How to Choose a Tech Stack or Vendor

How to Choose a Tech Stack or Vendor

Choosing the right technology stack or vendor can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re not technical. But this decision has major long-term consequences. It will impact your speed, cost, product quality, and ability to change direction quickly.

You do not need to be a CTO to make a smart choice here. What you need is a clear sense of what your product actually needs, what kind of team you have, and how fast you need to move. This guide will walk you through the core steps to make a practical and confident choice, whether you’re building in-house, hiring freelancers, or using no-code tools.

Step 1: Start with What You’re Building

Before you can choose tech, define what you’re building:

  • Is it a simple internal tool, a marketing site, or a consumer-facing mobile app?
  • Do users need accounts, file uploads, real-time chat, or payments?
  • Do you need to integrate with other services?

Write a clear one-pager describing your core features, target platform (web, mobile), and expected users. This becomes your requirements doc. Don’t worry about buzzwords. Just say what the product needs to do.

Step 2: Decide Between No-Code and Full-Code (or a Mix)

Here’s a good rule of thumb:

  • Use no-code if:

    • You need to launch fast (under 3 months)
    • Your product is a standard CRUD app (create, read, update, delete)
    • You don’t have engineers on the founding team

  • Use code if:

    • You have complex logic (real-time gaming, ML models, etc.)
    • You expect to scale to thousands of users early
    • You’re building an API or need full customization

No-code Tools to Explore:

💡 Tip: Test with no-code, then switch to code when you outgrow it.

Step 3: If You Choose Code, Choose the Stack Carefully

Pick a stack that your future hires or contractors can work with. Choose based on:

  • Your team’s skillset
  • Popularity and community support
  • Speed of development

Popular Full-Code Stacks for Startups:

💡 Tip: Stick to mainstream tools unless you have a strong reason. You don’t want to spend hours hunting obscure documentation.

Step 4: If You Hire a Vendor or Freelancer, Do It Carefully

If you’re not building yourself, you’ll need to find a trustworthy vendor or freelancer.

Where to Look:

  • Toptal — pre-vetted developers (expensive)
  • Upwork — large pool, but you’ll need to screen
  • Lemon.io — vetted freelancers for startups
  • Arc.dev — high-quality remote engineers
  • Startup-specific dev shops like SaasBox or Crowdbotics

How to Vet Them:

  • Ask for past work examples with links and context
  • Set up a paid test project (2–5 days of work)
  • Use a lightweight SOW (statement of work) outlining scope and timeline
  • Use a project tool like Trello, Notion, or Linear to track progress

💡 Tip: Avoid fixed-price large projects unless you know exactly what you want. Start small and iterate.

Step 5: Think About Future Maintenance

A tech stack is not just about building, it’s about maintaining. Ask:

  • Can we find people to maintain this?
  • Are we locked into one vendor or tool?
  • Is there good documentation?

Even if you’re using no-code, make sure you can eventually transition out if needed.

Final Checklist

✅ Clear one-pager describing product features and platform
✅ Chose between no-code and code based on speed, skill, and scope
✅ Explored tools that match project type (Bubble, Webflow, React, Firebase, etc.)
✅ If hiring, vetted vendor or freelancer with a paid test
✅ Set up a project management and feedback workflow
✅ Documented your tech decisions for future handoff
✅ Considered long-term maintenance and support

Useful Resources