What is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack, also known as a software stack or development stack, is a combination of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, tools, and technologies that are used to develop and deploy a software application or system.
A tech stack provides a standardized and organized approach to software development, enabling developers to leverage the existing tools, libraries, and frameworks to build efficient and reliable applications. In other words, a tech stack represents the layers of software components and infrastructure that work together to create a functioning software product.
Layers and Components That Constitute a Technology Stack
There are three key components that make up a tech stack:
Client-side (frontend)
Client-facing side that consists of what the user sees and interacts with. Frontend technologies include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and UI frameworks and libraries.
Server-side (backend)
The logic that runs behind the application and its features. Various backend programming languages and tools are used for handling the requests coming from the client-facing side. Backend technologies include web frameworks, programming languages, servers, and operating systems.
Database
Enables the storage of application data like user profiles or information about the product or software.
DIFFERENT LAYERS THAT CONSTITUTE A TECH STACK
1.
Operating System (OS)
- The underlying software that manages computer hardware and provides services for other software applications.
- Examples include Linux, Windows, or macOS
2.
Server-Side Programming
- Includes the programming languages and frameworks used for developing the server-side components of an application.
- It involves handling business logic, data processing, and communication with databases and external services.
- Examples: Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, Node.js, etc.
3.
Web Server
- The web server handles HTTP requests and serves web pages to clients.
- Examples: Apache HTTP Server, Nginx, Microsoft IIS, etc.
4.
Database
- This layer involves selecting and configuring a database management system (DBMS) to store and manage the application's data.
- Examples: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Oracle, etc.
5.
Client-Side Programming
- This layer consists of programming languages, frameworks, and libraries used for building the user interface (UI) and client-side logic of an application.
- Standard technologies include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks like Angular, React, Vue.js, etc.
6.
Frontend Frameworks/ Libraries
- This layer comprises specialized frameworks and libraries that simplify the development of interactive user interfaces and frontend components.
- Examples include React, Angular, Vue.js, Ember.js, etc.
7.
Deployment & Infrastructure
- This layer involves the tools and technologies required to deploy, host, and manage the application in a production environment.
- Examples: Cloud platforms (such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud), containerization technologies (like Docker and Kubernetes), deployment automation tools, and monitoring systems.
The specific technologies and components chosen for each layer may vary depending on your project requirements, scalability needs, performance considerations, target platforms (web, mobile, desktop), and your software development partner’s expertise.
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Top 10 Tech Stacks Used for Software Development in 2024
- A classic, time-tested stack of technologies that stands for – Linux (Operating System), Apache (Web Server), MySQL (Database), and PHP (Programming Language).
- LAMP is one of the first open-source software stacks commonly used to develop and deliver web applications today.
- Efficiently handles dynamic web pages wherein content changes each time when a page is loaded.
- Allows you to choose components based on your specific business requirements. For instance, instead of Linux OS, you can choose Windows OS to form a WAMP stack or macOS to form a MAMP stack. You can also swap PHP in the stack with Perl or Python to get the desired results.
Benefits of Using Tech Stacks in Software Development
- Improves developer efficiency and productivity by streamlining the development process and reducing the time and effort required to set up and configure various components.
- Allows developers to focus on perfecting their code and building new features rather than dealing with integration issues or reinventing the wheel.
- Offers a standardized approach to development, ensuring consistency across the project, and provides the essential guidelines and best practices for coding, architecture, and deployment.
- Promotes code reuse and maintainability and improves the overall quality of the software.
- Popular technology stacks are often backed by active developer communities that provide extensive documentation, tutorials, forums, and support resources to help software developers.
- Modern technology stacks are scalable as they help handle increased traffic, data volumes, and user interactions, so your application can be adapted quickly to changing business demands without making any significant architectural changes or disruptions.
- Compatibility and interoperability between various components of different technology stacks enable smoother data flow and communication between components.
- Components within the stack are designed to work together seamlessly, allowing developers to leverage optimizations and best practices specific to the chosen technologies.
- By choosing a popular and well-supported stack, developers can reduce the risk of encountering major technical issues, security vulnerabilities, or lack of support.
- Availability of free and open-source components (open-source frameworks, libraries, and tools) in tech stacks significantly reduce your licensing costs and encourage your team to build robust and feature-rich solutions without incurring additional expenses.
7 Tips For Choosing Your Technology Stack
Сhoosing, the right technology stack for your web development is a success factor for a project. Aligning technology stack opportunities with your web development functionalities might not suffice in each case, as there are multiple factors to look upon when choosing a technology stack for your project. Here are seven aspects that can help you make the right choice.
7 Factors to Consider when Choosing the Right Tech Stack
1. Define the scope of the project
2. Scalability requirements
3. Technology & Team Expertise
4. Time to market
5. Security requirements
6. Maintenance
7. Development Cost
Define project size, complexity, and functionality
The tech stack used for a small project might vary from that used for bigger projects. The size of the project is a key factor to look out for when choosing a technology stack. Also, the complexity and functionalities of your project matter. If your project is complex and includes heavy functionalities, it is wiser to choose an advanced technology stack.
Scalability requirements
As your project progresses and grows, the tech stack should have the potential to scale sufficiently. You should choose a technology stack that allows for adding new compelling features and handles unpredictable increases in user numbers.
Technology & Team Expertise
It’s important to determine whether or not your team will be able to maintain the application once it is deployed. Consider your team’s experience and expertise when choosing a tech stack. It will be better if you know that your team can use a tech stack successfully and doesn’t require additional training; otherwise, there is no need to consider one.
Time to market
When choosing a tech stack, ensure that it can accelerate your development process without hampering the quality and closes within the deadline.
Security requirements
If your app will handle confidential user data and information, security plays a major role. You need to pick a robust tech stack with fully secured standards & support a high-end security framework to meet your app development goals.
Maintenance
The development process doesn’t end with the app launch, which needs ongoing nurturing at every stage. It is a good practice to choose a tech stack that is easy to maintain by your development team for easy upgrades & regular maintenance.
Development Cost
Despite the fact that many technology stacks are available in the market as open source, they may not incorporate desired functionalities or features you are looking for. Most tech stacks come with a subscription fee if you need special or advanced features. Licensing and maintenance also incur a cost. Furthermore, some technology stacks demand huge salaries for their developers. The overall cost of the technology stack leans on all these factors.
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What Should Be Your Next Step?
Once you have compared and analyzed different technology stacks and discovered the best stack that fits your project, the next step is to start the software development process. But before you start, there is some groundwork to be done which involves these steps.
Project Planning
Plan the development process, determine the project scope, set timelines and milestones, and allocate resources accordingly.
Team Composition
Hire software developers and experts depending on the size and complexity of your project. Ensure your team has the necessary skills and experience to deliver the project.
Development Environment
Install the necessary software, tools, and libraries for setting up your development environment. Configure the environment correctly and provide the required level of access to your team members.
MVP Development
Develop a working Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that you can share with users to validate your idea. Add more features and functionalities based on the user feedback.
Testing and Deployment
Test the application thoroughly to identify and resolve bugs, ensure the application works as intended to give the desired results, and deploy it to the production environment.
How Fingent Helps?
Being a top custom software development company, Fingent adopts the most efficient and modern technology stacks that can make your software products highly competitive and capable of fulfilling your organization’s unique requirements. Here are some of the best practices we follow when selecting software stacks for our clients’ development projects:
- When building a custom software application for our client, we choose a consistent, standardized software stack.
- To reduce development time and streamline resources, we use backend development tools that are designed to work together seamlessly.
- We never follow a one-size-fits-all approach when selecting a tech stack. Instead, we emphasize on employing a tech stack that provides unique advantages to our clients’ software applications.
With the right tech stack and a skilled software development team by your side, you can build innovative software solutions that solve your business challenges and delight your users. If you have any questions on tech stack selection or need free software consulting services, get in touch with our team.
