For a small startup, pick the stack your team already knows, keep it to one language, run one monolith against a managed PostgreSQL database, and host it with one provider. Everything else (microservices, Kubernetes, event sourcing, multi-region) solves problems you do not have yet.
The goal of an early stack is not elegance. It is to make the next change cheap while you are still finding out what the product is.
The boring defaults
One language across front and back
TypeScript on both sides means one hiring profile, shared types between API and UI, one set of lint and test tooling, and engineers who can move across the whole product. A frontend developer can fix a backend bug on a bad day. That flexibility matters more at three engineers than any language benchmark.
This is not a rule against other languages. If your team is strong in Python or Go, use that. The point is to avoid choosing a different language per layer without a reason.
Managed PostgreSQL
Postgres handles relational data, JSON columns, full-text search, and a lot of scale before it becomes a problem. Run it as a managed service to delegate defined operational tasks, while checking the plan's backup, recovery and failover coverage. Our comparison of PostgreSQL and MongoDB for SaaS goes into the tradeoffs, and SaaS MVP architecture with Next.js and PostgreSQL shows the shape of a typical build.
A monolith
One deployable codebase, one database, modules separated by folders and clear boundaries. You get one deploy, one log stream, local development with a single command, and transactions that actually span your data. If a module later needs to be extracted, clear module boundaries can reduce the work, though shared data and transactions may still make extraction substantial.
One hosting provider
Put the app, database, and background workers with as few vendors as you can. Each extra vendor adds an account, a bill, an outage surface, and a place where credentials leak. Pick a provider your team can operate, and read the fine print on free tiers (see free-tier hosting cost traps).
What to defer
| Defer | Why it is premature early on | Signal that it is time |
|---|---|---|
| Microservices | Network calls, distributed failures, and several deploy pipelines for a team that fits in one room | Separate teams repeatedly blocked on one codebase, or a component with very different scaling or runtime needs |
| Kubernetes | A full operations discipline to run, for a workload a managed platform handles | You have a dedicated person to own it and workloads a managed platform cannot run |
| Event sourcing / CQRS | Hard to reason about, hard to change, and most products only need an audit table | A real requirement to replay history or rebuild state from events |
| Multi-region | Data consistency and cost problems before you have users spread across regions | Measured latency or compliance requirements that a single region cannot meet |
| Custom infrastructure as a product | Time not spent on the product | Never before product-market fit |
You can start simple and still design for change: keep business logic out of route handlers, put a thin layer between your code and third-party services, and write migrations for every schema change.
Team skills beat hype
A stack your team can debug at 11 pm is better than a trendier one nobody has shipped with. Ask three questions:
- Who on the team has shipped this in production before?
- If that person leaves, how fast can someone else become productive?
- Is the documentation good, and is the project actively maintained?
Hype cycles are a poor guide. Maturity, documentation, and the size of the community are better ones.
The hiring pool in India
Test hiring assumptions in your actual market. Write a realistic role description, review available candidates in your budget and ask who could maintain the application if the lead engineer leaves. A language's online popularity does not establish that suitable developers are available locally.
Compare the cost of training your existing team with the cost and delay of recruiting for a new stack. Check agency and contractor availability too, especially if they will cover incidents or handover.
An example default stack
This is a starting point, not a prescription.
| Layer | Default | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Language | TypeScript | One language across browser and server; verify runtime inputs separately |
| Web app | Next.js (App Router) | UI, server rendering, and API routes in one project |
| API | Next.js route handlers, or NestJS if the API grows | Start in one project, split only when it earns it |
| Database | Managed PostgreSQL | Relational integrity, mature tooling |
| ORM / migrations | A typed ORM with migration files in git | Schema changes are reviewable |
| Auth | A hosted provider or a well-maintained library | See our authentication guide |
| Background jobs | A queue backed by Postgres or Redis | Add when you have work that cannot run in a request (background jobs) |
| Hosting | One provider for app and database | Fewer vendors, one bill |
| CI/CD | Git-hosted pipeline running lint, tests, deploy | Every merge is deployable |
| Monitoring | Error tracking plus uptime check | See the pre-launch checklist |
Apex built the Offease office-space marketplace with Next.js, NestJS APIs, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse, Docker, and Azure. That is a larger system than most MVPs need, and its documented project scope is broader than the reference MVP here. Do not copy it on day one.
When to deviate
- Heavy real-time or compute work. A video, ML, or data pipeline may justify Python or Go services next to your monolith.
- Your team is strong elsewhere. Django, Rails, or Laravel monoliths are excellent defaults if that is what your people know.
- Documents and flexible schemas. If your data really is document-shaped with no relational needs, a document store can fit. Map your expected queries and integrity rules before choosing.
- Mobile first. If the product is an app, the stack changes at the client. See PWA vs native vs cross-platform.
- Compliance or data residency. These can dictate cloud, region, and architecture from the start.
Deviate on purpose, write down why, and revisit the decision when the reason changes.
Practical steps
- List what your team already ships well. Start there.
- Choose one language, one database, one host.
- Build a monolith with clear module boundaries.
- Write down the three triggers that would make you split something out.
- Revisit those triggers every quarter, with real numbers.
If you want a second opinion on a stack before you commit, our product team does this as part of MVP scoping.