Template platforms are fast to launch and slow to outgrow. Here's the technical reasoning behind our default stack, and when we'd actually recommend something else.
The trade-off nobody states clearly
Website builders and WordPress get a business online fast and cheap. That's a genuine advantage, not a strawman. The cost shows up later: performance ceilings from plugin bloat, a recurring security-patching burden, and a customisation ceiling that eventually forces either an awkward workaround or a rebuild. Custom-built software has the opposite shape — higher upfront investment, and then no ceiling on performance, integration, or user experience as the business grows.
Why Next.js specifically
Server-side rendering and static generation come built in, which matters directly for Core Web Vitals and for SEO — the two aren't separate disciplines in our process, they're the same infrastructure work viewed from two angles. React Server Components reduce the amount of JavaScript shipped to the browser, which shows up as real mobile performance. And deployment on edge infrastructure means global CDN distribution without hand-managing servers.
Why Supabase and PostgreSQL for data
The data lives in a real relational database, not a proprietary CMS format — nothing is locked into one platform. Built-in authentication, storage and row-level security remove a meaningful amount of custom backend code that would otherwise need to be written and maintained. Postgres is also a genuinely portable, well-understood standard: if a client ever needs to migrate or bring development in-house, there's nothing proprietary standing in the way.
When we'd recommend something else
A content-heavy site run day-to-day by a non-technical marketing team with no development support can genuinely be better served by a managed CMS built for that workflow. We say so in the first conversation, not after the invoice — the right platform depends on who maintains the site after launch, not just on what's technically superior.