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Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
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Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#22The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is the one you are most comfortable with.
The ideal tech stack for a solo dev to use in 2025 is also the one that is most suitable to the problem that you are trying to solve.
Unless those two are wildly different from each other — such as one being Ruby and the other being Haskell — learning the same concepts that you already know in a new language takes a few weeks at best.
Personally I picked up Python for a couple of small LLM demos that I have given, but ironically the sample application is otherwise written in .NET (because I am most comfortable hacking GUI applications with .NET), with the Python parts being invoked as a subprocess.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#23> But with all the development in AI, I wonder, is it still the best choice? Most AI tools have JS or Python integration but the Rails ecosystem seems a bit behind.
The language you use has nothing to do with your ability to participate in "AI". Use what you know. 99% of working with this technology is making a JSON HTTP call to a chat completion endpoint. If your ecosystem supports HTTP and strings, you should be good to go.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#24Prototype the crappiest thing you can in RoR (if you're still happy to use it). When you hit a problem ask people (most likely still doable as it's just REST api endpoints) and if not, possibly re-evaluate. At worst you'll know if your idea is worthless (probably lol) and if the tools you used were good or not. Rinse-repeat. Good luck!
Thanks! The thing is, I like ROR but I don’t love it. As in, I like it a lot better than full stack JS but it doesn’t feel quite right. That’s why I’m tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#25Whatever stack you are most comfortable using. If all your integrations with AI are via HTTP API's then it does not matter what stack you choose, they all can call API's. Maybe some stacks will have pre-built libraries but really, AI like cursor, copilot or chatgpt can create an AI HTTP API library if that's what you're doing. If you are building AI/ML yourself then you'll have narrower choices of stacks. If you choo…
That’s a good point about the integration. I mostly need to make API calls and have an app that’s easy enough to maintain as a solo founder so it’s mostly a matter of finding the stack that feels right.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#26As usual, isn't the next question... "What are you trying to build?" I build most projects in Elixir/Phoenix these days, but wouldn't flinch at ROR if you are comfortable with it.
Right now, an AI tool that generates mockups for branding agencies. But I’m still validating the idea so who knows. Ideally, I would like a stack that would work for most SaaS I may think of building. Tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try. I briefly tried it a few years back and it just felt right.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#27Prototype the crappiest thing you can in RoR (if you're still happy to use it). When you hit a problem ask people (most likely still doable as it's just REST api endpoints) and if not, possibly re-evaluate. At worst you'll know if your idea is worthless (probably lol) and if the tools you used were good or not. Rinse-repeat. Good luck!
Thanks! The thing is, I like ROR but I don’t love it. As in, I like it a lot better than full stack JS but it doesn’t feel quite right. That’s why I’m tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try.
Is your goal to ship a product and get customers, or to learn a framework?
Both are totally valid, but they're somewhat orthogonal.
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#28I like Ruby on Rails + Postgres, GoodJob for background Jobs, sveltejs for complex widgets, bootstrap as CSS framework, vite for "compiling" the assets, deploy on Fly.io
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#29Is being a SPA (single page app) always expected for SaaS nowadays?
Re: Ask HN: What's the ideal stack for a solo dev in 2025
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks! The thing is, I like ROR but I don’t love it. As in, I like it a lot better than full stack JS but it doesn’t feel quite right. That’s why I’m tempted to give Elixir Phoenix a try.
Is your goal to ship a product and get customers, or to learn a framework? Both are totally valid, but they're somewhat orthogonal.
Getting customers is the main goal but I’m lucky enough to have an existing SaaS that pays the bills on autopilot so I can afford to learn and not get results nearly as fast.