Ship Your First Web App · Module 1 · Scope and build
Picking a boring stack (and what each piece does)
7 min read · lesson 2 of 5
A 'boring' stack is one with a decade of Stack Overflow answers. For a first app that means: a JavaScript framework, a host, and at most one backend service.
The three pieces
- Framework (React, Vue, Svelte) — builds the UI from components. Pick one; they all ship real apps.
- Host (Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages) — turns 'npm run build' into a public HTTPS URL, free for static sites.
- Backend service (Supabase, Firebase) — only when you need accounts or shared data. Skip it for v1 if you can.
Static-first is the honest default: if your v1 needs no database, ship a static site. It's faster, un-hackable, and free at every meaningful scale.
Don't choose the database before the screen. Data model follows UI, never the reverse, in v1.
Practice
Write down your framework + host. If either line is blank or trendy-new, swap it for what you already know.