If you’re a non-technical founder building a SaaS product, conversations about architecture can feel like alphabet soup: LAMP, MERN, JAMstack, microservices, serverless—you name it. This article gives you a simplified overview of the key architectural choices you’ll encounter and how to navigate them confidently with your engineering team.
The “SaaS stack” refers to the set of technologies used to build and run software-as-a-service platforms. At its core, this includes a front end (what the user sees), a backend (the business logic), data storage, and infrastructure for hosting and deployment.
Classic stacks include:
Each stack has its own trade-offs and use cases, and it’s perfectly fine to Google these as you encounter them. The important thing is to align your stack with your team’s experience and your product’s needs.
One of the first choices you’ll face is whether to go with a monolith or microservices. This is about how your product grows and how your team works.
Monoliths are faster to build and simpler to manage early on. All your code lives in one place, which makes debugging and deploying easier.
Microservices split your system into smaller, focused components that can scale independently.
Both can add complexity and result in failure with the wrong experience, so try not to force any choices.
Whether you’re using AWS, GCP, or another cloud provider, your stack will rely on underlying infrastructure: servers, databases, storage, CI/CD pipelines, etc. Evaluate your options:
Each of these risks balance out the other, by comparing alternatives you will understand the value proposition of each. Remember: not everything is glamorous. Features like logging, authentication, and billing don’t make headlines, but they are essential and can be the difference between buy or build.
Cloud has a reputation for being expensive but this is often down to careless use. Most providers offer generous free tiers and low-cost services for startups. What kills budgets are unused resources, inefficient setups, or no cost monitoring.
Set up budget alerts. Monitor usage. Keep things simple. With a small team and smart defaults, you can operate powerful applications for next to nothing.
You need to know how to ask: “Why are we choosing this tool?” and “What happens if this breaks?”
Ask for a roadmap. It doesn’t need to be precise, but it should tell you:
Engineers appreciate when founders ask good questions and focus on user value. It shows you’re serious about outcomes.
It’s also good for everyone to get a second opinion and a fresh perspective.
Building a SaaS product means knowing how to collaborate. If you’re not sure whether your choices are sound, or if you’re in that early stage of “what should we use?” - reach out. I’m always happy to review plans and help you build a strong technical foundation that fits your product, your team, and your budget.