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Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025

38 points by kieloo 1y ago

I’m a marketer turned dev. When I built my first SaaS 3 years ago, I went with ROR because it seemed like the ideal stack for a solo dev. But with all the development in AI, I wonder, is it still the best choice? Most AI tools have JS or Python integration but the Rails ecosystem seems a bit behind. But at the same time, a lot of the JS ecosystem feels all over the place. So what tech stack should a solo dev use in 2025?

ejs 1y ago
As usual, isn't the next question... "What are you trying to build?" I build most projects in Elixir/Phoenix these days, but wouldn't flinch at ROR if you are comfortable with it.
- zahlman 1y ago
  >What are you trying to build? Indeed. Not everything even has to be a "web app" in the first place.
- kieloo 1y ago
  Right now, an AI tool that generates mockups for branding agencies. But I’m still validating the idea so who knows. Ideally, I would like a stack that would work for most SaaS I may think of building. Tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try. I briefly tried it a few years back and it just felt right.
  - Lio 1y ago
    As it's just you I'd stick with Ruby on Rails 8[1] as you already know it and I think it could realistically easily achieve what you're proposing. There's lots of libraries for calling out external AI services. e.g. something like FastMCP[2]. From the sound of it that's all you need. I'd use Hotwire[3] for the frontend and Hotwire Native if you want to rollout an app version quickly. I'd back it with SolidCache, SolidQueue, etc I'd use Kamal[4] to run it on cheap hosting using on something cheap from Hetzner. 1. https://rubyonrails.org/ https://rubyonrails.org/ 2. https://github.com/yjacquin/fast-mcp https://github.com/yjacquin/fast-mcp 3. https://hotwired.dev/ https://hotwired.dev/ 4. https://kamal-deploy.org/ https://kamal-deploy.org/
CameronBird 1y ago
I'll echo @ejs and say it depends, but I'm a huge fan of Laravel (https://laravel.com/ https://laravel.com/)! The team recently released some updated starter kits (https://laravel.com/starter-kits https://laravel.com/starter-kits) as well which are nice (Vue, React, and Livewire) For the uninitiated, Laravel is an opinionated, "batteries included" stack that lets you get right to the meat of the application without spending time working on authentication, routing, html templating, and so much more. There are also several (paid) resources the organization provides that allow you to get your app hosted pretty quickly (see Forge and Cloud).
ativzzz 1y ago
As always, the answer is likely whatever tech stack you are comfortable with already. Inevitably, your AI will get stuck and you will have to roll up your sleeves and dig into the problem. In what framework/language are you most quickly able to read (likely overly-verbose) AI code and dig into the root issue? The one you're most familiar with.
yusufnb 1y ago
Just use TypeScript frontend and backend. For backend, use Node+Express+TypeScript. If doing anything in ML, create a service in Python, but keep application code in TypeScript. If you are doing full stack development, this works much better. The npm ecosystem is amazing. You can create common libs, share types, don't have to context switch and all future developers can do some full stack. This is the boring stuff, but works and scales.
hankchinaski 1y ago
i am super productive with Go HTMX Tailwind JS PostgreSQL
mattbrewsbytes 1y ago
Whatever stack you are most comfortable using. If all your integrations with AI are via HTTP API's then it does not matter what stack you choose, they all can call API's. Maybe some stacks will have pre-built libraries but really, AI like cursor, copilot or chatgpt can create an AI HTTP API library if that's what you're doing. If you are building AI/ML yourself then you'll have narrower choices of stacks. If you choose a stack that is widespread and has been around for years, like ROR or python/django, then chances are AI will be better trained to be your helpful assistant that is sometimes wrong.
- kieloo 1y ago
  That’s a good point about the integration. I mostly need to make API calls and have an app that’s easy enough to maintain as a solo founder so it’s mostly a matter of finding the stack that feels right.
myphone8356 1y ago
Go standard lib, SQLite, html
indiantinker 1y ago
It is a highly opinionated question. Whatever gives you the oomph to do things. Generally speaking, typescript everywhere. LLMs know it quite well. If you are doing agentic work, you can do a FastAPI encapsulated python service.
vlod 1y ago
Prototype the crappiest thing you can in RoR (if you're still happy to use it). When you hit a problem ask people (most likely still doable as it's just REST api endpoints) and if not, possibly re-evaluate. At worst you'll know if your idea is worthless (probably lol) and if the tools you used were good or not. Rinse-repeat. Good luck!
- kieloo 1y ago
  Thanks! The thing is, I like ROR but I don’t love it. As in, I like it a lot better than full stack JS but it doesn’t feel quite right. That’s why I’m tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try.
  - simantel 1y ago
    Is your goal to ship a product and get customers, or to learn a framework? Both are totally valid, but they're somewhat orthogonal.
    - kieloo 1y ago
      Getting customers is the main goal but I’m lucky enough to have an existing SaaS that pays the bills on autopilot so I can afford to learn and not get results nearly as fast.
bionhoward 1y ago
Depends what you’re doing, but I think these are sensible defaults: HTML/CSS/JS won’t go out of style (could use templates like Askama, utility classes like tailwind to speed things up) Axum is a nice option for backend because it’s much less buggy than the Python/JS stuff Redis / Valkey for a KV cache PostgreSQL database
mixmastamyk 1y ago
Django is the productive choice, choose it first and you won't have to reinvent it. Htmx pairs well, until you need something fancier. Postgres for data.
- boronine 1y ago
  This is the correct answer. Pro-tip: use Django admin as a user facing interface in your prototype, then you won’t even need to write HTML templates, let alone client-side JS.
devgoth 1y ago
ive been using Go + HTMX + Go Templates. So far ive like the experience a lot. i mostly chose this stack to learn Go better coming from a web dev background.
PapaPalpatine 1y ago
As a lover of Rails, I’d vote that. It’s known as the single-developer framework.
justinram11 1y ago
I've recently been experimenting with Jumpstart Rails [1] in Cursor and it feels like a super power (coming from a generalist-but-mostly-spring-boot dev). I'm really burnt out by the current state of JS, and the way rails 8.0 does server-side rendering feels like a complete breath of fresh air. The ability to just add slight JS functionality with stimulus and action cable seems like just the right level of abstraction for most web apps. [1] https://jumpstartrails.com/ https://jumpstartrails.com/
runjake 1y ago
RoR, because it’s what you know. If you know something else better, use that. If you’re calling out to AI tools, you’ll likely use worker processes and these can be in whatever language you want. Don’t fall into the trap of selecting the perfect stack. Just get started and iterate. You’re already working against the odds enough.
gavmor 1y ago
I'm very comfortably leaning heavily into "local first," and "persistence last" with vite, preact, and peerjs. I'm honestly looking into hono.js literally because of that meme video, and because I like the idea of workerd. But the more I look into building out a hono app, the more I miss Rails.
simplysimplywoo 1y ago
OpenResty Lua, MariaDB, ValKey, JavaScript, Pure CSS
rozenmd 1y ago
The one you already know.
bvnierop 1y ago
The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is the one you are most comfortable with. The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is also the one that is most suitable to the problem that you are trying to solve. Unless those two are wildly different from each other — such as one being Ruby and the other being Haskell — learning the same concepts that you already know in a new language takes a few weeks at best. Personally I picked up Python for a couple of small LLM demos that I have given, but ironically the sample application is otherwise written in .NET (because I am most comfortable hacking GUI applications with .NET), with the Python parts being invoked as a subprocess.
bob1029 1y ago
> But with all the development in AI, I wonder, is it still the best choice? Most AI tools have JS or Python integration but the Rails ecosystem seems a bit behind. The language you use has nothing to do with your ability to participate in "AI". Use what you know. 99% of working with this technology is making a JSON HTTP call to a chat completion endpoint. If your ecosystem supports HTTP and strings, you should be good to go.
ceritium 1y ago
I like Ruby on Rails + Postgres, GoodJob for background Jobs, sveltejs for complex widgets, bootstrap as CSS framework, vite for "compiling" the assets, deploy on Fly.io
zerr 1y ago
Is being a SPA (single page app) always expected for SaaS nowadays?
acstorage 1y ago
I really like Golang, the compile times are crazy
hboon 1y ago
If it doesn't cost much (time/money) to change, TypeScript everything.
austin-cheney 1y ago
For me it’s been the same since 2017: TypeScript and Node. I occasionally need extra libraries for something highly specific like XTerm.js. I have so many personal libraries that cover so many common and edge cases that I can generally just reach into my personal library for 95% of what comes up and be running within 3 hours with a solution that scales well and achieves higher performance than the big frameworks.
aliabi 1y ago
[dead]
nextts 1y ago
Whatever cursor decides
babyent 1y ago
You should be vibe coding

38 points by kieloo 1y ago

ejs 1y ago

As usual, isn't the next question... "What are you trying to build?" I build most projects in Elixir/Phoenix these days, but wouldn't flinch at ROR if you are comfortable with it.

zahlman 1y ago
>What are you trying to build? Indeed. Not everything even has to be a "web app" in the first place.
kieloo 1y ago
Right now, an AI tool that generates mockups for branding agencies. But I’m still validating the idea so who knows. Ideally, I would like a stack that would work for most SaaS I may think of building. Tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try. I briefly tried it a few years back and it just felt right.
- Lio 1y ago
  As it's just you I'd stick with Ruby on Rails 8[1] as you already know it and I think it could realistically easily achieve what you're proposing. There's lots of libraries for calling out external AI services. e.g. something like FastMCP[2]. From the sound of it that's all you need. I'd use Hotwire[3] for the frontend and Hotwire Native if you want to rollout an app version quickly. I'd back it with SolidCache, SolidQueue, etc I'd use Kamal[4] to run it on cheap hosting using on something cheap from Hetzner. 1. https://rubyonrails.org/ https://rubyonrails.org/ 2. https://github.com/yjacquin/fast-mcp https://github.com/yjacquin/fast-mcp 3. https://hotwired.dev/ https://hotwired.dev/ 4. https://kamal-deploy.org/ https://kamal-deploy.org/

CameronBird 1y ago

I'll echo @ejs and say it depends, but I'm a huge fan of Laravel (https://laravel.com/ https://laravel.com/)! The team recently released some updated starter kits (https://laravel.com/starter-kits https://laravel.com/starter-kits) as well which are nice (Vue, React, and Livewire) For the uninitiated, Laravel is an opinionated, "batteries included" stack that lets you get right to the meat of the application without spending time working on authentication, routing, html templating, and so much more. There are also several (paid) resources the organization provides that allow you to get your app hosted pretty quickly (see Forge and Cloud).

ativzzz 1y ago

As always, the answer is likely whatever tech stack you are comfortable with already. Inevitably, your AI will get stuck and you will have to roll up your sleeves and dig into the problem. In what framework/language are you most quickly able to read (likely overly-verbose) AI code and dig into the root issue? The one you're most familiar with.

yusufnb 1y ago

Just use TypeScript frontend and backend. For backend, use Node+Express+TypeScript. If doing anything in ML, create a service in Python, but keep application code in TypeScript. If you are doing full stack development, this works much better. The npm ecosystem is amazing. You can create common libs, share types, don't have to context switch and all future developers can do some full stack. This is the boring stuff, but works and scales.

hankchinaski 1y ago

i am super productive with Go HTMX Tailwind JS PostgreSQL

mattbrewsbytes 1y ago

Whatever stack you are most comfortable using. If all your integrations with AI are via HTTP API's then it does not matter what stack you choose, they all can call API's. Maybe some stacks will have pre-built libraries but really, AI like cursor, copilot or chatgpt can create an AI HTTP API library if that's what you're doing. If you are building AI/ML yourself then you'll have narrower choices of stacks. If you choose a stack that is widespread and has been around for years, like ROR or python/django, then chances are AI will be better trained to be your helpful assistant that is sometimes wrong.

kieloo 1y ago
That’s a good point about the integration. I mostly need to make API calls and have an app that’s easy enough to maintain as a solo founder so it’s mostly a matter of finding the stack that feels right.

myphone8356 1y ago

Go standard lib, SQLite, html

indiantinker 1y ago

It is a highly opinionated question. Whatever gives you the oomph to do things. Generally speaking, typescript everywhere. LLMs know it quite well. If you are doing agentic work, you can do a FastAPI encapsulated python service.

vlod 1y ago

Prototype the crappiest thing you can in RoR (if you're still happy to use it). When you hit a problem ask people (most likely still doable as it's just REST api endpoints) and if not, possibly re-evaluate. At worst you'll know if your idea is worthless (probably lol) and if the tools you used were good or not. Rinse-repeat. Good luck!

kieloo 1y ago
Thanks! The thing is, I like ROR but I don’t love it. As in, I like it a lot better than full stack JS but it doesn’t feel quite right. That’s why I’m tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try.
- simantel 1y ago
  Is your goal to ship a product and get customers, or to learn a framework? Both are totally valid, but they're somewhat orthogonal.
  - kieloo 1y ago
    Getting customers is the main goal but I’m lucky enough to have an existing SaaS that pays the bills on autopilot so I can afford to learn and not get results nearly as fast.

bionhoward 1y ago

Depends what you’re doing, but I think these are sensible defaults: HTML/CSS/JS won’t go out of style (could use templates like Askama, utility classes like tailwind to speed things up) Axum is a nice option for backend because it’s much less buggy than the Python/JS stuff Redis / Valkey for a KV cache PostgreSQL database

mixmastamyk 1y ago

Django is the productive choice, choose it first and you won't have to reinvent it. Htmx pairs well, until you need something fancier. Postgres for data.

boronine 1y ago
This is the correct answer. Pro-tip: use Django admin as a user facing interface in your prototype, then you won’t even need to write HTML templates, let alone client-side JS.

devgoth 1y ago

ive been using Go + HTMX + Go Templates. So far ive like the experience a lot. i mostly chose this stack to learn Go better coming from a web dev background.

PapaPalpatine 1y ago

As a lover of Rails, I’d vote that. It’s known as the single-developer framework.

justinram11 1y ago

I've recently been experimenting with Jumpstart Rails [1] in Cursor and it feels like a super power (coming from a generalist-but-mostly-spring-boot dev). I'm really burnt out by the current state of JS, and the way rails 8.0 does server-side rendering feels like a complete breath of fresh air. The ability to just add slight JS functionality with stimulus and action cable seems like just the right level of abstraction for most web apps. [1] https://jumpstartrails.com/ https://jumpstartrails.com/

runjake 1y ago

RoR, because it’s what you know. If you know something else better, use that. If you’re calling out to AI tools, you’ll likely use worker processes and these can be in whatever language you want. Don’t fall into the trap of selecting the perfect stack. Just get started and iterate. You’re already working against the odds enough.

gavmor 1y ago

I'm very comfortably leaning heavily into "local first," and "persistence last" with vite, preact, and peerjs. I'm honestly looking into hono.js literally because of that meme video, and because I like the idea of workerd. But the more I look into building out a hono app, the more I miss Rails.

simplysimplywoo 1y ago

OpenResty Lua, MariaDB, ValKey, JavaScript, Pure CSS

rozenmd 1y ago

The one you already know.

bvnierop 1y ago

The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is the one you are most comfortable with. The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is also the one that is most suitable to the problem that you are trying to solve. Unless those two are wildly different from each other — such as one being Ruby and the other being Haskell — learning the same concepts that you already know in a new language takes a few weeks at best. Personally I picked up Python for a couple of small LLM demos that I have given, but ironically the sample application is otherwise written in .NET (because I am most comfortable hacking GUI applications with .NET), with the Python parts being invoked as a subprocess.

bob1029 1y ago

> But with all the development in AI, I wonder, is it still the best choice? Most AI tools have JS or Python integration but the Rails ecosystem seems a bit behind. The language you use has nothing to do with your ability to participate in "AI". Use what you know. 99% of working with this technology is making a JSON HTTP call to a chat completion endpoint. If your ecosystem supports HTTP and strings, you should be good to go.

ceritium 1y ago

I like Ruby on Rails + Postgres, GoodJob for background Jobs, sveltejs for complex widgets, bootstrap as CSS framework, vite for "compiling" the assets, deploy on Fly.io

zerr 1y ago

Is being a SPA (single page app) always expected for SaaS nowadays?

acstorage 1y ago

I really like Golang, the compile times are crazy

hboon 1y ago

If it doesn't cost much (time/money) to change, TypeScript everything.

austin-cheney 1y ago

For me it’s been the same since 2017: TypeScript and Node. I occasionally need extra libraries for something highly specific like XTerm.js. I have so many personal libraries that cover so many common and edge cases that I can generally just reach into my personal library for 95% of what comes up and be running within 3 hours with a solution that scales well and achieves higher performance than the big frameworks.

aliabi 1y ago

[dead]

nextts 1y ago

Whatever cursor decides

babyent 1y ago

You should be vibe coding