I'm curious about the current popular JavaScript stack for building full-stack applications. I've spent the last five years working with Go, but I have a background in JavaScript and some experience with Astro, although not for full-stack development. As I'm looking to expand my job search into JavaScript roles, especially backend ones, I understand that many positions require full-stack JavaScript capabilities. Any recommendations on the most popular stacks?
6 Answers
For simplicity, I recommend Vue.js with Node.js (using Express) and MongoDB. S3 for file storage is a good option too. Just keep it straightforward!
I personally love the T3 stack. It provides strong typing throughout the whole process and has really sped up my development time. With Next.js included, you can definitely highlight that in job applications. Also, I only use Tailwind and related libraries now; I moved away from Material-UI as it lost its touch over time.
You can't go wrong with using Vite, which supports numerous frontend frameworks, in combination with Express.js or Hono.js. If you want to be more cutting-edge, consider Next.js, Nuxt, or SvelteKit. They allow for a seamless flow of types from the database to the client, but be prepared that self-hosting Next.js might be tougher than other options. Personally, I think Vite with Hono.js makes for the best beginner-friendly combo since it has built-in solutions like validation and OpenAPI helpers.
I opt for a completely serverless architecture using AWS. I leverage Lambda with Node, DynamoDB for storage, Cognito for authentication, and S3/CloudFront to serve my Vue application. It's a fantastic setup once everything is configured, and costs are minimal compared to traditional hosting.
If you're looking for a backend solution, give NestJS a try. It's pretty robust for building server-side applications.
A solid stack right now is Next.js with React and Material-UI for the frontend, paired with Node.js and Express for the backend, plus MongoDB for your database. While I don’t use any specific framework on the backend, we focus on dependency injection with Awilix and generally apply functional programming principles.
But, I'd say watch out with Material-UI; its CSS approach has some quirks, especially with server-side rendering!
Sounds like the classic MERN stack, right?