My Tech Stack I've Used To Build 10+ Apps Over 2+ Years

Summary

In this video, the app developer shares insights into his tech stack, focusing on Next.js for frontend development, Vercel for hosting, Planetscale for databases, and Clerk for authentication. He also discusses alternatives like Superbase and recommends PostHog for analytics, highlighting the importance of choosing the right tools for app development.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker is an app developer with over 2.5 years of experience building web applications, occasionally dabbling in mobile development.
• 🛠️ The speaker primarily uses React for the frontend of their apps and Next.js as the go-to framework, with a preference for the App Router since version 13.
• 🌐 They host their applications on Vercel, a platform created by the creators of Next.js, appreciating its seamless hosting and deployment process.
• 💾 For backend needs, the speaker uses PlanetScale as their SQL database provider, running everything on a serverless architecture to avoid managing servers manually.
• 🚀 They mention Render as an alternative for hosting, which has been recommended by other developers and could be used for non-serverless applications.
• 🙅‍♂️ The speaker expresses a dislike for dealing with AWS and GCP, preferring services that handle infrastructure and deployment for them.
• 🔒 For authentication, Clerk is the chosen provider, valued for its out-of-the-box functionality and helpful UI components for user authentication flows.
• 📈 Analytics are crucial for understanding user interaction, and the speaker uses PostHog, an open-source product analytics provider, for this purpose.
• 🆓 The speaker acknowledges the importance of a generous free tier for new developers, noting that PlanetScale's recent removal of their free plan makes it less recommendable for new projects.
• 🔄 They suggest Superbase as an alternative for new developers due to its open-source nature, comprehensive features, and continued generous free tier.
• 📱 If starting from scratch or focusing on mobile apps, the speaker would consider React Native with Expo, despite having prior experience with Flutter and Swift.
• 🔄 The preference for React Native is attributed to the speaker's familiarity with React, although they acknowledge that mobile app development is not their primary expertise.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the video?

The video focuses on discussing the technology stack and tools used by the speaker to build web and potentially mobile applications.

How long has the speaker been developing apps?

The speaker has been developing apps for about two and a half to three years.

What front-end framework does the speaker use for web development?

The speaker uses Next.js as the go-to front-end framework for web development.

Why did the speaker choose Next.js over other frameworks?

The speaker chose Next.js because of its familiarity with React, ease of picking up Next.js, and having enough knowledge to reuse template code across apps.

What hosting platform does the speaker recommend for applications built with Next.js?

The speaker recommends Vercel, a hosting platform created by the creators of Next.js, for its seamless hosting and deployment process.

What are the downsides mentioned about hosting applications on Vercel?

The downside is that Vercel can get expensive once you exceed the free tier, particularly due to high charges for bandwidth.

What is the speaker's choice for an SQL database provider?

The speaker uses PlanetScale as the SQL database provider of choice.

Why did the speaker initially choose PlanetScale?

The speaker initially chose PlanetScale due to its incredibly generous free tier that offered a billion row reads for free every month.

What has changed recently with PlanetScale's pricing that might affect new developers?

PlanetScale has removed their free hobby plan, and the cheapest option now starts at $140 a month, which is quite expensive for new developers.

What alternative does the speaker recommend for new developers looking for a free tier?

The speaker recommends Superbase, an open-source Firebase alternative, for its generous free tier and comprehensive features.

What is the speaker's preferred tool for user authentication in applications?

The speaker prefers Clerk as the authentication provider for its out-of-the-box functionality and helpful UI components.

What analytics provider does the speaker use and why is it recommended?

The speaker uses PostHog, an open-source product analytics provider, for its comprehensive features including surveys, analytics tracking, funnel step-throughs, event tracking, and A/B testing.

What is the speaker's stance on using React Native for mobile app development?

The speaker would consider using React Native for mobile app development due to their comfort with React code, despite not being an expert in mobile app development.

What are the speaker's thoughts on Flutter compared to React Native?

The speaker prefers React Native over Flutter because they are more comfortable with React code, but they acknowledge that this preference might not apply to everyone.

Outlines

00:00

💻 Web Development Stack and Hosting

The speaker discusses their experience as an app developer, focusing on their choice of technology for building web applications. They primarily use React and Next.js as their frontend framework, noting the ease of transitioning from React to Next.js. The speaker emphasizes their preference for Next.js due to its features like server-side rendering and app router. They also mention hosting their applications on Vercel, highlighting its seamless deployment process and the ability to focus on product development without worrying about infrastructure. However, they caution about the potential high costs of Vercel once the free tier is exceeded. Additionally, they discuss their backend setup, using Planet Scale as their SQL database provider and a serverless architecture, which they find beneficial for avoiding server management.

05:02

🔍 Alternatives and Analytics

Continuing the discussion, the speaker addresses the removal of Planet Scale's free tier and suggests Superbase as an alternative for new developers due to its generous free tier and comprehensive features. Superbase is described as an open-source alternative that includes database, authentication, and serverless functions. The speaker then shifts focus to the importance of analytics in app development, recommending PostHog for its open-source nature and extensive features like surveys, event tracking, and A/B testing. They appreciate PostHog's ability to handle multiple aspects of user interaction analysis and its generous free tier. The speaker also briefly touches on their experience with mobile app development, expressing a preference for React Native over Flutter for cross-platform app distribution, despite not being a mobile app expert.

Keywords

💡App Developer

An app developer is a professional who designs and creates applications for mobile devices, desktops, or the web. In the video, the speaker identifies as an app developer with over two and a half years of experience, emphasizing their expertise in building web applications and discussing the tools and technologies they use in their development process.

💡React

React is a popular JavaScript library used for building user interfaces, particularly for single-page applications. The speaker mentions using React for the frontend of their apps, highlighting its significance in their development stack and how it serves as the foundation for their web applications.

💡Next.js

Next.js is a React-based framework that enables the development of server-rendered React applications. The speaker discusses using Next.js as their go-to frontend framework, noting its features like server-side rendering and app router, which facilitate a seamless development experience.

💡Vercel

Vercel is a cloud platform for static sites and web applications, known for its ease of use and integration with Next.js. The speaker praises Vercel for its seamless hosting and deployment process, allowing them to focus on product development rather than infrastructure concerns.

💡PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a serverless database platform that provides a scalable SQL database service. The speaker uses PlanetScale as their database provider of choice, mentioning its previous generous free tier and its role in their serverless architecture, despite the recent removal of the free tier.

💡Serverless Architecture

A serverless architecture is a model where the cloud provider manages the server infrastructure, allowing developers to focus on code rather than server maintenance. The speaker appreciates the serverless architecture for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, especially when using platforms like Vercel and PlanetScale.

💡Clerk

Clerk is an authentication platform that offers user interface components and services to simplify the authentication process in applications. The speaker highly recommends Clerk for its ease of use and out-of-the-box functionality, which streamlines user authentication in their apps.

💡Superbase

Superbase is an open-source alternative to Firebase that provides a suite of backend services including a database, authentication, and serverless functions. The speaker suggests Superbase as a recommendation for new developers due to its generous free tier and comprehensive feature set.

💡PostHog

PostHog is an open-source product analytics tool that helps track user behavior within applications. The speaker uses PostHog for analytics, emphasizing its versatility in providing insights into user interactions, which is crucial for improving the user experience.

💡React Native

React Native is a framework for building native mobile applications using React. The speaker contemplates using React Native for future mobile app development, preferring it over other frameworks due to their familiarity with React and the need for cross-platform compatibility.

💡Expo

Expo is a set of tools and services built around React Native, designed to accelerate the development of mobile apps. Although not explicitly mentioned in the script, the speaker's consideration of React Native implies an interest in Expo as a tool for building mobile apps with a React-based approach.

Highlights

The app developer has been building apps for 2.5 years and will discuss the tech stack used.

Primarily builds web applications, occasionally mobile apps, focusing on web development stack.

Uses React for front-end development, with a background in React making Next.js an easy choice.

Utilizes Next.js as the go-to frontend framework, starting with version 12 and moving to app router in 13 and 14.

Recommends not jumping straight into Next.js unless deeply invested, suggesting trying other frameworks first.

Hosts applications on Vercel, appreciating its seamless hosting and deployment process.

Vercel can be expensive beyond the free tier due to high bandwidth charges.

Uses PlanetScale as the SQL database provider, favoring its serverless architecture.

Mentions Render as an alternative for non-serverless needs, with positive feedback from peers.

Avoids AWS and GCP due to complexity, preferring services that abstract infrastructure management.

Uses Clerk for authentication, praising its out-of-the-box functionality and UI components.

PlanetScale's free tier is being removed, making it less recommendable for new developers.

Recommends Superbase for new developers due to its generous free tier and comprehensive features.

Superbase is an open-source alternative to Firebase, offering database, authentication, and serverless functions.

Uses PostHog for analytics, appreciating its open-source nature and comprehensive feature set.

PostHog offers surveys, analytics tracking, funnel analysis, event tracking, and A/B testing.

Recommends PostHog for early-stage products or solo developers needing a multifunctional tool.

Considers React Native and Expo for mobile app development, valuing cross-platform distribution.

Prefers React Native over Flutter due to familiarity with React, but acknowledges limited mobile app development experience.

Transcripts

as an app developer that's been building

his own apps for the past two and a half

years one of the most commonly asked

questions I get asked is what textt do

you use to build your apps and I've been

telling people in my comments don't

worry I'll make a video about it and

I've been putting it off for so long but

I'm finally making the video today so

without further Ado let me go into

talking about the exact text that I use

to build my own apps and I will also

talk about some Alternatives that you

can use as well so I've been building my

own apps for probably the past 2 and a

half almost 3 years at this point and

I've gone through a lot of variation as

of right now probably for the past year

or so nothing has changed and everything

is staying completely the same so let's

start off with the front end side of

things so for the front end I build all

of my apps in react so before getting

into this video I just want to say that

I primarily build web applications every

now and then in the past I've done some

mobile development but I'm much more

comfortable much more proficient with

the web development side of things so

I'm going to be talking about my web

development stack to build out my apps

but I'll also give out some

recommendations on what I would do if I

were to build out my own mobile apps in

the future again which I kind of want to

do because I have a couple in the back

of my mind of things that I want to

build so in terms of the frontend code

that I write everything in I use nextjs

as my go-to frontend framework I've been

using it since nextjs 12 with the pages

router and then since nextjs 13 and 14

onwards I've been doing everything with

the app router and overall it's pretty

good I originally had a background as a

react developer so picking up nextjs was

honestly pretty straightforward there's

since it's still very very largely react

Bas besides a couple of other

improvements very specific to nextjs

like service side rendering as well as

app routers server actions all that I'm

sure that I would like those Frameworks

as well really I'm just settling on

nextjs because it gained enough

knowledge about it that like the

opportunity cost to learn a completely

brand new framework is pretty high I

have a lot of template code that I have

for myself that I can just reuse across

every single app that I built so if you

don't really have a front end framework

of choice that you are already like very

deeply invested in don't jump straight

into nextjs just try out anything else

that you want I'm really only sticking

with nextjs because it's good enough for

me to just keep building apps with it

and and I'm also deeply invested enough

all right the cost to get out is pretty

high so I like nextjs but I'm not one of

those people that are like nextjs is the

greatest framework in the world nothing

can beat it no I'm sure there are pros

and cons to every single framework so

just up to you to pick one dive deep

into it and really commit to it and then

I host all of my applications on versel

which is a hosting platform created by

the creators of nextjs I really love

working on versell it is just so

seamless in terms of Hosting my

applications the building and deployment

process is super seamless as well and I

really love that it lets me not think at

all about the infrastructure of my

deployments of my code of my app it lets

me focus on building the product and it

handles all the heavy lifting infra

deployment stuff on its own now I will

say it can get pretty expensive once you

start breaking out of the free tier

because they charge a crazy amount for

the bandwidth but For Better or For

Worse I haven't really built an app big

enough to cross that bandwidth yet and

now moving on to the back inside of

things I use Planet scale as my SQL

database provider of choice and I run

everything on a serverless architecture

which makes versel really great once

again I don't have to worry about

spinning my own servers as of right now

I haven't built anything out really

doing enough heavy lifting to justify

renting out some servers but if I were

to I would probably choose something

like render there's been a lot of great

things about it some of my other

developer friends and colleagues have

used it as well and have great things to

say about it so if I ever had to do

something that isn't supported on server

list I will probably end up

transitioning to hosting it on render

instead I know some of you are going to

be like bro you don't use AWS bro you

don't use gcp uh yeah no I don't I hate

dealing with AWS I hate dealing with gcp

if there is any type of software that I

can use that that lets me avoid using

AWS or gcp I'm probably going to use it

I don't have much of an interest in

learning it and I'd much rather just

focus on building the product letting

the infra and the deployments being

handled by some other service that I'll

just happily pay for instead so now

taking a step back in terms of all of my

authentication I use clerk as my

authentication provider of choice I love

using clerk it just works so nicely out

of the box and they provide really

helpful UI components that help users go

through the authentication flow

themselves highly recommend using clerk

you've been using them for probably the

past year year and a half or so I've

used it across various applications no

regrets no desires to change to anything

else so taking one step back now let's

transition to talking about the database

provider that I use and this is the

platform that I use but I don't know if

it's the best platform that you should

use so for myself personally I use

Planet scale as my SQL database provider

of choice I've been using them for a

long time and I love them originally the

reason why I chose Planet scale over

other database provided is the fact that

they used to have an incredibly generous

free tier that had like a billion row

reads for free every single month which

is so crazy I never even got close to

hitting the free limits at all but just

recently in the past couple of weeks

Planet scale announced that they are

getting rid of their free hobby plan and

now the cheapest option that planet

scale provides is a $140 a month option

which is honestly really really

expensive now for the apps that I'm

currently building right now they make

enough money where I can cover this $40

a month cost and I've already built too

much of the app around Planet scale

where the migration cost is a little bit

too high for me to migrate but because

there's no free tier anymore it's hard

for me to recommend this to any new

developer out there that wants to go out

and build their own apps and honestly if

I were to build an app completely from

scratch right now and I wanted to keep

cost as low as possible I would end up

using super base instead and I actually

used super base in the past and I really

enjoyed it and honestly I don't have a

good reason as to why I ended up

switching away from it but super base if

you haven't heard of it is an open

source fire BAS alternative it's like a

One-Stop shop for everything you need

database authentication serverless

functions everything you need they will

host all of that and what's even better

is the fact that they still have a very

very generous free tier so if I were to

do this completely from scratch where I

had to build an app with no users no

Revenue I probably at this point would

go back to using stupid base just

because so much for you completely for

free and they're super generous about it

so that is my recommendation now you may

think that that is all the technology

required to build an app but wait

there's more hold up one important part

of building out an app is the analytics

that you track on your users how exactly

are your users using your application

where are they dropping up in your

application analytics are so important

for any type of product that you're

building and for me the analytics

provider that I use is post hog I've

talked about post hog in the past I'm a

huge fan of them and I cannot recommend

them enough they are an open-source

product analytics provider and they do

so much for you they have surveys they

have analytics tracking they have like

funnel step throughs they have event

tracking they have AB testing feature

plag they truly do so many things

because they do so many things at once

it often times makes them like a jack of

all trades master of none but let's be

honest if you're watching this video

your product is probably so early or you

haven't even started building your

product yet where you really need the

best-in-class experimentation platform

or best in flat you probably just need

something that's cheap does a job really

well and does a lot of things for you at

once and I think post hog is a great

choice for that I use post hog and all

my applications I use them to see how

many users are visiting my website every

single day how are the users of my

websites interacting with my

applications what buttons are they

pressing what screens are they going to

what screens are they not going to how

can I improve that user experience for

them host hog handles all that for me

and because they're open source you can

self-host it if you want but they also

have an incredibly generous free tier

that you probably will not cross into

their premium tier offering once again

it's a great product for anybody that's

just getting started building out their

own products or for any solo developer

that just needs one tool that will do

everything for you highly highly recm

recommend it honestly if you were to ask

me right now which framework I would

probably use I would probably go through

and just absorb the high learning curve

of learning react native and building

apps with Expo because I've actually

never used that framework before I've

tried it like once or twice but it

wasn't too successful with it but in the

past I have built apps with flutter I

have built apps with swift to build

native iOS applications using Swift and

xcode but right now if I were to build

out an application I think the most

important part for me would just be

distribution across both Android and iOS

and with that in mind I personally

prefer using react native over flutter

just because I'm much more comfortable

with writing react code compared to

flutter code but once again I'm not a

mobile app expert I'm just somebody

that's built like two or three mobile

apps in his lifetime but right now if I

were to choose I would probably choose

react native and the biggest reason for

that is because a lot of sdks and apis

they have they often times have native

support for like native cotlin code to

write Android applications native Swift

code to write iOS applications or react

native support but take my mobile app

recommendations with a grain of salt all

right so that is my tech stack of what I

used currently to build out my

application hope you enjoyed it let me

know if you have any questions in the

comments down below