Stop chasing the "best" stack
Every framework has fans, benchmarks, and war stories. None of that matters as much as fit: the right backend is the one your team can build, ship, and operate confidently for the next few years.
Questions that actually decide it
What does your team already know?
A stack your team is productive in beats a theoretically superior one they have to learn under deadline pressure. Velocity compounds.
What are your real scale requirements?
Be honest about traffic. Most products never reach the scale that justifies exotic architecture. Build for your next 12 months, not a hypothetical hockey stick.
How much operational overhead can you carry?
Managed databases, serverless functions, and platform-as-a-service trade some control for far less maintenance. For small teams, that trade is usually worth it.
A practical default
For most products, a boring, proven stack wins: a typed language (TypeScript or Go), a relational database like PostgreSQL, a well-understood framework, and managed hosting. Add complexity only when a real constraint demands it.
The takeaway
Choose for clarity and maintainability first. The most expensive stack is the one you have to rewrite because it was over-engineered before you understood the problem.