Ask HN: Tech stack for small SaaS side projects as a solo developer?

The unicorn framework ;) but seriously maybe using using something like Wordpress or drupal with plugins would work or maybe something like the elixir based phoenix framework deployed on fly.io

imho.

1. the tech-stack you already know well.

if you are familiar with something: build on your existing experience.

2. php + some mature & well documented framework like laravel

php is often disliked by the "we know it better" crowd here on HN.

but: it offers a high rate of productivity, is easier to deploy on a wide range of hosting-possibilities than anything using python or other script-languages

preface: i would recommend the following only if you already have experience with it!!

3. python + some mature & well documented framework like django

in my experience: deploying / maintaining python-based webapps is more effort than php-based ones

just my 0.02 €

Ruby on Rails is still the best at what you're describing if it's a web app.

TALL stack (tailwind, alpine js, Laravel, Livewire)

(You could also use Larave + Inertia js + React/Vue)

I think Livewire is way faster to develop in and has less bloat/complexity.

Laravel Jetstream gives you scaffold and auth + 2FA out of the box.

TailwindUI is cut and paste LEGO like components (you'll have to Alpine js some of them but it's quick and easy)

Tons of Laravel packages available to do what you need to do.

Laravel Spark if you want a fast SaaS in a box for connecting to Stripe

Laravel Forge (EC2) or Vapor (Serverless) makes spinning up servers and deployment super easy.

Some of these are paid but you can definitley do it without them but all the paid items have crazy ROI.

It's telling that almost all these comments recommend things that aren't JavaScript web frameworks. This has been my experience too, you want to avoid that ecosystem. For this reason in particular:

> language/platform/dependencies updates are infrequent, easy to do, unlikely to break the app;

I'll second the Django, Rails, Laravel, but also add something statically typed like Java with Spring if this is purely an API backend. Static types will give you peace of mind during runtime for years.

Stick to relational databases. Don't buy into hype stuff on Medium blogs. You can go a long way on a VPS with an LTS distro on auto-update (very few SaaS businesses actually have scale that exceeds what a modern VPS can do).