Bastien B.
Overview

My Web Developer Tech Stack in 2026

April 5, 2026
5 min read

The web development landscape evolves rapidly. Every year, new frameworks emerge, best practices shift, and deployment strategies transform. After years of experimentation and production experience, I’ve settled on a tech stack that balances performance, developer experience, and maintainability. Here’s a detailed overview of the technologies I use daily in 2026.

Astro for Static Sites and Content

Why Astro?

Astro has become my go-to framework for building static websites, blogs, documentation sites, and content-heavy pages. Its island architecture allows me to ship zero JavaScript by default and only hydrate the components that need interactivity.

The result is websites that load incredibly fast and score high on Core Web Vitals, which is essential for SEO. This very site is built with Astro, and the performance speaks for itself.

Key Features I Leverage

  • Content Collections: Type-safe frontmatter validation with Zod schemas makes managing blog posts and projects reliable and maintainable
  • Partial Hydration: Only the interactive components load JavaScript, keeping page weight minimal
  • MDX Support: Writing blog posts with MDX lets me embed React components directly in markdown content
  • Multi-Framework Support: Astro works with React, Vue, Svelte, and others, giving me flexibility when needed

When I Use Astro

  • Personal and portfolio websites
  • Blogs and content-heavy sites
  • Landing pages and marketing sites
  • Documentation sites
  • Any project where performance and SEO are top priorities

React for Interactive Applications

Why React?

React remains the most versatile UI library for building interactive web applications. React 19 has solidified its position with improvements in server components, concurrent rendering, and the developer experience.

I don’t use React for everything. Astro handles the static pages. But when a project requires rich interactivity, complex state management, or real-time updates, React is my first choice.

How I Use React with Astro

One of Astro’s greatest strengths is its ability to integrate React components seamlessly. I use Astro for the page structure and routing, and embed React components for interactive elements like forms, filters, dynamic tables, and real-time features.

This combination gives me the best of both worlds: Astro’s static performance with React’s interactive capabilities.

Laravel for Backend and SaaS

Why Laravel?

When a project needs a robust backend, an API, or a complete SaaS architecture, Laravel is my framework of choice. Its expressive syntax, comprehensive feature set, and vibrant ecosystem make it incredibly productive.

Laravel handles everything I need for backend development: routing, authentication, database management, queues, caching, events, and much more. The ecosystem of first-party packages like Horizon, Telescope, and Pulse provides powerful tools for monitoring and debugging.

Key Laravel Features I Use

  • Eloquent ORM: Elegant database interactions with model relationships, scopes, and accessors
  • Authentication and Authorization: Built-in user authentication with Sanctum for API tokens
  • Queues and Jobs: Background processing for emails, imports, and heavy computations
  • Events and Listeners: Decoupled architecture for complex business logic
  • Blade Templates: When Inertia.js isn’t needed, Blade provides a clean templating engine

LaStarter for SaaS Projects

For SaaS applications, I use LaStarter, an open-source boilerplate built on Laravel, React, and Inertia.js. It provides multi-tenancy, roles and permissions, a marketplace system, and real-time WebSockets out of the box. Learn more in my article about launching a multi-tenant SaaS with LaStarter.

TypeScript Everywhere

Why TypeScript?

TypeScript has become non-negotiable in my workflow. The type safety, autocompletion, and refactoring capabilities it provides save hours of debugging and make the codebase significantly more maintainable.

I use TypeScript for all frontend code (React components, utilities, types) and increasingly for backend configuration and tooling. Combined with strict ESLint rules and a properly configured tsconfig.json, TypeScript catches errors before they reach production.

Type-Safe API Communication

When building full-stack applications with Laravel and React, I use TypeScript to define shared types between frontend and backend. This ensures that API responses match the expected shapes and prevents a whole class of runtime errors.

Tailwind CSS for Styling

Why Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS has transformed how I approach styling. The utility-first methodology allows me to build custom designs without context-switching between HTML and CSS files. Every style is visible directly in the markup.

Tailwind v4, with its CSS-based configuration, has made the developer experience even better. No more tailwind.config.ts files: everything is configured directly in CSS, which feels more natural and integrates better with modern build tools.

Design System Consistency

With Tailwind, maintaining a consistent design system is straightforward. Custom colors, spacing, and typography scales are defined once and used everywhere. Combined with shadcn/ui components, I can build polished interfaces rapidly while maintaining full customization control.

Cloudflare for Deployment

Why Cloudflare?

Cloudflare offers a comprehensive platform for deploying and serving web applications. Cloudflare Pages handles static site deployment with automatic builds from Git, global CDN distribution, and automatic HTTPS.

For applications requiring server-side logic, Cloudflare Workers provide edge computing capabilities with minimal cold start times. The global network ensures that content is served from the nearest data center, reducing latency for users worldwide.

My Deployment Setup

  • Cloudflare Pages: Static sites and Astro projects, with automatic deployments from GitHub
  • Cloudflare DNS: Fast and reliable DNS resolution
  • Cloudflare CDN: Global content delivery for assets and media
  • Cloudflare Workers: Edge functions for server-side logic when needed

How These Technologies Work Together

The strength of this stack lies in how well these technologies complement each other:

  • Astro + React: Static pages with interactive islands
  • Laravel + Inertia.js + React: Full-stack SaaS applications with server-side routing and client-side interactivity
  • TypeScript: Type safety across the entire frontend
  • Tailwind CSS: Consistent styling across all projects
  • Cloudflare: Fast, reliable deployment and delivery

Each technology has a specific role and excels in its domain. There’s no overlap, no unnecessary complexity, and each piece integrates naturally with the others.

Conclusion

This tech stack is the result of years of iteration and real-world production experience. It balances performance, developer experience, and maintainability while staying flexible enough to adapt to any project’s requirements.

Whether I’m building a fast static site with Astro, a complex SaaS with Laravel and React, or anything in between, this stack gives me the tools to deliver high-quality results efficiently.

To see these technologies in action, check out my projects page or learn more about me. If you’re considering hiring a freelance web developer who works with modern technologies, read my article on why hire a freelance web developer.

For hosting game servers or web applications, I also recommend OneSubnet, a hosting platform I founded that offers high-performance services.

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