The Best Technology Stacks for Software Development

A technology stack or a tech stack is a series of tools, coding languages, libraries, frameworks, and technologies that work in cohesion to build and run the software. In short, we can say that all the ingredients that go into building software consist of the tech stack of the software. For instance, Facebook’s tech stack involves technologies like Swift, GraphQL, Cassandra, PHP, and Hadoop.

Some basic knowledge about the tech stack will help you to gauge the technical proficiency of your software developers, as an entrepreneur.

Tech Stack Components Explained

The technology stack is made up of two components- front-end tech stack and backend tech stack that defines the role of developers in software development accordingly. Also, All the top software developers have an efficient team of frontend and backend developers. Hence having basic knowledge about the component will help you build your software.

Frontend Tech Stack

It’s a user-facing part of the application that users can see and enable them to engage with the software application. Frontend tech stack involves creating internal structure and UI creation of the software that delivers an exceptional user experience. In a nutshell, it includes everything from design and format to navigation structure that makes the software unique and appealing. It comprises three main elements that are-

HTML– the hypertext markup language act as a backbone for the frontend in building and displaying pages by tagging text files on www pages. It is also responsible for content (graphics, hyperlink effects, colors, font style, and others) placement.

CSS– cascading style sheet defines the format and layout of the document written in HTML when it appears to the users. It’s leveraged for styling markup text outlook, reflecting HTML code, and made more manageable using SASS and LESS framework.

JavaScript– the programming language used for creating interactive web pages and incorporating dynamic features through React, Vue, and Angular framework leverage.

Backend Tech Stack

The server-side part of the software is behind-the-scene that’s always remained hidden but is responsible to make everything work on the front end. The invisible part ensures the smooth running of the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Demand) operations. It comprises 4 elements that are-

Programming languages– Java, PHP, Python, Dart, and Materialize are the popular programming languages that build logic for the software applications while linking the web to the database.

Framework– different frameworks are leveraged for building applications that make the development plain sailing with already created pieces of logic and functionalities.

Web servers– the web servers manage the users’ requests at the backend and ensure timely responses despite peak traffic to guarantee high performance. Apache, IIS, Nginx, and others are popular web servers.

Databases– SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and NoSQL are famous databases that are highly leveraged for software development to store data in an organized way.

What is the Importance of Tech Stack in Software Development?

Before we move towards knowing the various tech stacks for software development, let’s have a look at why a tech stack is important. A tech stack is the backbone of software. You will need a robust backbone to build robust software.

Before you start the project, your dedicated software development team should have a clear idea about the tech stack. Also, The hired software developers should be clear about the technologies they will use for coding, UI/UX development, and database management. They should also have an idea regarding the third-party integrations they will require to build the software.

While selecting the tech stack, the software development team considers aspects like;

• Goals to be achieved with the software
• Different technologies to be integrated
• The skillset of the available developers
• How different technologies and processes can be streamlined?
• Bug elimination and software testing
• Plan efficiently to make the software maintenance easy
• Future prospects for updation and adding new features

Choosing the correct software development tech stack is important as it has an overbearing effect on the final product. Here is the checklist for its impact on the software aspects;

• How the software will function in the future?
• Data storage selection
• Scalability of the software
• The capacity of your server systems

Most popular Software Development Technology Stacks You should Know About

Top software development companies have a knack for choosing the most appropriate tech stack, which helps them deliver the best software development solution. There are many software development technology stacks in the tech world today. We have discussed the most popular ones below.

MEAN Stack

MEAN stack is one of the most popular tech stacks for software development today. It provides a plethora of benefits to developers. The fact that it is open-source makes it a highly economical tech stack to choose for your software development project requirement.

Another benefit that it provides is that it uses a single language throughout the stack. As it uses a single coding language, it is easier for experienced developers to develop software using this technology stack. Apart from this, it is easier to find replacements if a few developers leave the project mid-way.

The following are the components of the MEAN stack.

M– MongoDB

E– Express.js

A– Angular.js

N– Node.js

In this stack, MongoDB is the NoSQL database, Express.js is the backend framework, Angular.js is the frontend framework, and Node.js is the cross-platform server. This stack of technology allows skilled developers to build flexible, scalable, and high-performance software products. It is possible to build extensible software solutions with this stack as it support cloud hosting.

The MEAN stack components communicate JSON for free module library access and data transmission.

MEAN stack is an effective platform for all kinds of interactive and website applications.

LAMP Stack

LAMP stack is a time-tested tech stack that has features such as proven performance, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and stability. All the components in this stack are open-source. This translates into better cost-effectiveness for your software project.

The specialty of the LAMP stack is that it can run on any operating system. With this stack, you can use MacOS or WAMP as the operating system instead of Linux. This feature of the LAMP stack provides you with a chance to modify the components.

The following are the LAMP stack components.

L– Linux

A– Apache

M– MySQL

P– PHP

MySQL is a relational database management system. PHP is the programming language. Note that P in the LAMP stack can also stand for Python or Perl. Apache is the HTTP server, while Linux is an operating system.

MERN Stack

The MERN stack is more or less similar to the MEAN stack. The only difference is React in place of Angular.
By using the MERN stack, the developers can simultaneously use code on browsers and servers and gain access to full-stack development options. MERN stack also provides the software coders easy access to a powerful library.

Using the MERN stack, the developers can easily avail of React integration. React integration provides the MERN stack developers access to the great features of React, like high performance and flexibility in building interactive user interfaces.

Serverless stack

Serverless tech stack has risen in popularity amongst developers in recent times. The serverless stack ditches the conventional forms of tech stacks, and cutting-edge serverless computing technology helps the programmers write and execute code on the physical servers without worrying too much about the infrastructure.

The serverless stack allows the software engineers to manage the entire data of the application effectively within the cloud platform.

The major advantage of the serverless stack is the high level of scalability that the serverless stack provides. A serverless stack is much more cost-effective as compared to other tech stacks. This is because, in a serverless stack, the developers are charged only for the space they use on the servers.

You can avail a serverless platform from companies like Google and Amazon. They have serverless platform services named Google Cloud and AWS Lambda.

Ruby On Rails

Ruby on Rails is an integrated development environment that uses Ruby. Ruby is a powerful web application framework that simplifies the entire development experience for the developers. RoR is a highly scalable technology. The remote developers can modify or utilize RoR according to their requirements.

RoR is an easy-to-learn coding language that consists of a rich set of libraries. RoR helps reduce the overall time-to-market of the application as it has a wide range of utilities and software packages that make the job of development faster.

In RoR, the software developers can use the default database management structure, further reducing the time-to-market. Select the best remote Ruby on Rails development service providers to build effective RoR solutions.

MEVN Stack

The only difference between MEAN and MEVN is that instead of Angular.js, Vue.js is used as the frontend development technology. Vue.js has gained popularity as an effective frontend development technology in the past few years.

The following are the components of the MEVN stack.

M– MongoDB

E– Express.js

V– Vue.js

N– NodeJS

In the MEVN stack, MongoDB is the NoSQL database, Express.js is the backend framework, Vue.js is the frontend framework, and Node.js is the cross-platform server. Vue.js combines the best features of both Angular as well as React. Thus, it is bound to help software developers build beautiful and high-performance frontends. A major benefit of the MEVN stack is that it is easy to learn.

What are the challenges of software development outsourcing?

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a popular tech stack that’s powered by Microsoft to create lightweight applications that run seamlessly on Linux and Windows. The open-source technology enables developers across the globe to build modern applications using the following tech stack. ASP.NET MVC is leveraged as a standard model-view-controller framework, IIS as Microsoft’s web server, SQL server as database, Microsoft Azure as cloud storage, and Angular as frontend framework.

Python

Python language is packed with a bunch of features that are highly leveraged by beginners because of a low learning curve. ML and data science apps using Python which has become another reason for their growing popularity. It’s used for secure web app development in conjunction with the Django backend framework. Apache leveraged as the web server and MySQL as a database in the tech stack to quickly build scalable applications.

Java

Java is well-famous for building enterprise applications and increasingly developers are gravitating towards JavaScript for modern app development. The progressive JavaScript frameworks- Angular, React, and Vue is considered the best for web app development.

How can you select the Best Tech Stack for your project?

Information about the best tech stacks along with their pros and cons on-hand help you know which is the best tech stack for your project. However, aligning the tech stack with project functionalities needs is not an easy deal and a wrong selection most likely puts the project in financial disaster. Here, we have shared the best tips to select the right tech stack for your project.

• The increasing project size and complexity require advanced tech stack leverage.
• Defining project functionalities and target audience along with competition research help in identifying specifications that the tech stack should meet.
• The application’s efficiency, compatibility, and performance greatly count on the type of tech stack used. Select the tech stack based on performance requirements.
• Check the capacity of the tech stack to meet the system processing load requirements of the project.
• Tech stack scalability plays a vital role in enabling the business to grow as per the users’ requirements.
• The project timeline creates a need for choosing a tech stack that enables accelerate app development.
• Verify the security and privacy of the tech stack chosen as it impacts the final product.
• Identify the brands that have used tech stack and enjoyed success as expected as it’s an assurance of quality.

Wrap up

The tech stack that is selected by the software developers has an impact on the software development cost. This is because you will need to hire software developers according to the software development technologies included in the tech stack if you have your tech stack already selected.

The correct tech stack will help you leverage the power of your technical and human resources in the most optimum way. Every tech stack has its own set of pros and cons. You should opt for the latest technolgy stack is one of the common myths regarding software development. Hence instead of going with the latest software development trends, the tech stack must be decided based on its appropriateness for your project.

It is best that you leave the task of selecting the tech stack with the software development company you hire. You just need to make sure that the software developers you hire are proficient and experienced.