast collection of library integrations.
Using .Net stack, developers can build bug-free software frameworks for interactive web applications. .Net stack is a particularly popular option due to its speed and security, but suffers due to a lack of multi-platform support.
When you’re choosing your startup technology stack, there are a few red flags you should stay well clear of. This section breaks down a few warning signs for you to look out for so that you can make sure you don’t go with the wrong tech stack.
It can be difficult to find an affordable startup developer who works with some of the least popular tech stacks. In fact, often, it can be difficult to find developers in these stacks period. For this reason, you might consider looking into a more popular tech stack.
Another thing to keep an eye out for is whether or not the tech stack has any issues with scalability or maintenance. If they do not seem like they will scale well, or if it looks like they might need a great deal of maintenance going forward, then it’s probably best to steer clear of them.
Tech stacks that have problems with stability and maintenance usually trade them for other benefits like development speed or low price. But you must think twice before opting for this option because the migration costs may drown your company later.
You should also avoid expensive tech stacks while developing an MVP. When you’re building your company, you need to be as smart with your money as you can be. You can’t spend all your funds hiring developers or paying for an enterprise-grade cloud package, or else how will you advertise and market your business?
When it comes to choosing a tech stack for your startup project, you want to make sure that you make the correct decision. The future of your business could very well depend on what tech stack you decide to go with, so you really should think your decision through.
Hopefully, these tips for choosing the right tech stack for startups have helped. But if you think that you would benefit from further advice and assistance from a strategic tech partner with years of experience helping build startups, get in touch with Aleph1 today.
With ten years of experience in digital product development and investing, our fully qualified and professional advisors can help you build the startup of your dreams. We’ve helped build lots of different companies in our time; we’d love to help make yours a reality, too.
How to choose the right startup technology stack?
When choosing a tech stack for a startup, you should consider several key factors. These factors include cost, community, scalability, project size and type, maintenance, and more. Your tech stack is crucially important to the future of your startup, so make sure you really take the time to weigh each of these.
Which technology is best for startups?
The technology that will suit your startup best really depends on the kind of startup you plan on running. The best thing to do is to really research the tech stacks you’re interested in, making sure that it’s suitable for your purposes.
What is the benefit of using the right tech stack for startups?
With the right tech stack, it will be much easier for you to build your startup. Not only will choosing the right startup technology stack helps during the development stages of your product, but it will also help to get your app running during the first stages of your business.
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