Ten direct answers on the stack choices that actually matter — React vs Next.js, Stripe vs Stripe Connect, Postgres vs Mongo, AI integration, serverless vs containers, and the 2026 MVP default stack.
React is a JavaScript library for building UI components — it renders on the client by default. Next.js is a full framework built on React that adds server-side rendering, static generation, file-based routing, API routes, image optimization, and middleware. React alone is a UI layer; Next.js is a production application stack. We use Next.js for almost every project.
Yes — Next.js is excellent for SEO. Server-side rendering and static generation give Google crawlable HTML on first request, not a blank shell waiting for JavaScript. App Router supports built-in metadata, sitemaps, robots.txt, structured data, and Core Web Vitals optimizations. Plain React SPAs without SSR routinely tank in organic search. Next.js fixes that by default.
Next.js gives us SSR for SEO, file-based routing, API routes, image optimization, middleware, and incremental static regeneration in one framework. It deploys cleanly to Vercel or any Node host. The App Router with React Server Components moves data fetching to the server, reducing client JavaScript and improving Core Web Vitals. It's the production sweet spot in 2026.
Use plain Stripe when you charge customers directly for your own products or services. Use Stripe Connect when you operate a marketplace, platform, or SaaS that pays third parties — like Uber paying drivers, Etsy paying sellers, or a SaaS splitting revenue with creators. Connect handles KYC, 1099s, and payouts; standard Stripe doesn't.
Use Postgres for almost everything in 2026 — it handles relational data, JSON columns, full-text search, geospatial queries, and analytics. Use MongoDB only when your data is genuinely schemaless and you're willing to give up SQL joins, ACID transactions across collections, and strong consistency. Most projects we audit on MongoDB would be cheaper, faster, and saner on Postgres.
We integrate Claude, GPT-4, and open-source models where they solve a real product problem — not because AI is trendy. Common patterns: structured extraction, summarization, classification, RAG over your docs, and copilot-style assistants. We always add evaluations, fallbacks, and prompt-injection defenses. Token costs and latency get measured before launch, not after the bill arrives.
Use serverless (Vercel, Lambda, Cloudflare Workers) for almost everything early-stage — zero ops, scales to zero, predictable pricing under low load. Move to containers (ECS, GKE, Fly.io) when you hit serverless cold-start pain, need long-running workers, or your serverless bill exceeds container TCO. For 90 percent of MVPs, serverless on Vercel is the right answer.
SaaS is software-as-a-service — you rent a multi-tenant product (Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify) at a monthly fee. Custom software is built specifically for your business and owned by you, hosted however you want. SaaS is faster and cheaper for common needs. Custom wins when your workflow doesn't fit a SaaS template, or when SaaS lock-in becomes a strategic risk.
We use proven libraries — Auth.js, Clerk, or Supabase Auth — never roll our own crypto. Passwords use bcrypt or Argon2. Sessions use HTTP-only cookies. Sensitive routes get rate limits and CSRF protection. We default to least-privilege roles, log security-relevant events, and run dependency audits in CI. Every project gets a written threat model in discovery.
Our default 2026 MVP stack: Next.js 16 (App Router), TypeScript strict, Tailwind v4, Postgres (Neon or Supabase), Drizzle or Prisma ORM, Stripe for payments, Resend for email, Auth.js or Clerk for auth, Vercel for hosting, Sentry for errors. Boring, battle-tested, and ships fast. We adjust only when a real product constraint demands it.
Boring, battle-tested, well-maintained. Tell us what you're building and we'll recommend the simplest stack that will still be alive when you renew the contract.