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My 2026 Tech Stack is Boring as Hell (And That is the Point)

NorthernDev on January 02, 2026

I spent years chasing the shiny new thing. In 2026, I am betting on the most controversial architecture of all: Simplicity. ​I used to be a Resume...
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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

What is the one "boring" tool you refuse to give up?

HTML/CSS/JS I think about sums it up!

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​The holy trinity. You can't get more foundational than that.
​At the end of the day, every complex framework we invent just compiles down to those three things anyway. It is the only stack guaranteed to still work in 2036.

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dariomannu profile image
Dario Mannu • Edited

React is not just boring. It's very cumbersome to work with, slow, conceptually broken and heavy.

SQL is not beautiful. It would be if the world could actually fit 2D tables and never changed its shape.

GraphQL is not cool. It's actually very boring. Setting up infrastructure, configuration, resolvers... ah... shall we touch how heavily it can hit the client?

As an intermediate solution, dopamine antagonists can make everything feel boring again, if hype was the only thing in the way of making good choices. 😈

So, not sure "boring" should be the driving requirement as it can introduce bias the same way as just following hype and trends would. Maybe it's not just about being "boring", but there are other factors, as well?

With innovation happening faster and faster in all industries, it's equally important to spot good innovation more effectively and filter out the useless noise.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

You bring some necessary nuance to the discussion. You are right that the Titanic analogy breaks down at scale, you cannot run global logistics on a wooden boat.
​I also agree that "boring" should not become a dogma. It is intended as a heuristic to filter noise. The burden of proof should be on the new tool to demonstrate why it is better than the proven one, rather than the other way around.
​Innovation is vital, but as you said, filtering out the noise is the real challenge.

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daniel15 profile image
Daniel Lo Nigro

Using a boring stack on a $30/year VPS is underrated. We don't hear about it enough because it just works and has essentially worked the same way "forever".

A single VPS can handle a lot more traffic than many people would think. I have a site that handles ~700-1000 rps during a few peak times, and one VPS with 4 cores and 4 GB RAM handles it fine (thanks, C#).

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

700-1000 RPS on a single VPS is the reality check most developers need to hear. We often architect for Google-scale when we have not even reached "One VPS scale" yet.
​You make a great point about the silence. Boring tech gets less press coverage precisely because it doesn't break. It just sits there and does the job.

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macdara_butler_986cd3a93f profile image
Macdara Butler

Amen to that...

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dmitry_labintcev_9e611e04 profile image
Dmitry Labintcev

This resonates hard.

Currently building an EDR in Pure C. No Python. No Node. No dependencies beyond libc.

My "boring" tools I refuse to give up:

C — The binary is 110KB. Deploy with scp. Done.
Make — Not CMake, not Meson. Just Make.
TCP sockets — Raw connect(), send(), recv(). No HTTP framework.
sysctl — Kernel-userspace communication without dbus or grpc.
When something breaks at 2 AM, I grep through one codebase instead of tracing 15 microservices.

The "boring stack" is a superpower in security especially. Fewer deps = smaller attack surface.

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NorthernDev

This is the "hardcore mode" of the boring stack philosophy, and I respect it immensely.

The point about attack surface is critical. In an era of supply chain attacks, having zero dependencies is a massive security feature, not just a preference. Shipping a 110KB binary in 2026 is a flex.

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dmitry_labintcev_9e611e04 profile image
Dmitry Labintcev

Thanks! The supply chain point is exactly why we went this route. Every dependency is a trust decision. With pure C and Make, the entire build is auditable in an afternoon.

The 110KB isn't just about size — it's about attack surface. No interpreter, no runtime, no hidden behaviors. When you strace it, you see exactly what it does.

Security tools that require Node or Python to install create a beautiful irony: "install these 500 packages to protect yourself from... supply chain attacks." 😅

Boring tech, bulletproof security. That's the trade-off we'll take every time.

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Michael R.

Translation: "Increase your chances of supply chain attacks by elevating your overall exposure and scaling potential attack vectors exponentially...

Hopefully to the point you become overwhelmed and purchase our premium managed security

...ahem, just kidding, please excuse our intern who likes to joke about predatory marketing strategies that our competitors use but our company does not condone!

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​You definitely said the quiet part out loud there.
​There is an entire economy built on selling bandages for self-inflicted architectural wounds. If everyone started shipping single binaries with zero dependencies, a lot of enterprise security vendors would miss their quarterly targets.

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dmitry_labintcev_9e611e04 profile image
Dmitry Labintcev

There is an entire economy built on selling bandages for self-inflicted architectural wounds. If everyone started shipping single binaries with zero dependencies, a lot of enterprise security vendors would miss their quarterly targets

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Jan Küster 🔥

Running my highly interactive SPA apps on MeteorJs. Boring but it's stable and reliable, deployment is a single command even if you deploy to a custom single root server. Yes it uses MongoDB but it solves many of its problems with client side collections. Reactivity is out of the box and community is awesome people

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Meteor was decades ahead of its time. The concept of client-side collections was doing Local-First and Optimistic UI long before those terms became marketing buzzwords.
​If you have a stack where deployment is a single command and the database sync just works, you have solved the hardest parts of engineering. Definitely fits the philosophy.

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Raj Dutta

This really resonates. After building and maintaining a few “impressive” systems, I’ve learned that complexity is a tax you keep paying forever. The boring stack isn’t about being lazy—it’s about being intentional. A monolith, a relational DB, and a predictable deploy pipeline let you reason about your system, move fast, and actually sleep at night. Users don’t reward architectural purity; they reward reliability. Shipping something understandable that works > maintaining a distributed science project. Solid reminder for 2026 👌

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Complexity is a tax you keep paying forever. That is a perfect way to frame it. It is not a one-time cost; it is compound interest on technical debt.
​I also love the phrase "distributed science project." We have all seen codebases that look more like academic experiments than shipping products. Reliability is the only feature that truly matters.

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renao2000 profile image
Renão • Edited

Neat - I like that take on simplicity 💯

For me it also is a big deal being simple (mh perhaps understandable is the better word) in your code base.
That does not mean we are bloating the Program.cs with 10k LoC but try to be understandable even for the slowest learner in the team.
Otherwise the day will come that you have to justify yourself by teaching those co-devs why you chose to create an entire framework beneath that 4-paged Xamarin.Forms-App.

So, just some phrases that come unfiltered into my mind:

  • Keep your code simple but well written.
  • Know your frameworks you are using - don't try to introduce redux with a crowbar into your MVVM-frontend.
  • Don't be dogmatic on things like Clean Code™️, scrum, kanban
  • Use standards - if they exist (like jsonforms)
  • Documentate your assumptions - even for your own future-I that has to work on that project after years again - you won't remember everything like you know now :-)
  • Don't be overly attached your code you wrote at 2 a.m. two years ago - deleting is liberating - git won't forget either
  • Have a simple CI infrastructure that's alerting you if something is wrong but keeps quiet if you are doing well
  • Automate error-prone tasks first before moving on.
  • Know what your compiler/interpreter does (not in every detail, but the "Play button" in eclipse/Rider shouldn't be the end for you)

I think in the end it is: simple does not mean crap - it is well-educated and chosen. Not by accident.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

This is a fantastic list of principles. You hit on the most important distinction at the end: simple does not mean low quality. It means intentional.

I especially like your point about making code "understandable even for the slowest learner." We often write code to impress other seniors, but we should be writing code that is easy for anyone to maintain.

Also, "don't introduce Redux with a crowbar" made me laugh. We have all seen that happen.

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trpn_ profile image
Trpn

Notepad++ ? :D
No but seriously though, "boring" is relative isn't it?
Been working with c# .net for the last 18 yrs, a lot of it feels like boilerplate. But what feels routine to me might look clean, structured, and even exciting to someone new to it. Funny how that works, ya know :)

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Notepad++ is legendary.
​You raise a great point about relativity. Often, "boring" is just a synonym for "familiarity" or "mastery." When you have worked with C# for 18 years, the patterns are second nature to you.
​That is exactly the state I aim for, where the tool becomes invisible because I know it so well.

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gabrieltoma profile image
Gabriel Toma

Well said! I've been trying to explain this to my partners for years already. Functionality over fanciness! Nobody cares! The end user is the most important piece in the business.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​It is a tough battle to fight, especially when stakeholders get distracted by the latest industry buzzwords.
​"Functionality over fanciness" is a perfect summary. The user has never once inspected the code to see if we used Microservices. They just want their problem solved.

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Miko

​> The biggest realization I had as a Senior Engineer is that users do not care about your tech stack.

Users don't, but employers do. I bet you got at least one of your jobs because an experimental side-project using ShinyNewThing put you at an advantage over the other resumes. Hype-Driven Development is great when the market's hot, or when you can't stand out using experience and results alone.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

That is the painful truth. There is often a disconnect between what makes a product successful and what makes a resume stand out.

You are absolutely right that learning the shiny new thing is a valid strategy to get your foot in the door. Once you are hired, the challenge becomes balancing that hype with the stability needed to actually ship.

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Marciano de Andrade

my "boring" stack is .NET (started on .net framework 2.0, but now i'm using .net core 8.0), MSSQL (or Oracle, depends on the project), razor and jquery.

yes, jquery. you can laugh now.

it just, works. in my 14 years as a programmer i've been part of some teams, but started my own business in 2015. i dont have a big team, i dont have the latest tech, but i'm able to deliver value to each one of my clients in a daily basis.

day by day i'm geting into some new stacks, currently i'm taking a look into svelte, vue and next, in an attempt to modernize my front-end skills.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

I am not laughing. You have been running a successful business since 2015 using that stack. That is the only metric that actually counts.

jQuery is still a workhorse. It gets the job done without a massive build step.

If you are looking at modernizing, I think you will find Svelte or Vue very approachable coming from Razor. They stick closer to the HTML/CSS/JS mental model than React does.

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Nel Prinsloo

Although I like to tinker on the cutting edge (to make sure I at least understand what is being discussed in the forums,) I also do my best to stick to basics. I try to do most serious development using either .NET or Python with postgres in docker containers to make it easier to deploy those from localhost to whatever Digital Ocean droplet it will run in once in production.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Tinker to learn, stick to basics to ship. That is exactly the right balance.

You need to keep an eye on the cutting edge to understand the trade-offs, even if you don't use it in production. And your Docker workflow onto a DigitalOcean droplet is a classic for a reason, it solves the environment parity problem perfectly.

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pineshpatel profile image
Pinesh Patel

This hits hard
“Boring” stacks ship faster, break less, and actually make money. Monolith + boring tech is seriously underrated.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Short and accurate. We often forget that the primary goal is to ship value and make money, not to impress other developers with our architecture diagrams.
​The monolith remains the most efficient path to revenue for 99% of startups.

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go2null

You just described Ruby on Rails :-) - 1 dev, monolith, SQLite, deploy to VPS, all built-in

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Guilty as charged. The Rails community has championed this "batteries-included" philosophy for decades.
​With the recent push toward SQLite and single-server deployments in Rails 8, they are arguably the gold standard for this architecture. The rest of us in the JavaScript world are just trying to catch up.

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roberthopman profile image
Robert

Ok, Is This How You Normally Write To Others?

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Haha, valid question.
​When writing editorials like this, I definitely lean into a more hyperbolic, opinionated voice to spark debate. In real life (and code reviews), I promise I am much calmer and use fewer bold statements.
​Glad you read it though.

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jackway profile image
Jackway

Absolutely correct point—most developers or small teams don't need a complex tech stack at all

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xwero profile image
david duymelinck

While I do prefer simplicity, I don't think we should be blind for the tools that are out there.

A relational database isn't the and all be all of data storage. The different database types that are available have their place.

The fact that you are using a headless setup, API and React, is prove you didn't go for the most boring tool, server side rendering. While you use javascript to create HTML, server side rendering used text, which means one less cog in the machine.

I have seen multiple post praising SQLite, and it is a good database, but they are blind for the limitations like a limited set of types and good security measures.

The my stack is boring hype is at the base a good idea, just don't go all-in.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

You got me on the React vs SSR point. If I wanted to be truly purist about simplicity, I probably should have gone with server-side templates.
I stick with React mainly because familiarity makes it feel simple to me, even if the build chain is complex.
​And fully agree on not being blind. SQLite is fantastic for the use cases I described, but I would not run a high-frequency trading platform on it. Context is key.

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xwero profile image
david duymelinck

My comment was not to get you. It was an example to drive the point that there is always a layer below.
Like you mention, context is key.

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jbnv profile image
Jay Bienvenu

You lost me at still using React.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Fair point. React is definitely the heaviest part of the list.
​I classify it as "boring" purely based on muscle memory, I have used it for so long that the complexity is invisible to me. But strictly speaking, you are right. A true minimalist stack would likely swap React for server-side templates or HTMX.

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andrepscarvalho profile image
André P. S. Carvalho

Wise words!
Don't overload just simplify! It works!

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cuong_tranhuy_8d23309811 profile image
Cuong Tran Huy

haha

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sloan profile image
Sloan the DEV Moderator

We loved your post so we shared it on social.

Keep up the great work!

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alptekin profile image
alptekin I. • Edited

totally agree. My stack is also very similar to what you mentioned above. As an addition, Python (only when i truly need it) and Next.js (for RSC requiring things. To be frank, i also studied react-router as a framework and checked tanstack but to keep things "boring" I am stuck to next, though sometimes i find it complex)

from a different perspective i apply the same boring approach to the tools (specifically editors) i use.
You see, during my development career, i switched between VS Code and neovim/vim occasionally. I always loved working on terminal and loved the philosophy of vim/neovim but there were / are so much to learn and learning how to configure neovim/vim always gave me hard time, nevertheless always tried to return to it (neovim) too..
Now, totally stopped trying returning to neovim as my primary dev ide/editor. yes i occasionally use for some small note-taking things but that is it. I configured my vs code much faster than i would do in neovim and now i can say that i work clutter-free (similar to neovim) taking adv of some extensions including vim key bindings and some special other keybindings and settings. So I like vs code, as i like neovim, but my ide/editor is vs code.

Tool switching might be a clutter for some too, it was a loss of focus for me, until i realized it and made it stop.

Time is the most precious thing we have (next to health) and we cannot have it forever.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

That editor cycle is so relatable. I think many of us have lost days (or weeks) tweaking Neovim configs only to realize we were not actually shipping any code.

​VS Code with Vim bindings is the pragmatic sweet spot. You get the muscle memory speed without the maintenance burden. At the end of the day, the users do not care which editor we used.

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dmitry_labintcev_9e611e04 profile image
Dmitry Labintcev

Thank you for being the first to comment! Really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

The "boring tech" philosophy resonates deeply — time is indeed our most precious resource.

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jesperhoy profile image
Jesper Høy

Nice read :-)

Just curious - you say that you use a single VPS for compute - how do you handle backup / replication for your SQLite / PostgreSQL data?

I have a very similar setup, but have not been able to find a simple, reliable way to live replicate SQL. Daily (or even hourly) backups are not enough as I cannot afford to loose customer data.

I ended up using CouchDB mainly because it has built-in simple instant replication (and is otherwise rock solid, simple, lightweight - and yes quite boring).
But yes, I do occasionally long for a good SQL join :-)

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​That is the main trade-off of the single server approach.
​For SQLite, the solution I rely on is Litestream. It streams the database WAL file to S3 storage in near real-time. This closes that gap between hourly backups and live data. If the server dies, I can restore to within seconds of the crash.
​CouchDB is brilliant for sync, but giving up relational joins is a high price to pay.

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jesperhoy profile image
Jesper Høy

Thanks for sharing this :-)

I have played a bit with LiteStream, and it is pretty amazing!

But I found that, when we add LiteStream to the mix:

  • Obviously now we need to configure, run, and maintain another process/daemon (LiteStream) on the server.
  • We need some kind of monitoring of the LiteStream process (not sure what?) - as it is now critical that this is running at all times.
  • We need S3 or some other remote storage (which we need to pay for and/or run and configure/manage/maintain somewhere).
  • We loose the ability to do remote database queries (SQLite = local only).

So there is also a price to pay for having relational joins...

I guess as always - it depends :-)

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

You are absolutely right. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
​The lack of easy remote querying is probably the biggest friction point with SQLite in production. I usually end up SSH tunneling or running a small admin UI on the server, but it is not as seamless as connecting pgAdmin to a remote Postgres instance.
​As always, it comes down to which set of trade-offs you prefer to manage :)

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plamen5rov profile image
Plamen Petrov

Totally agree with you on the back to simplicity path. I think it's the right direction as well.
While reading your text, I remembered one of my favourite quotes:

"Remember that Titanic was built by professionals, and Noah's Ark - by amateurs!"

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

That is a legendary quote. It fits this discussion perfectly.
​It highlights a crucial truth: complexity introduces points of failure, no matter how professional the engineering is. Sometimes a simple design that just floats is superior to a complex engineering marvel that sinks.

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dariomannu profile image
Dario Mannu

Meh... that's a quote clearly written by amateurs for entertainers. What if global logistics shipped on Noah's Arks? Would you still get all the junk you order from Aliexpress, or the surplus crop of one country for a starving one?

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themaker profile image
mich_thedev

Great read.

In going for a simple tech stack so I replaced React for VanJS on the frontend.

Database is still Supabase or MongoDB.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Swapping React for VanJS is a serious commitment to simplicity. That is definitely stripping away the complexity layer.
​I have not used VanJS personally, but moving closer to raw JavaScript is often the best way to ensure long-term maintainability. Less magic usually means fewer headaches.

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themaker profile image
mich_thedev

Yes, now I can bring in whatever solution I need when its required.

If I need Context, ref solution for vanjs, I build it myself. Plug and play style is what I am going with this year.

Anyway, how about you? What tools will you be using this year?

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Respect for the DIY approach. There is a lot of value in owning your abstractions rather than renting them from a library author.
​For me, 2026 is about doubling down on the stack I described: SQLite for almost everything, monolithic Next.js applications, and raw Docker on a VPS. I am actually trying to remove tools from my workflow rather than add new ones.

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themaker profile image
mich_thedev

Thanks man.

I love the last line and your tech stack. Wont be using Nextjs this year though.

Lets talk elsewhere, on X maybe? Id like to get to know you more.
X handle: @mich_thedev

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Avoiding Next.js is a valid move if you are chasing pure simplicity. It has definitely grown into a heavy ecosystem.
​I am actually not active on X anymore. I do most of my networking on Bluesky these days if you are over there? Otherwise, feel free to reach out via email.
Bluesky: @northerndev88.bsky.social

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themaker profile image
mich_thedev

Hey, I dont use bluesky. I use Discord, however. Let me know if you have one.

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leob profile image
leob

Totally agree, and this gets even more powerful in the AI era, because the more boring/mainstream the tech, the more AI will have been trained on it, and the better it will be able to generate "quality" code/solutions for it ...

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​This is such an underrated point. I notice this constantly. If I ask the AI to write a standard SQL query, it is flawless. If I ask it about a library released last month, it hallucinates.
​Choosing technology that is well-represented in the training data is a massive productivity hack that people rarely talk about.

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leob profile image
leob

They will increasingly talk about it, I promise you - at some point it might even have the questionable effect of harming innovation a bit, because the 800 pound gorillas will tend to get even bigger at the expense of the "little monkeys" ...

(on the other hand, I've always wondered what the purpose is of having two dozen frameworks or tools which do exactly the same thing - "choice fatigue" and "not invented here syndrome")

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​It becomes a self-reinforcing loop. The big frameworks get better AI support, which drives adoption, which creates more training data. It will definitely make it harder for new entrants to gain traction.
​Regarding your second point, I think many of us are secretly hoping for that consolidation. The fragmentation of the last decade has been exhausting. If AI forces the industry to settle on a few standard tools, that might actually be a net positive.

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leob profile image
leob

Exactly my thought, the fragmentation has been rather counter-productive - and the touted "innovation" isn't all it's cracked up to be, most of the time it's "more of the same thing" ...

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andreas_mller_2fd27cf578 profile image
Andreas Müller • Edited

Interesting perspective. I read a book (well, started to read it more like) about micro services where the author said that he thinks the assumption that microservices are a default choice for a modern architecture is highly problematic. Microservices bring freedom, but with it comes a high price of complexity. Microservices really take the problems of distributed systems to the maximum level possible. For many people monolith is a good choice. Not many companies actually need the scale of micro services, especially not with modern hardware and you can scale a monolith horizontally too of course.

I have no choice about my stack since I'm a consultant, but I sign the part about relational data management. A lot of data just is relational in nature. It's actually similar as with this "everything will be a chat interface now" nonsense. For a lot of interfaces a graphical UI just makes the most sense and converting it to a chat interfaced would be dumb.

I think it's not about having a boring or interesting stack. It's about being conscious of your options and using the stack that fits best.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Microservices really take the problems of distributed systems to the maximum level. That is the perfect way to phrase it. You are trading reliable function calls for unreliable network calls.
​I also love your comparison to the Chat UI trend. Just because we can turn everything into a conversation does not mean we should. Structured interfaces, like relational databases, exist for a reason.

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bd_perez profile image
Bruno Pérez • Edited

"​Boring Software Makes Money" 100% agree with that.

However this is the opposite for many content creators, medias and new companies for whom "New Hype Software Makes Money", at least for them. Let's not fall into this trap.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​That is a brilliant distinction. The incentive structures are completely different.
​If you are selling a SaaS, stability pays the bills. If you are selling courses, content, or seeking VC funding, novelty pays the bills. It explains why there is such a disconnect between tech media and actual production engineering.

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rizanb profile image
Rizan Bhandari

Pretty much the same thing. React/Next, supabase for auth if I'm building fast. Most apps don't need django. Monolith. Docker/prometheus if somebody else is going to test. If it's just me, I don't bother.
Absolutely agree with sqlite.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Supabase is a great example of this philosophy. It feels modern, but under the hood, it is just reliable Postgres. It fits the boring but powerful criteria perfectly.
​I also relate to skipping the ops layer when flying solo. If it is just me, raw code on a server is often enough. No need to overcomplicate the deployment pipeline.

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halakabir234hub profile image
Hala Kabir

This is such a grounded take 👏

I really liked how you framed “boring” as a strategic choice, not a lack of ambition. The line about moving complexity from code to the network hits hard — especially for solo devs and small teams who just want to ship without a 2 AM debugging nightmare.

The reminder that users don’t care about architecture diagrams is something the community needs to hear more often. Buttons working > buzzwords every time.

Also, the “joy of finished” part resonated a lot. There’s real freedom in tools that are predictable, battle-tested, and don’t demand constant attention.

Boring stacks build calm minds — and profitable products. Thanks for writing this.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Boring stacks build calm minds. That is such a perfect way to put it. I might have to borrow that phrase for the future.

​You hit on the most important part: architecture is not an art contest. It is a delivery mechanism. If the button works and the bill is low, we won.

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sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Same here! The simpler, the better - also for our future selves :D I also always choose proven technology; it doesn’t have to be “fancy” - unless I’m making some demo just for myself, then I experiment 😊 It’s not even just about what’s better, but also about the community around the tool. If lots of people use something, many problems are already solved, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Being kind to your future self is underrated. There is nothing worse than opening a project from six months ago and having no idea how to run it because the stack was too complex.

​You are spot on about the community aspect. The biggest feature of boring technology is that when you get an error, someone else has already solved it on Stack Overflow.

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felixdotgo profile image
Felix

Agree. I see a lot of people trying to make their MVP with microservices instead of modulith. Instead of focusing on the business logic and make money, growth, they spend time to overengineering with more complexity. Why make the infrastructure that cost $200/month when all you need is $10/month for a single compute, then improve by time when you really prove your app value?

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

That cost comparison hits hard. Burning $200 a month on infrastructure before you have your first paying customer is a trap too many founders fall into.
​You are spot on about the order of operations. Prove the value on a cheap VPS first. Scaling complex infrastructure should be a problem you earn, not one you pay for upfront.

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tmlr profile image
Tony Miller

+1. I will add:

  • Deployment: statically compiled binaries managed by Systemd, no fancy K8S or whatever.
  • Homelab management: Ansible + LXCs in Proxmox go brrrrrrrr

One possible alternative: Nuxt instead of React, works just as well and I think learning curve is a bit smaller.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Systemd unit files over Kubernetes YAML files any day. Deploying a single static binary and letting Systemd manage the restart policy is the peak of the boring stack philosophy.
​I agree on Nuxt as well. If I was not already locked in with React muscle memory, Vue would probably be my go-to for simplicity.

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Alexandra009

In a world obsessed with the newest frameworks, flashy tools, and trending buzzwords, my 2026 tech stack is unapologetically boring. No experimental libraries. No overnight sensations. No “hot new thing” that might disappear by next year. And honestly? That’s exactly why it works.

For years, I chased novelty. Every new JavaScript framework felt like a competitive advantage. Every beta tool promised productivity gains. What I actually got was constant maintenance, broken dependencies, and a growing pile of technical debt. By 2026, I’ve learned a simple truth: boring technology scales better.

Boring Means Reliable

My stack is built on proven tools with long-term support, strong documentation, and massive communities. These technologies aren’t exciting — but they’re stable, predictable, and well-understood. When something breaks, the solution is usually a quick search away, not a weekend-long debugging session.

Boring Means Faster Execution

There’s no learning curve tax with familiar tools. My team ships features faster because everyone already knows how the stack behaves. Onboarding is easier, code reviews are cleaner, and decisions are based on experience rather than hype.

Boring Means Lower Risk

Startups fail, frameworks get abandoned, APIs change without warning. A boring stack minimizes those risks. It allows me to focus on solving real business problems instead of rewriting systems every year. In 2026, stability is a competitive advantage.

Boring Frees Mental Space

The biggest win? Cognitive load. When the tech fades into the background, I can focus on product, users, performance, and growth. My energy goes into building value — not fighting tools.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​You summarized the philosophy perfectly. The point about "Mental Space" is the one I value most these days.
​When the technology fades into the background, you stop fighting the tools and start solving the actual user problems. That is where the real value is created.

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Mason Wright

This really hits home. I went through the same phase of chasing new tools just to feel “modern,” and it mostly slowed me down.

The part about not being Google is so true. Most of us are small teams or solo developers. Adding microservices and complex setups just adds stress, not value. Debugging one simple app is hard enough.

I like the idea of a boring stack because it lets you focus on what matters: building something that works. Users don’t care how fancy the tech is. They care that the app is fast, stable, and easy to use.

Using a single server, a solid database, and tools you already know feels smart, not lazy. It saves time, money, and energy. And finishing a project feels way better than always “setting things up.”

For me, the boring tool I refuse to give up is plain SQL. It’s simple, powerful, and it just works.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Smart, not lazy. That is the distinction we often miss. We tend to confuse complexity with sophistication, but in reality, complexity is just a tax on our time.

​I am with you on plain SQL. Frameworks come and go every few years, but knowing how to write a raw query is a superpower that lasts an entire career.

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Alex Towell

Love this post. I've been on a similar journey, but I think I went even further down the boring rabbit hole.

You stopped at monolith + SQLite + single VPS. I stopped at... the terminal.

Most of what I build now are CLI tools. Text in, text out. Bash, Python, JSON. When I need a frontend at all, it's HTML + CSS + vanilla JS—no build step, no node_modules.

Your point about not being Google resonates. But I'd extend it: even React is more complexity than most of us need. The web got separation of concerns right before frameworks made us forget—HTML for content, CSS for presentation, JS for behavior. Each independently useful, each independently evolvable. Frameworks bundle what could stay separate.

One thing that's changed the equation for me: LLMs. The old knock on CLI was discoverability—GUIs show you what's possible, CLIs hide it behind --help. But now I have an AI that can discover flags and compose commands better than I can remember them. Text-native interfaces are suddenly more accessible, not less.

I wrote up my full thinking here: dev.to/queelius/your-boring-stack-...

Maybe I'm wrong about all this. But historically, betting on boring has been a safe bet.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

You managed to out-bore me. That is impressive. The "no node_modules" lifestyle is something I genuinely envy.
​Your insight about LLMs solving the CLI discoverability problem is brilliant. I had not thought of it that way, but you are right. AI essentially becomes the universal interface, removing the need for complex GUIs to explain simple flags.
​Thanks for sharing the link, I will give it a read.

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Manoj Sharma

“Boring” stacks ship, scale when needed, and let you sleep - hard to argue with that.

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

Agree to that!

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playserv profile image
Alan Voren (PlayServ)

such a thoughtful counterpoint to the typical hype-driven tech stack conversation. In many projects, especially early-stage products and solo efforts, simplicity isn’t laziness

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the_nortern_dev profile image
NorthernDev

​Simplicity is not laziness. That is exactly right. In fact, it often takes more discipline and knowledge to build a simple solution than a complex one.
​Glad you enjoyed the read. It feels like the industry is finally ready to move past the hype cycle.

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serviceempireai profile image
Service Empire AI

It's nice to see creativity in the 2026 projects.

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deductibleme profile image
Deductible.me

Thanks for sharing this!