Choosing the Right Technology Stack When Outsourcing Web Application Development
One of the most important things to consider when outsourcing your web application development is choosing the technology stack upon which your web app is to be built.
This is particularly important when taking into account factors such as budget and time to market, ensuring on-time delivery of project as well as meeting or exceeding acceptable ROI (return on investment).
Choosing the most suitable technology stack is key to a project’s success, while the wrong choice might be a reason for failure and end up in financial losses.
In this article, we explain the main aspects that you should consider for choosing the most appropriate tech stack for your web application.
1. What is a web technology stack?
A technology stack is a combination of software tools and programming languages used to create a software application. In this case, a web technology stack would include programming languages, frameworks, servers, databases, and front-end tools used to create a web app.
For every web-app development project, there are always two components: the client-side (or front-end) and the server-side.
Client-side programming
Front-end (client-side) development involves everything ends users see when they browse the web app. Usually, the front-end technology stack will involve HTML, CSS, and Javascript as well as other libraries (e.g. jQuery, React.js, etc.) and frameworks (such as Angular, Vue, Ember etc.). Libraries and frameworks for programming languages provide ways to help to code simpler and faster.
Server-side programming
As for server-side programming languages, they are used to create the business logic of the web app and work behind the scene. Usually, end-users do not interact with the server-side, all information is passed back and forth through the front end.
For a typical web app development project, a server-side language will be selected together with its framework. Here are some of the popular programming languages and their corresponding major frameworks:
- Ruby (framework: Ruby on Rails)
- Python (framework: Django)
- PHP (framework: Laravel)
- Java (framework: Spring)
Etc.
As your web app needs a place to store all the data and information, it needs a database. There are two types of databases: relational and non-relational. Some well-known choices of databases for web development include:
- PostgreSQL (relational)
- MongoDB (non-relational, document)
- MySQL (relational)
- Microsoft SQL Server (relational - RDBMS)
Other than that, a web application also needs a caching system to ease the load required on the database and to handle large amounts of traffic. Some of the popular systems include Memcached and Redis.
Finally, a web application needs a server to handle requests from clients’ computers. The two most popular web server choices are:
2. How to choose the right technology stacks
When choosing the technology stack for your web applications development project, you should take the following points into the process of evaluating different technologies options:
Web app type
The first thing to decide upon is the type of web application you’re developing. Depending on the type of web app you’re looking to build, you should pick the appropriate technology which is suitable and provide distinctive advantages for your web application.
As mentioned in the previous article, web app development projects can be categorized into the followings:
- Basic: these web apps are created with out-of-the-box solutions such as CMS software. Examples include websites for small businesses with landing pages and some interactive elements;
- Mid-level: this kind of app provides more functions than the basic apps and is built by incorporating frameworks into the development process. Examples include mid-level web apps which is a high-performance site catering to a large number of users such as large eCommerce stores and enterprises.
- Complex: as the name implied, these web apps are complex and have lots of functions and integrations; they’re developed with the help of different web development technologies and may be comprised of more than one programming language. Examples: large e-commerce marketplaces, enterprise systems, etc.
When choosing the kind of web app to develop, it is necessary that you also take into account the business objectives and specific business industry your company operates within.
This is important since your business goals impact the choice of technologies for development, for example, an e-commerce website will require different technologies compared to a healthcare platform even though both web apps aim to serve a large number of users.
Budget requirement
The choice of a website technology stack has a direct influence on the development cost. As a general rule, the more advanced the technology, the higher the development budget requires. There are two main points you need to take into account:
- Development cost: Each software outsourcing companies have different pricing models. Different functionalities and technologies will result in different pricing. Consequently, your development costs will be different according to the technologies are chosen. More advanced technology will result in higher development costs.
- Maintenance cost: building a web application and releasing it to market is one part of the whole picture, you will also need to maintain and update your app to keep up with the new trend, and new requirements as well as ensure the app operates optimally with time. To reduce maintenance costs, opt-in for technologies that allow you to update without having to invest and build things from scratch again.
Time to market
For many business organizations such as start-ups or newly established companies, time to market is a very important factor influencing the decision of selecting the tech stack. The faster their web app gets developed and released, the better they can stay ahead of the competition.
Time to market heavily depends on the technology stack you select for your web application.
Existing programming languages and tools that are established (and have been around for a long time) could significantly reduce the scope of work and effort required. Also, established technologies usually have a big developer community, with large supporting documentation resources helping developers to move past a blockage and meet project deadlines easier.
Selecting a technology stack meeting all of your requirements mentioned above is not enough, you should also carefully check with your outsourcing partner whether they can provide developers who have the necessary skills and experience in the technology you choose.
Furthermore, the less the development time requires, the lower the cost.
Other factors
Third-party integration: as there’s not out of the box solution to meet one company-specific business requirement. When choosing a tech stack for your web app, make sure it supports integration with third-party solutions. This will help you incorporate additional functionalities you need to your web app without the need to rebuild things from the beginning.
Update and maintenance: As mentioned above, new business requirements/trends may arise which require you to update your web app accordingly. Ensure the technology you choose to enable the update without requiring you to re-invest and start over again.
Scalability: Finally, choosing a tech stack is more likely a final decision and it is not easily reversible at all. As your web app grows and gains adoption from users, you need to plan in advance for scalability by choosing the appropriate tech stack for this special need. There are two types of scalability including horizontal scalability and vertical scalability.
- Horizontal scalability: the ability of a web app to accommodate more requests, operating at optimal or high-level performance when the number of users grows significantly.
- Vertical scalability: the ability to add new components to a web app without affecting other components and lowering the web-app performance.
3. Conclusion
Selecting the right technology stack for your web development project is a difficult and challenging process. Different projects will require different techniques and technologies, each has its pros and cons that should be taken into account.
In case you are not experienced with web development, our team of professional web developers will be able to guide you in the process and help you choose the right tools for developing a web application, with all the functionalities complying with all of your specific industry and business needs.
