The project had a very tight budget. That's why relocating devs from across Germany / Europe was not an option. Also, even if the funding was better: One impor

The project had a very tight budget. That's why relocating devs from across Germany / Europe was not an option. Also, even if the funding was better: One important aspect is: What if key developers (in that fancy new technology) leave the project? How fast can you find new devs? If it is a widespread technology (say: Node/Express + React) there is no risk. But think of hiring Erlang developers in your region. I like Scheme (and it's influence on JS), I love functional programming, I like Ruby a lot, I really love Elixir. I like Python and Django a lot. But when it comes to setting up a project there are many aspects that determine my decision for technology. Some very important ones: What are my tech alternatives to tackle a problem? How wide spread is that technology in my region? How fast can I hire talented people in that tech? I do acknowledge that a small team of good Python+Django devs for instance can work more efficiently than a team of PHP devs who don't appreciate software engineering qualities (not saying that there aren't really profound PHP devs out there, but many PHP devs who don't have profound software engineering qualities). There are only three real alternatives for web dev in Germany (if you have a tight budget): PHP based, Node/Express+React/Angular or Ruby/Rails based. I wouldn't even consider Python/Django, and forget about Elixir/Phoenix.