The Framework Wars Are Exhausting
Every six months there's a new JavaScript framework promising to solve all your problems. SvelteKit, Remix, Astro, Qwik — all excellent tools. We've tried most of them.
And yet, for the vast majority of our client projects, we keep coming back to React + Node.js.
Here's why.
The Ecosystem Advantage
React has the largest component ecosystem in frontend development. Need a date picker? Fifteen options. Data charts? Recharts, Victory, Chart.js all have React bindings. Auth? NextAuth. State? Zustand, Jotai, Redux.
This ecosystem advantage means we can ship features faster. When you're billing a client, development speed matters.
TypeScript Changes Everything
The combination of React + TypeScript + Node.js is the most productive full-stack setup we've worked with. End-to-end type safety — from database models to API responses to component props — eliminates entire categories of bugs.
// Shared types between frontend and backend
type Project = {
id: string;
title: string;
status: "in_progress" | "completed" | "paused";
clientId: string;
};
// API response is typed
const { data: projects } = await fetch<Project[]>("/api/projects");
Next.js as the Glue
We standardised on Next.js as our React framework years ago. The App Router, server components, and API routes mean we can build full-stack applications in a single codebase. Less infrastructure to manage, faster development, better performance.
When We Don't Use It
We'd choose something different for:
- Pure marketing sites → Next.js with MDX or Astro
- Real-time applications → SvelteKit + WebSockets
- Backend-heavy APIs → Go or Python FastAPI
But for full-stack web applications? React + Node.js + Next.js remains our go-to.
