The Tools I Actually Use to Build and Ship Sites

People ask now and then what I build with. So here's the actual answer - the stuff I reach for on real work, not a wishlist of whatever's trending this month.

The core

• Next.js and React - fast, SEO-friendly, scales from a landing page up to a full app. Most of my front-end work lives here.
• TypeScript - catches a whole category of dumb mistakes before they ship. Non-negotiable on anything I'll have to maintain later.
• Tailwind CSS - quick to write, consistent, and easy to hand over to the next person.
• A bit of Framer Motion when something needs to move, used sparingly. Nobody wants a site that animates at them.

I've also spent a lot of years in .NET / C# and PHP land, and across CMS platforms like Umbraco, WordPress and a few others. Different jobs, right tool, etc.

Data and the back end

• SQL Server and MySQL - boring, reliable databases, which is a compliment.
• Entity Framework and NHibernate on the .NET side; whatever fits on the Node side.
• Auth I don't roll myself anymore. Use something that's been battle-tested and move on.

Shipping it

• Vercel for deploys when the project suits it - push, preview, done.
• Git and GitHub Actions so nothing reaches production without passing checks.
• Some basic monitoring and analytics, because "it works on my machine" isn't a deployment strategy.

The actual point

Tools come and go. The stuff underneath doesn't: type safety, fast feedback, boring reliable infrastructure, and shipping often instead of perfectly.

I'm happy to pick up something new when it genuinely makes a project better, and just as happy to ignore the hype when it doesn't. Knowing the difference - what to use and, more importantly, what to skip - is most of what experience actually buys you.