One of the most frequent questions we receive from founders and technical directors at mid-sized companies is: what tech stack should we use? The honest answer is that it depends. But there is a set of choices that, in 2026, make life significantly easier for teams of 10 to 100 people.
This article is not a dogma. It is the set of decisions we would make today if we had to build a digital platform for a company of that size, with team productivity, operational cost, scalability and talent attraction as the main variables.
The best stack is not the most modern or most powerful. It is the one that allows your current team to deliver with speed and confidence, while maintaining the ability to scale when necessary.
Frontend
Primary recommendation
Next.js 15 + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS
Alternative: Nuxt 4 (if the team is more Vue than React)
Next.js with App Router offers SSR, SSG and Server Components in a single framework. TypeScript reduces production errors. Tailwind eliminates CSS debt. The combination is today the de facto standard for enterprise web applications.
Backend and API
Primary recommendation
Node.js 22 LTS + Fastify 5 (JS/TS team) · FastAPI 0.115 (Python team)
tRPC for type-safe end-to-end APIs in full-stack TypeScript projects
Fastify outperforms Express 3x in throughput. FastAPI is the natural choice if the team works with Python or needs ML integrations. tRPC eliminates the need for API clients when frontend and backend share TypeScript.
Database
Primary recommendation
PostgreSQL 17 (Supabase or Neon) + Prisma ORM
PlanetScale (serverless MySQL) for very read-intensive workloads
PostgreSQL is the most mature and versatile relational database. Supabase adds Auth, Storage and Realtime on top of it. Neon offers per-environment branching. Prisma makes migrations predictable and the data model readable.
Authentication
Primary recommendation
Clerk (consumer/SaaS) · WorkOS (B2B enterprise with SSO)
Auth.js v5 if you prefer self-hosted
Building authentication from scratch in 2026 is wasted time. Clerk has the best DX on the market for SaaS applications. WorkOS is essential if your clients are enterprise companies requiring SAML, SCIM or SSO.
Infrastructure and deployment
For most cases
Vercel (frontend) + Railway or Render (backend) + Cloudflare (DNS, CDN, WAF)
AWS ECS Fargate when you need more control or specific compliance
Vercel and Railway/Render eliminate infrastructure management for most cases. Cloudflare is practically free for what it provides in security and performance. AWS when control is non-negotiable.
CI/CD and quality
Primary recommendation
GitHub Actions + Vitest (unit) + Playwright (E2E)
GitLab CI if you already use GitLab
GitHub Actions is the current standard. Vitest is 5x faster than Jest for modern TypeScript projects. Playwright is today the best option for reliable and maintainable end-to-end tests.
What we have deliberately left out
Kubernetes, microservices and event-driven architecture are excellent technologies. They are also the main sources of premature complexity in companies that do not yet need them. With fewer than 100 engineers, a well-structured monolithic architecture or a monorepo with well-delimited services is almost always the right choice.
The most important stack is not the technical one. It is the process: how your team defines, develops, reviews and deploys code. A bad process with an excellent stack produces worse results than a good process with a mediocre stack.
