The Tech Stack We Use in 2026 (And Why)

Every agency lists logos on their website. Few explain why those tools made the cut. After six years of building products, our own and for clients, we've refined a stack that optimizes for one thing: shipping quality software fast.

This isn't a "best tools" list. It's what we actually use in production, across projects like Roomismo (our property management system), bid2board (a freight marketplace), and digital platforms for ADCB and JP Morgan. Here's the full breakdown.

TypeScript is the foundation of everything we build. Frontend, backend, infrastructure config, all TypeScript.

The reasoning is simple: a single language across the entire stack means any engineer on the team can debug any layer. Types catch bugs at compile time instead of 2 AM in production. And when you're building an MVP on a tight timeline, the last thing you need is context-switching between languages.

We migrated from JavaScript to TypeScript in 2021 and haven't looked back. The upfront investment in types pays for itself within the first week of any project.

React is our UI layer. Next.js is how we ship it.

Next.js gives us server-side rendering for SEO-critical pages, static generation for marketing sites, and a clean API route layer that often eliminates the need for a separate backend service. The App Router (introduced in Next.js 13, now mature) lets us colocate data fetching with components, which dramatically simplifies our codebases.

For startups, this matters because it means fewer moving parts, faster page loads, and better search rankings, all with a single deployment on Vercel or AWS.

When we need a standalone backend for real-time systems, complex business logic, or microservices, it's Node.js with Express or Fastify.

The shared TypeScript ecosystem is the obvious benefit: shared types between frontend and backend, shared validation schemas (we use Zod), and shared utility libraries. But Node.js also excels at I/O-heavy workloads, which describes most of what we build: APIs that talk to databases, third-party services, and payment processors.

For Roomismo's channel manager, which maintains live connections to 50+ OTAs (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, etc.), Node's event-driven architecture handles thousands of concurrent webhook callbacks without breaking a sweat.

We use both, and the choice depends on the project.

MongoDB is our default for MVPs and products where the data model is still evolving. Its flexible schema means we can iterate fast without migration headaches. Roomismo, Quickord, and Ridebly all run on MongoDB.

PostgreSQL comes in when we need relational integrity, complex queries, or when the client's domain demands it. FinTech, banking, anything with transactions that need ACID guarantees. The ADCB digital banking platform runs on PostgreSQL.

We never pick a database for ideological reasons. We pick the one that fits the problem.

Another "it depends" choice. REST is our default. It's simpler, better understood, and sufficient for 80% of projects.

GraphQL earns its place when the frontend needs flexible data fetching across complex, nested resources. If the alternative is 15 REST endpoints that each return slightly different shapes of the same data, GraphQL wins. We've used it extensively in projects with rich dashboard UIs where different views need different slices of the same entities.

Both use TypeScript end-to-end with generated types, so the API contract is always enforced at compile time.

When a client needs a mobile app alongside their web platform, React Native with Expo is our answer.

The code sharing with our React web apps is significant: not just UI components, but business logic, API clients, validation schemas, and type definitions. For a startup shipping both web and mobile, this can cut development time by 30-40%.

Expo has matured enormously. EAS Build handles CI/CD, push notifications work out of the box, and the development experience with hot reload is genuinely fast. We used this stack for Ridebly's passenger and driver apps.

We deploy to AWS. EC2, ECS, S3, CloudFront, RDS, Lambda, the usual suspects.

For simpler projects (marketing sites, landing pages), we use Vercel. It's the fastest path from code to production for Next.js apps. But for anything with custom infrastructure needs like background workers, WebSocket servers, managed databases, or file processing pipelines, AWS is the answer.

We use Terraform for infrastructure-as-code, which means every environment (dev, staging, production) is reproducible and version-controlled. No snowflake servers.

Every product we've built that handles money uses Stripe. Roomismo processes guest payments, Quickord handles restaurant orders, and multiple client projects use Stripe Connect for marketplace payouts.

Stripe's API is the gold standard for developer experience. Their webhook system is reliable, their documentation is excellent, and their compliance handling (PCI, SCA, 3D Secure) saves months of work.

We've built custom Stripe integrations for subscription billing, one-time payments, marketplace splits, and invoice generation. At this point, we could probably do it in our sleep.

Choices about what to exclude are as important as what to include.

We don't use Python or Django for web apps. TypeScript everywhere keeps things simpler. We don't use Kubernetes for most projects. It's overkill for the scale most startups operate at. We don't use microservices by default. A well-structured monolith ships faster and is easier to debug. We don't chase new frameworks. We adopt tools when they're proven, not when they're trending.

Boring technology that works beats exciting technology that might.

Our stack isn't revolutionary. It's deliberately conventional. TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, MongoDB/PostgreSQL, AWS. These are mainstream, well-supported tools with massive ecosystems and deep talent pools.

That's the point. When you're building a product that needs to ship, scale, and eventually be maintained by your own team, the last thing you want is a bespoke stack that only one agency understands.

We optimize for developer velocity, long-term maintainability, and easy handoff. Every tool in our stack serves that goal.