Inside our Toolbox: A Quick Tour Of Our Tech Stack

In a world where our tools are practically our digital sidekicks, you’d think we’d get thousands of fan emails asking, “What tools do you use to do such awesome work?” In truth, our inbox remains notably absent of these inquiries. But fear not, we’re not waiting for an overflowing mailbox to give you the grand tour. Let’s take a walk through our tech stack, showcasing the unsung heroes behind our daily digital triumphs. Buckle up; it’s going to be an enlightening ride!

Web App Toolbox

Remember the days when watching a compilation of funny videos meant firing up a video player and hunting down the right unlabeled CD? Neither do we… Fast forward to now, where everything is just a click away, web apps like YouTube effortlessly entangle you in an endless spiral of recommended videos, making you procrastinate like crazy.

This cloud era doesn’t just signal a shift in how we entertain ourselves; it’s reshaping the business landscape, making a strong web presence non-negotiable. Fortunately for us, that opens up a vast amount of opportunities to get paid doing what we love, using the tech we love.

Here’s the web app arsenal we commonly use.

Vue.js

Vue has become the cornerstone of our frontend development, shouldering the complex demands of creating web applications that are not just user-friendly, but also efficient and scalable across the spectrum—from small startups to robust enterprise-level projects. Its intuitive structure and flexible ecosystem empower us to create web experiences that are as performant as they are beautiful, ensuring that our applications don’t just meet expectations but exceed them.

Some 8 years ago, when we first started migrating most of our projects away from Backbone.js we found ourselves choosing between React and Vue. Luckily, we went with Vue and never looked back.

Nuxt.js

When the need occurs we turn to Vue’s jacked brother Nuxt.js. Nuxt supercharges our development process with out-of-the-box capabilities like server-side rendering and static site generation, making it an obvious pick for projects where SEO and performance are key.

PostCSS

Use tomorrow’s CSS today!

Hell yeah! That’s what it’s all about.

PostCSS allows us to write future-proof styles with ease. With it, we harness the power to write CSS that’s both expressive and efficient, ensuring that our stylesheets are as streamlined and sophisticated as the web applications they bring to life.

Honorable mention: React

Though we often favor Vue and Nuxt, we acknowledge React’s significance in the web development arena. If a project’s requirements and budget align with React’s capabilities, especially its robust ecosystem and component-based architecture, we’re fully prepared to leverage it. React enables us to build dynamic and engaging user interfaces efficiently, so, if it’s the right fit for the job, we’re ready to roll with it.

API Toolbox

Ever found yourself wondering who thought “Application Programming Interface” was a catchy name? It’s as if the committee for naming things ran out of creativity after they got to the internet. “API” - really? But that’s the label we stick on the digital magic that lets our apps whisper secrets to each other across the cyber-void. Let’s explore the languages, runtimes and tools we use to build this important piece.

Languages

In this realm, our toolkit mainly revolves around Node.js and Go. Node.js, with its vast ecosystem and non-blocking nature, acts as our standard bearer for most projects. It’s like the dependable workhorse that gets the job done efficiently. Recently, we’ve also started experimenting with Bun, the new kid on the block, known for its impressive speed and modern approach to JavaScript runtime.

When the project demands peak performance, we shift gears to Go. It’s our powerhouse, chosen for tasks where speed and efficiency are paramount. Go, with its simplicity and powerful concurrency model, is like the precision tool in our belt, ready to carve out high-performance applications with finesse.

Whether we lean towards the versatile Node.js (and its speedy ally, Bun) or opt for the robust Go, our choice is always dictated by the project’s specific needs and goals. This deliberate selection ensures that we deliver optimal solutions, tailored to each challenge’s unique demands.

Data Storage

In our approach to data storage, PostgreSQL stands out as the preferred choice for most of our projects. We value it for its robustness, reliability, and comprehensive features that handle complex data tasks with ease. It’s our go-to solution for ensuring data integrity and supporting sophisticated applications that require advanced data management capabilities.

For smaller projects or when we need a simpler solution, SQLite comes into play. It’s lightweight and straightforward, making it ideal for scenarios where a full-scale database system like PostgreSQL might be overkill. Despite its simplicity, SQLite is still powerful enough to meet the demands of applications that require a reliable data storage solution without the complexity.

Website Toolbox

When building websites, our choice of tools hinges on the nature of the content we’re dealing with. For static sites—those digital brochures of the web that seldom change—we prefer straightforward, fast technologies that make deployment a breeze. On the flip side, dynamic websites, alive with user interaction and fresh content, require a more complex arsenal, capable of handling everything from database queries to real-time updates. This tailored approach ensures that whether we’re assembling a pristine, static presentation or engineering a bustling, interactive hub, we’re always wielding the right tools for the job.

HTML/CSS/JS

For static sites, our toolkit embraces the time-honored trinity of HTML, CSS, and a sprinkle of JavaScript. It’s this dynamic duo (plus one) that forms the bedrock of the web as we know it. In cases where we’re sculpting straightforward static web presentations, this combination is our go-to strategy.

This minimalist approach underscores our belief in simplicity, performance, and optimization. By sticking to these core technologies, we ensure that the websites we create are not only beautiful and functionally rich but also fast-loading and accessible to all.

Astro

Astro has been one of our favorite tools lately. In fact, the website you’re navigating right now is a testament to Astro’s capabilities. Its strength lies in its ability to deliver highly optimized, static sites that still boast dynamic, client-side functionalities when needed—combining the best of both worlds for speed and interactivity. With Astro, we can roll out feature-rich websites rapidly, a nod to how efficiently it handles modern web development challenges.

WordPress

WordPress is our stalwart ally in the digital realm, powering a significant portion of the web—and for good reason. Its unparalleled flexibility and ease of use make it the ideal platform for everything from simple blogs to complex, feature-rich websites. The extensive selection of themes and plugins available allows us to customize sites to our clients’ exact specifications, creating unique digital experiences without reinventing the wheel. WordPress’s robust content management system ensures that once a site is up and running, it’s straightforward for our clients to keep their content fresh and engaging.

Strapi

Strapi has become our go-to choice for projects requiring a headless content management system (CMS). This open-source, JavaScript-based platform gives us the freedom to design websites and apps that need to serve content across multiple frontends—be it web, mobile, or something else entirely. Strapi’s API-driven approach means we can create more dynamic, content-rich experiences without being tied to a specific front-end technology. For our developers, Strapi simplifies the backend work, allowing for quicker development cycles, while our clients enjoy the flexibility to manage and distribute their content seamlessly across all their digital channels.

Conclusion

Wrapping this up, you’ve now peeked into our digital kitchen and seen the ingredients we love to cook with. It’s a blend of the tried-and-true, the new and shiny, and a dash of “let’s see what this does” to keep things interesting. Our toolbox isn’t just about the tools themselves but how we use them to whip up everything from your morning go-to site to the app you didn’t know you needed until now. As the digital world spins forward, so do we, always on the lookout for the next ingredient that’ll add that extra zing. But at the end of the day, it’s not just about building websites and apps; it’s about crafting experiences that make the web a cooler place to hang out. Cheers to the adventures in coding ahead, and remember, in this digital kitchen, we’re all about serving up a feast for the senses, one pixel at a time.