Build Less. Ship More.
The modern dev stack is bloated.
Micro frontends call microservices via a service mesh behind a load balancer — all to render a blog post.
You don’t need the stack.
You need your slice.
Introducing the Small Stack:
A mindset for developers who want to ship faster, maintain less, and stop playing enterprise dress-up.
What Is the Small Stack?
Not a tech combo — a principle:
Use the fewest tools necessary to solve the problem in front of you.
The Small Stack is for:
- Indie hackers launching in a weekend
- Devs sick of wrestling infra for a contact form
- Teams optimizing for clarity, not complexity
It’s clarity over cleverness.
Shipping over scaffolding.
Elegance over abstraction.
The Big Stack Is a Trap
We reach for too much because of:
- Fear of scale (“What if it goes viral?”)
- Desire to look professional (“Real apps use [X], right?”)
- Mimicking Big Tech (with none of their constraints)
- Resume-driven dev (“Need to use tRPC or it doesn’t count”)
We end up with anti-features:
- CI pipelines before a single user
- OAuth layers for apps with no private data
- React SPAs rendering static content
We build like Google.
But we launch like Geocities.
What the Small Stack Looks Like
| Concern | Big Stack Default | Small Stack Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | React + Next.js | HTML + Tailwind + htmx |
| Backend | Node API + ORM | Hono + SQLite |
| Auth | OAuth2 / Auth0 | Magic link or none |
| Hosting | Vercel / AWS / CI/CD | Cloudflare Pages + Workers |
| Forms | JS + form libs + validation | Plain HTML + server POST |
Not anti-tech. Just anti-bloat.
What the Small Stack Isn’t
It’s not:
- A return to 2002 PHP-core
- A no-JS purity cult
- Anti-modern tooling
Use React — when you’re solving a React-sized problem.
Use Postgres — when your data structure demands it.
Use auth — when there’s actually something worth protecting.
Otherwise?
Skip it. You’ll live.
The Stack Gut Check
Ask this before adding any tool:
- What happens if I cut this?
- Can I build it with what I already know?
- Am I solving a real problem — or a hypothetical one?
The Small Stack Mindset
-
Default to deletion
If it doesn’t clearly add value, cut it. -
Start ugly
Architecture should evolve from use, not prediction. -
Favor managed infra
Cloudflare > Kubernetes (especially when you’re alone). -
Prefer boring tools
SQLite > trendy distributed data layers you’ll abandon. -
Defer complexity until it slaps you
Most things scale better than you think.
Final Word
You don’t get points for perfect architecture no one uses.
You get points for:
- Solving real problems
- Shipping quickly
- Sleeping soundly
That’s what the Small Stack is for.
Anyone can build complexity.
It takes taste to build simplicity.
Welcome to the Small Stack.