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Ask HN: Tech stack advice for a new website

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Ask HN: Tech stack advice for a new website

#1

Post by thookipodu »

Hello HN,

I have a budding idea to build a website in edtech space. my daughter will be the first user. If it works, I want to make it public. I have these questions

1) Should I have the website running in cloud from day one ? If yes, any thoughts/recommendations ? If no, what I can do now, make that change (which I think is eventual) seamless?

2) What is the recommended tech stack ? I am looking for an option that I can stick with (mostly) and not make and future drastic changes

Context

I am not trying to learn any new technology/framework. I am quite comfortable with Python/Java/Clojure/Javascript stack

If you have read so far, thank you !

EDIT (1)

Below are considerations in decreasing order

1. Running cost of the setup

2. My time - I want to spend time on value creation.

Re: Ask HN: Tech stack advice for a new website

#4

Post by romanhn »

First off, I don't think anyone can answer these questions for you. There are a ton of considerations that could influence the end result, and you haven't provided any context really, so any answers you get will reflect this. That said I'll give it a shot.

1. You'll likely get a bunch of opposing opinions here on HN, it's a divisive topic (which probably means you can go with either and be fine). That said, my recommendation would be to start with the cloud - tons of managed services out of the box, good default security, lots of resources, ease of experimentation and rolling back infra that didn't work out, etc. Look into serverless tech like Lambda to control costs.

2. Whatever you already know best. Unless you're looking to learn some specific tech. But if you're focused on delivery, underlying languages/frameworks matter vanishingly little.

Re: Ask HN: Tech stack advice for a new website

#7

Post by mixmastamyk »

viginti_tres wrote: post #5

htmx and flask/django

Time is critical before you give up and python is a great prototyping language. htmx, yes and Django specifically will be the most productive by the second day when you go to implement the login page.

Use postgres, no excuses. Managed when you go for hosting.

Finally, don't worry about cloud for months. Put it in a container at some point, and cloud can happen naturally after that.

Use linters and formatters from the beginning to keep tech debt manageable. Don't worry about most typing and tests until the design finalizes however. Wait for version 1.1, 2.0.

If performance becomes a problem at that time, rewrite hot paths in cython, or split off microservices in java, golang etc.

Re: Ask HN: Tech stack advice for a new website

#10

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

The approach here to answering your questions is to give you the easiest path towards making something.

1. Cloud hosting? No - buy the cheapest linux virtual server you can - like $5/month hosting. Cloud is most appropriate for variable compute needs (which edtech has) but you're not there yet. When you have scaling problems, solve scaling problems. Since you have a trial user at home you could build it out locally or use VPN tools to allow access to a server inside for the short term. Once you have a solid product, then figure out longer term hosting.

2. Tech Stack? Regarding your context - pick the tech stack you are quite comfortable with, its probably easiest to go with Python of the ones you listed since there is likely to be lots of docs on setting that up for a small hosting company once you get to that point.

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