Building an app or website without the proper tech stack feels like building a house without any blueprint.
Sure you could probably piece together something half way decent that won’t fall apart right away.
But should you? Definitely not.
Your tech stack dictates everything that your project is going to become. From how quickly your site loads to how easy it is to scale with your team, every detail matters.
Fortunately for you, it doesn’t have to be super complicated.
With just a little planning and knowing which tools play nicely together, you can set yourself up for success before you even write your first line of code.
What Is A Tech Stack?
A tech stack is every programming language, framework, or tool that helps your website run.
The stack you choose is like a recipe.
There are going to be your ingredients (languages), how you prepare it (frameworks) and the utensils you use to make it (tools).
Mesh them all together correctly and you’ve created something incredible.
A tech stack can be broken down into two parts.
The Frontend. This contains what your users will see. Languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Frameworks like React or Vue.js.
The Backend. This is where all of your databases and server side languages live. Things like PostgreSQL and Node.js.
These work in tandem together to create a functioning product. Focus on only one and you’ll end up with a Frankenstein monster.
How To Choose Your Development Environment
Your development environment is where all of the action happens.
It’s where you’ll spend most of your time writing code, testing features and breaking things (that nobody wants to fix).
Your development environment is the foundation of your tech stack.
Poorly written code caused by having the wrong tools and development environment is cited as the largest developer frustration by 62% of Stack Overflow users.
Knowing which tools to choose that actually fit your team’s needs is essential.
Starting with your editor of choice and extending all the way to your local server depends on you and your team.
There are a few things you should consider when building your own development environment.
Your code editor. There are hundreds of options out there. VS Code is used by the majority of developers because it’s FREE. It’s also lightning fast and has tons of helpful extensions.
Version Control. This is non negotiable. If you want multiple developers working without killing each other, you need to use Git.
Your local server. All websites need somewhere to run on before they’re deployed. Using Docker containers is a great way to package everything you need into one manageable resource.
Domain Registration Services That Actually Matter
There’s one thing you need to do before you start thinking about development environments and projects.
Get your domain.
Your domain is your online address. I cannot stress how important your domain is.
If you don’t have a good domain, it doesn’t matter how great your website looks or how sexy your tech stack is. No one will remember your website.
But with a good domain name, people will remember your brand. Ensure you pick domain registration services that matter. If you’re launching in Asia, finding the best domain registrar Singapore offers can give you region-specific advantages like local support and faster DNS resolution.
Here are some things you should know when looking for a good domain registrar:
Make sure they offer clear pricing with no hidden costs. DNS management should be easy to use. Find someone with responsive customer service.
Lastly, make sure the registrar you choose offers domain privacy as part of their registration process. Transfers should be simple too.
The domain name industry is huge.
As of Q1 2025, there are 368.4 million domains registered across all TLDs. Major industries who deal with domain name registration bring in BILLIONS.
Tip: Once you land on a domain you want to register, buy it. Period. Great domain names come fast and go even quicker.
Setting Up Your Production Environment
Everything we’ve gone over so far has been focused on development.
That’s all well and good. but what about production? Isn’t that what everyone wants?
Yes. And no.
While your production environment is the goal, there are many pieces you need to put in place before you can call it a complete product.
Your production environment is literally everything your users will interact with.
This means you need to make sure everything is configured properly.
That begins with having a solid web host. Either through traditional web hosting or cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud. This all depends on your traffic expectations and budget.
You’re going to need a content delivery network (CDN). This helps distribute your content to several server locations around the world. Giving your users faster load times.
SSL certificates. Everyone needs an SSL certificate. These help encrypt the transfer of information between your server and your users.
Database hosting. Speaking of hosting. You need to host your data somewhere. Use a cloud provider for this as well. They’ll make backups and scale as you grow.
Monitoring. You need to know when something breaks. Make sure to implement alerts for downtime, slow requests, and errors.
Connecting Development To Production
This is where a lot of development teams struggle.
Everything is working perfectly on your local machine but the second you push to production… poof. Doesn’t work.
Developers loathe differences between their localhost and production environment. Whether they’re running on different operating systems or have different dependencies.
The key to connecting both is planning.
Utilize environment variables. Keep secret variables for API keys and passwords in variables. This will prevent you from pushing them to production.
Create a staging environment. This replica of your production environment is where you can push changes to verify everything works.
Automate deployments. Don’t deploy to production manually. Never. Ever. Automate everything through GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
Test on staging BEFORE you push to production. Every time.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
I know, I know. We’re almost done! But here are a few common mistakes I see new developers make.
Don’t be that person.
Mistake #1: Skipping documentation. You never know when you’ll need to come back to a project. Write down how everything connects.
Mistake #2: Adding security as an afterthought. Adding security later can be costly. And bad for security. Think about security FIRST.
Mistake #3: Overdoing the tech stack. Just because a tool is shiny doesn’t mean you need to use it. Keep things as simple as possible.
Mistake #4: Forgetting about backups. Hope nobody deletes your database. Automate and test backups regularly.
Mistake #5: Chasing trends. Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean you should use it. Evaluate if your team has experience with the technology first.
Issue #6: Not performing load tests. Perform load tests before you go live. Discover bottlenecks now instead of your users.
Bringing It All Together
Starting a project without any road map can be scary. But that’s why we’re here!
Setting up your development environment all the way to production doesn’t have to be scary.
Follow these quick steps, and you’ll be on your way to creating rock solid foundations for years to come.
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Purchase your domain and web hosting first. Everything builds off of this!
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Build your development environment with your team in mind.
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Scalability should be at the forefront of your decisions.
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Implement a staging environment that mirrors production.
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Test. Then automate everything!
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Monitor and iterate!
You now have everything you need to start thinking about your next project through a tech lens.
Use this guide to guarantee you aren’t missing anything.
There’s no denying the importance of having the right tech stack.
Start off with good foundations and you’re setting yourself up for success.
Build off of bad tech decisions and you’ll be in for a world of pain. We’ve all been there.
Make your future self happy and plan for success now.
Then go build something incredible!
