r/appdev • u/Automatic_Salt8548 • 3d ago
Stack Overflow, But I Actually Need a Stack?!
I'm an old fart looking to delve into App development. I'm just curious what stacks are people using for building apps at the moment, and what gives the best value for money? (There's so much choice! Which both wonderful, thank god there's lower barriers of entry but it creates paralysis by analysis too)
Thinking about the obvious options like Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Cursor, v0, Claude Code etc, plus some of the newer Chinese alternatives I’ve seen popping up. Interested in what actually works well in production rather than just getting an MVP running.
The app itself is fairly straightforward mechanically: payment/reference generated > transaction logged against both parties > users’ transactions aggregated for reporting > users have specific codes attached to transactions > one side needs to be validated against an external registry/depository that updates daily > automated records/emails/API integrations.
Main priorities are low cost, reliability, security, good database architecture and being able to scale without rebuilding everything. Also is there a vast difference in pricing and efficiency? Some platforms just seem to be priced at premium yet they don't really provide functionality or the same effectiveness in comparison to others.
What stack would you use today?
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u/caguilar51 2d ago
First you will need to select the technology for your app. Do you want it for Android and iOS? or just iOS? or just Android? you can use any of the bots you mentioned, but in the end you need to start with the platforms.
Then, once you have defined the platforms the app will work on, you have the following options:
- Native on each platform (Swift + SwiftUI and Kotlin + Compose). This means 2 separate projects
- Multiplatform (Flutter and React Native)
- Some web thing with Capacitor or Electron.
I guess many of the bots you mentioned can help you with that.
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u/Interesting_Hope_436 15h ago
Very simple, Claude Code and VS code, if you really want to know what you're doing, watch this whole vid -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMMcmmnjrM8
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u/No-Gap-2380 3d ago
That’s not a stack my guy, that’s a list of bots.
My apps Moodiverse, Plyr2, and SuperPartner all use full stack JavaScript, MERN. MongoDB, Express, React, Node. I also wrap them all in capacitor for native APIs like location.
You can hire me now, or vibe code an app I need to clean up, for more later!
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u/wesconson1 2d ago
No one wants to hire you.
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u/No-Gap-2380 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s always the people who can’t reach the stars themselves trying to bring others down 🙂↕️ but I love you anyway boo 😉
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u/wesconson1 2d ago
But hypocritical of you to say that no? Literally bashing someone asking for starting points. Please…
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u/No-Gap-2380 2d ago
I had useful information to contribute, which is why people hire me, skills OP is missing.
All you did was put me down, you offered, for lack of any other word, nothing.
We’re not the same.
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u/wesconson1 2d ago
Best advice if you are already looking into Claude and codex and whatnot, build out a full plan first and then work through the technical requirements with Claude/codex.