After building 50+ products, this is the tech stack we recommend to every startup founder.
By David Friedman, Founder of AppBrewers
Your tech stack is a business decision, not just a technical one. The wrong choice costs months. The right choice lets you ship fast and scale without rebuilding. Here is our battle-tested stack for 2026.
Frontend
Web: Next.js 15
- App Router for server components
- Built-in SEO optimization
- Edge deployment on Vercel
- React Server Components reduce bundle size
Mobile: React Native + Expo
- One codebase for iOS and Android
- Over-the-air updates
- Push notifications out of the box
- EAS Build for CI/CD
Backend
API: Next.js API Routes + tRPC
- Type-safe APIs from end to end
- No API client generation needed
- Automatic input validation
Serverless: Firebase Cloud Functions
- Event-driven triggers
- Firestore integration
- Pay per execution
Database
Primary: PostgreSQL (Supabase or Neon)
- Relational data with JSON support
- Row Level Security for multi-tenancy
- Real-time subscriptions
Cache: Redis (Upstash)
- Session storage
- Rate limiting
- Background job queues
Auth
Clerk or Firebase Auth
- Social login (Google, Apple, GitHub)
- Multi-factor authentication
- Role-based access control
- User management dashboard
AI
OpenAI GPT-4o / Claude 3.5
- Best reasoning for complex tasks
- Streaming for real-time UX
- Function calling for structured output
Vector DB: Pinecone or Supabase pgvector
- RAG for knowledge bases
- Semantic search
- Cheap at scale
Infrastructure
| Layer | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Vercel | 0-20 Euro/month |
| CDN | Cloudflare | Free |
| Monitoring | Sentry | 0-26 Euro/month |
| CI/CD | GitHub Actions | Free |
| Storage | Cloudflare R2 | 0.015 Euro/GB |
Total Monthly Cost
| Stage | Cost |
|---|---|
| MVP | 0-50 Euro/month |
| Growth | 50-300 Euro/month |
| Scale | 300-2,000 Euro/month |
What We Avoid
- Kubernetes for early-stage (overkill)
- Self-hosted auth (security risk)
- Custom CSS frameworks (use Tailwind)
- Native mobile without cross-platform justification
- Building our own LLM (use OpenAI/Claude)
Need a Startup Built?
We ship MVPs in 4-8 weeks using this exact stack. Next.js, React Native, Firebase, OpenAI. Fixed pricing. Malta-based team.
Originally published on the AppBrewers Blog.
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