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Ask HN: Proven front end stack for fast iteration

7 points by skwee357 3y ago

Hey! I’m building a one man SaaS (and sharing the journey in my LinkedIn/Blog - check the bio for more info). I’m more of a backend guy, and know NodeJS well enough, so my backend stack is chosen. I however despise frontend, and never liked working with it. What is a good frontend stack for fast iteration, for a non dynamically heavy website? Is it server site rendering with a template engine like ejs? Is it Next.js? Something else? I have experience with Next, Astro, react and tailwind - if that helps. Thanks!

dylanhassinger 3y ago
then use that stuff. the best stack is usually the stack u know
codingdave 3y ago
> I have experience with... Use that. Any stack you know is faster than any stack you need to learn.
geonic 3y ago
Nothing beats Rails productivity for me, and I’ve been working with Rails on and off for more than a decade.
- revskill 3y ago
  Actually, it's Rails console is the killer feature of RoR. Other than that, RoR view, controllers, models is ugly. Why Rails view uses HTML ? Should use a pure Ruby class here. Why there's no standard validation on HTTP layer in controller ? Why using model for both persistence and validation layer ? Alright, Rails is omasake, let's forget about separation of concerns.
moomoo11 3y ago
use what you know, it is always fastest. but if you want to keep it even simpler just use sveltekit and tailwind, and put the build output on a CDN. lets you do SSR or not, just html + js/ts (you pick) + css. simple and easy.
tedyoung 3y ago
Why not htmx? If your front-end is truly a front-end and there’s not a lot of state needed in the FE, htmx.org might be a great fit.
SkyPuncher 3y ago
I can’t ever seem to get away from Rails. I don’t think it’s the fastest, but it’s pretty close and has an enormous community. So many things that you can do with a gem and some configuration. Toyed with T3 stack over the winter. It’s a really well written full stack. Automatic type sharing. Fast iteration. Great for frontend heavy applications.
userforcomment 3y ago
+1 to use what you know comments, also check out https://github.com/calcom/cal.com https://github.com/calcom/cal.com tech stack(next+prisma/trpc). If you have literally zero frontend experience though, vue 3 was very beginner friendly for me
aregsar 3y ago
If you want to stick with js backend you might look at redwoodjs. Though they are in the process of changing from jamstack SPA to react server components backend rendered architecture.
schwartzworld 3y ago
> Is it Next.js? React based setups are incredibly fast and productive once you grok the React way of doing things, but it is different than you are probably used to. I'm not sure if being fast after spending a year getting used to it is what you're looking for though.

7 points by skwee357 3y ago

dylanhassinger 3y ago

then use that stuff. the best stack is usually the stack u know

codingdave 3y ago

> I have experience with... Use that. Any stack you know is faster than any stack you need to learn.

geonic 3y ago

Nothing beats Rails productivity for me, and I’ve been working with Rails on and off for more than a decade.

revskill 3y ago
Actually, it's Rails console is the killer feature of RoR. Other than that, RoR view, controllers, models is ugly. Why Rails view uses HTML ? Should use a pure Ruby class here. Why there's no standard validation on HTTP layer in controller ? Why using model for both persistence and validation layer ? Alright, Rails is omasake, let's forget about separation of concerns.

moomoo11 3y ago

use what you know, it is always fastest. but if you want to keep it even simpler just use sveltekit and tailwind, and put the build output on a CDN. lets you do SSR or not, just html + js/ts (you pick) + css. simple and easy.

tedyoung 3y ago

Why not htmx? If your front-end is truly a front-end and there’s not a lot of state needed in the FE, htmx.org might be a great fit.

SkyPuncher 3y ago

I can’t ever seem to get away from Rails. I don’t think it’s the fastest, but it’s pretty close and has an enormous community. So many things that you can do with a gem and some configuration. Toyed with T3 stack over the winter. It’s a really well written full stack. Automatic type sharing. Fast iteration. Great for frontend heavy applications.

userforcomment 3y ago

+1 to use what you know comments, also check out https://github.com/calcom/cal.com https://github.com/calcom/cal.com tech stack(next+prisma/trpc). If you have literally zero frontend experience though, vue 3 was very beginner friendly for me

aregsar 3y ago

If you want to stick with js backend you might look at redwoodjs. Though they are in the process of changing from jamstack SPA to react server components backend rendered architecture.

schwartzworld 3y ago

> Is it Next.js? React based setups are incredibly fast and productive once you grok the React way of doing things, but it is different than you are probably used to. I'm not sure if being fast after spending a year getting used to it is what you're looking for though.