
Ask HN: What is your favorite tool to build web startup? - jessmc
Inspired by https:&#x2F;&#x2F;steveblank.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;09&#x2F;22&#x2F;how-to-build-a-web-startup-lean-launchpad-edition&#x2F;.<p>List your favorite tools, share your experience if any.
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cdnsteve
The thing that often gets misunderstood is that there's no magic technology
that gives a massive competitive advantage here. If you pick Django/Python,
PHP/Laravel, Rails, Node, Go, Java, whatever... you end up the same place.
Keep it simple, since it will change if your business experiences growth
anyways. Pick what you know, or what you want to hire for.

How do you create value for your customers and offer them something that is
worth them paying for? Your customer doesn't know/care about the tech behind
it. The technology side is a piece of the business puzzle with the goal of
shipping your product/service and gaining traction ASAP.

If you don't get traction, the technology side doesn't really matter because
the business case isn't there. Ship to market, get feedback, iterate, get more
customers and repeat.

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quickthrower2
Use the tools you are used to. I doubt there is much advantage in any
particular stack. They seem to catch up to each other. Ruby has some kind of
type checker nowadays (can't recall the name). .NET has dynamic types if you
need them etc. etc. I like the idea of using Haskell but really I can never be
more productive than using my "home stack".

~~~
zergov
I think you're talking about Sorbet:
[https://sorbet.run/](https://sorbet.run/)

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wrestlerman
Rails (I'm Ruby dev). I've been playing with Vue lately and like it a lot. You
can have all component's code in one place -> html+js+css, so it's super fast
and easy to keep adding code. Also, I like React, but somehow whenever I use
it I feel I am writing a lot of code for simple stuff.

I am finishing my first product in Elixir. It has some rough edges like
deployment, but I start to like it more than ruby&rails - the code is much
more readable and imo easier to write. Surprisingly I feel a bit more
productive in it than rails.

I'd say the best tool is the one you know. If you don't know any tool for your
specific problems, look for the simplest and most sane solution.

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raztogt21
Agree on the single file components for Vue, they're amazing. Agree on the
React, I found a lot of overhead to do even the most simple things, maybe I
still not grasp the beauty around it.

~~~
wrestlerman
I think it's because Vue is opinioned, just like Rails, therefore dev's
happiness(?)&productivity is one of the main goals of these frameworks. In
case of React, there are a lot of libs you can choose from, I'd probably use
React in more heavy JS application - think some games or something like
draw.io (don't know how to call it). To be honest, I don't have enough
experience to back up my claims, so take it with a grain of salt.

~~~
raztogt21
dev's happiness & productivity seems like a good metrics to compare on JS
frameworks.

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ishjoh
It depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. If I'm trying to build something
quick to prove that there are interested people out there I use a static html
page with JQuery and Form Gadget
([https://www.formgadget.com/](https://www.formgadget.com/)) to handle form
submissions and integrations. Sometimes this is enough even for the product
depending on what it is.

If it's something that includes a subscription model, etc, then I like Akka
Http (Scala), Slick, JQuery or React + Redux. More importantly though go with
what you know well and can make progress in quickly, unless you want to learn
something new.

Disclosure: I built Form Gadget.

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joshmn
My favorite tool is boring Ruby/Rails because I know it best and I'm hyper-
productive.

Your favorite tool should be whatever allows you to be hyper-productive. The
goal isn't to be flashy or cool or hip, the goal is to create something:
features, changes, bugs, etc.

If you value your time and sanity, go with what you know.

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andrei_says_
Rails with as little front-end js as possible. I am yet to see or experience a
more efficient workflow for a custom app.

Also, competitive research and paper prototyping before coding.

Having built a bunch of these helps me ask the right questions and postpone
the right features to make it possible to get to an mvp really fast.

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shanehoban
PHP, Bootstrap, JavaScript (and jQuery), MySQL, Apache, Stripe for
subscriptions, Mailgun.

I use Node for building it, WinSCP to upload it, and I just delete everything,
and unzip the new build.

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csa
Customers.

Talk to them.

Learn from them.

Iterate based on what they say and/or do.

Market to them using their words.

~~~
jesterson
Absolutely the best answer. People tend to focus on tools, not the goal

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tanin
Playframework (with Scala) + Vue.js (with Typescript) + Heroku.

It gives me a good balance on development speed over project's age and
performance. I particularly like the balance of type safety and brevity.

Learning curve is high for new comers because of Scala and how to integrate
Vue.js with Playframework. But, once I know how to do it, it's not an issue
when starting a new project.

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crisopolis
Elixir/Phoenix + ES6/Vue + Stripe + PostgreSQL + Vultr

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nikhildaga
React + GraphQL + Node + PostgreSQL

We have written a blog about it: [https://ideatostartup.org/blog/idea-to-
startup/the-best-tech...](https://ideatostartup.org/blog/idea-to-startup/the-
best-technologies-to-create-web-and-mobile-apps)

~~~
akmittal
All this plus typescript

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makeee
react, node, next.js (framework), firebase (db/auth), bulma (css), divjoy
(prototyping with code export), zeit now (hosting)

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mindcrime
Core parts of my stack at the moment:

Groovy/Grails, Bootstrap, jQuery, Postgresql, AWS, Stripe, Mailchimp, Github

Apereo CAS for Single-Sign-On

Activiti for workflow management / BPM

We also have a core suite of internal services that are mostly built using
Java + Spring Boot.

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Karupan
Of late, I've moved to Elm/Lambda functions/DynamoDB or PostgreSQL. I've seen
my productivity improve a lot when using Elm with the added advantage of being
able to clearly define the problem in my mind.

Using Netlify for deployment has also save me a lot of headache (they really
are awesome!)

In the end, like everyone else points out, its about picking a set of tools
which lets you work without thinking too much about the development process
itself.

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BjoernKW
GitHub Pages, Google Forms, WordPress, Mailchimp.

Angular, Spring Boot and PostgreSQL if it actually turns out to be something
for which there’s sufficient demand.

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claudiug
rails + heroku + pg + vuejs + bootstrap/bulma

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countryqt30
I built two multi-million $ companies with Wordpress and HTML/CSS/JS
scrapping. It doesn't really matter. Users don't care about your underlying
tech. Tech advantage exists, but it's certainly not tied to a specific
programming language. Understanding your user is key, and executional
excellence and overdelivering, not technology.

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samstave
An additional question would be all the ancillary tools needed to build a
startup:

Mail + Payments + Payroll + Insurance + Marketing +++ etc..

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jamestimmins
I suspect that this is substantially more important as a differentiator,
because they directly facilitate interaction with customers.

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z33d
Money

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h1d
Do what with it?

~~~
CloudNetworking
Pay others to answer that question! :D

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sam0x17
Rails for me, or one of the new crystal lang web frameworks if I'm feeling
adventurous. Rails has the syntax you wan't, and crystal has both the syntax
and the speed, but it's not quite yet 1.0.

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kishan0326
My Favorite is Django/React/Material Design.

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auspex
Go -- Backend

Vue.js -- Front end

Vuetify

Docker

Kubernetes

GCP

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aviv
AWS, Python and Angular. Nothing else is needed. Go make your millions.

