Backend architecture that scales without rewrites, built on the right tool for your context.
We build APIs, databases, and platforms on the stack that actually fits the work, from a four-week MVP on Supabase to a large system on NestJS. Most startups outgrow their first backend within eighteen months and pay for it in rewrites; most enterprises carry legacy systems that can't move fast enough. Both trace back to architecture decisions made early. Over ten years and a hundred-plus projects, we've shipped backends that scale from prototype to public company. We pick technology against your success criteria, and we say so early when something other than our usual stack fits you better.
- Six backend platforms
- APIs & databases
- Self-hosted or managed
- MVP to scale
There's no single best backend. There's the right one for your runway, team, and timeline.
We maintain working expertise across six backend platforms precisely because different contexts call for different answers. Here's how we weigh the call with you.
Speed and control are a real tradeoff
Supabase and Convex get you live in weeks by abstracting the infrastructure. Node.js and NestJS hand you control over every architectural decision. Payload and Wagtail sit in between. We recommend based on your actual constraints: runway, team size, compliance needs, and the timeline you're competing against.
Portability keeps you free to move
Some hosted platforms feel fast at first and then lock you into proprietary systems with rising costs and shrinking options. Our default choices keep you portable: Supabase runs on PostgreSQL you can migrate, Payload deploys to any Node.js host, and Wagtail is open-source Django. You keep the ability to move.
Architecture decisions shape your bill
The wrong choice gets expensive. Serverless functions that cost fifty dollars a month at MVP can reach thousands at growth stage. A database design that worked for a hundred users buckles at ten thousand. We architect for where you'll be in eighteen months, so infrastructure cost tracks revenue rather than running ahead of it.
The right tools make your team faster
Backend velocity compounds. NestJS's dependency injection lets teams refactor with confidence. Payload's type-safety surfaces errors as you write them. Supabase's managed auth means engineers ship features instead of debugging OAuth flows. We choose technology that speeds up your team, and we say so early when something other than our usual stack fits your project better.
Six backend platforms in production. Each one earns its place on a particular kind of project.
From rapid prototypes to large systems, these are the platforms we run and what each is best at.
Node.js
Full-stack JavaScript, shared between frontend and backend, with an event-driven model that handles concurrent requests well. The npm ecosystem covers almost any integration you need. A good fit for real-time apps, APIs consumed by React and React Native frontends, and teams that want one language across the stack. It runs platforms at Netflix, LinkedIn, and PayPal.
NestJS
TypeScript, dependency injection, and opinionated structure on top of Node.js, so a codebase stays maintainable as it grows across teams. The modular layout keeps complex systems with dozens of services legible. GraphQL, microservices, WebSockets, and testing are first-class rather than bolted on. The right call when ten or more engineers work in the same codebase at once.
Payload
A headless CMS with type-safe APIs, flexible content modelling, built-in authentication, and file management, deployable anywhere Node.js runs. It is self-hosted and open, so there are no per-user or per-request fees and no vendor lock-in. You can stand up content APIs in hours. A strong fit for content-heavy sites, product catalogues, and applications with involved editorial workflows.
Supabase
Authentication, a PostgreSQL database, real-time subscriptions, file storage, and generated APIs as managed infrastructure you do not have to build or maintain. You own your data in a real PostgreSQL database with full SQL access and room to migrate later. It gets an MVP live in days with production-grade security, and scales as the product grows. Built for teams validating an idea and apps that need real-time features.
Wagtail
Developer-friendly content modelling with an editor experience teams actually enjoy, built on Django's well-proven Python framework. The StreamField system supports sophisticated layouts without custom code for every variation. Suited to publishing platforms, universities, and government sites that need approval workflows, multi-language support, and content governance. It runs sites at Google, NASA, and MIT.
Convex
Real-time database subscriptions, serverless functions, and reactive queries with automatic caching, which takes the complexity out of building real-time infrastructure yourself. You write TypeScript functions that become API endpoints, and queries update connected clients without polling or manual WebSocket management. A natural fit for collaborative apps, live dashboards, and anything where real-time sync is the baseline expectation.
APIs, databases, real-time, and the infrastructure around them. The full backend, through to the parts that run in production.
APIs and data
RESTful and GraphQL APIs with OpenAPI or Apollo documentation, versioning and backwards compatibility, rate limiting, and input validation. Authentication through JWT, OAuth2, and SAML. PostgreSQL for relational data, MongoDB for documents, and Redis for caching and sessions, with schema design, indexing, migrations, and backup, replication, and recovery planning.
Authentication and access
Registration and login flows, multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, social sign-in, single sign-on, and session and token-refresh handling. Access lives in the content and application model where it can be reviewed and tested.
Real-time and background work
WebSocket connections, server-sent events, real-time database sync, collaborative editing, live dashboards, and presence detection. Async task queues with Bull and BullMQ, scheduled jobs, email and templating, image processing, PDF and report generation, and data import and export pipelines.
Integration and infrastructure
Third-party integrations for payment, shipping, and CRM, webhook handling, ETL pipelines, message queues with RabbitMQ and Amazon SQS, and event-driven architectures. Docker, CI/CD with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI, deployment to AWS, GCP, Azure, or DigitalOcean, load balancing and auto-scaling, monitoring with Sentry, Datadog, and Prometheus, and performance profiling.
Content management
Headless CMS implementation, custom content workflows and approvals, multi-language and localisation, media and asset management, SEO metadata and structured data, and preview and draft publishing, built on Payload or Wagtail depending on the editorial shape of the work.
Six kinds of system we build backends for. The platform choice follows the shape of the product.
SaaS platforms
Multi-tenant architecture with user management, subscription billing, role-based permissions, and analytics. NestJS gives you the patterns that hold up as features accumulate. Supabase gets an MVP live while you're still validating market fit.
E-commerce backends
Product catalogues, inventory, order processing, payment, and fulfilment. Payload handles complex product data with type-safe APIs, while Node.js processes transactions reliably and integrates with Shopify, Stripe, and logistics providers.
Real-time applications
Collaborative tools, live dashboards, chat, and multiplayer features. Convex removes most of the work of building real-time infrastructure, while WebSocket-enabled Node.js gives you full control for the more involved scenarios.
Content publishing platforms
Editorial workflows, multi-channel publishing, SEO, and content governance. Wagtail delivers sophisticated content management for publishers, while Payload provides a flexible headless architecture for modern JAMstack frontends.
Enterprise data systems
Complex business logic, compliance requirements, legacy integration, and scale across departments. NestJS's modular architecture and TypeScript type-safety keep large enterprise codebases legible as teams and features grow.
API-first architectures
Mobile apps, IoT devices, partner integrations, and clients you can't name yet, all consuming one backend. We design API contracts that stay stable while the implementation underneath them evolves, so release schedules don't break on a client change.
- Node.js
- NestJS
- Payload
- Supabase
- Wagtail
- Convex
- PostgreSQL
- React
- Next.js
Questions we get asked before the first call.
How do we choose between these backend technologies?
We work it out during discovery, around five questions: how fast you need to launch, how complex your business logic will get, what your team already knows, what your scaling requirements are, and what compliance and security you have to meet. There's no single best choice, only the right one for your context.
Can you integrate with our existing systems and databases?
Yes. We regularly integrate with legacy SQL databases, REST and SOAP APIs, mainframe systems, hosted platforms, and proprietary internal tools. A well-designed backend works as an abstraction layer, giving clean APIs on top of messy underlying integrations.
What if we outgrow the initial technology choice?
We architect for migration paths. Launch on Supabase and outgrow it, and we've designed schemas that move cleanly to custom PostgreSQL. Start on Node.js and need NestJS's structure, and we refactor incrementally. Good architecture lets systems evolve continuously instead of forcing a disruptive replacement.
How do you handle database scaling?
Scaling follows the bottleneck. Read-heavy systems benefit from replication and caching, write-heavy systems need partitioning, and complex queries need better indexing. We profile real performance under load, find the specific bottleneck, and fix that. Most applications never need horizontal sharding; vertical scaling and smart caching cover the large majority of cases.
What about API security?
Every API we build authenticates identity, authorises access, validates input against injection, rate-limits to prevent abuse, encrypts data in transit over HTTPS, and logs for audit trails. Security is built in as we go, so it's there when an audit arrives rather than scrambled together afterward.
How do you handle third-party integrations?
We isolate integration complexity behind an abstraction layer. When a third-party API changes, breaks, or gets replaced, only that layer needs updating rather than the whole application. We add retry logic, error handling, webhook processing, and rate-limit management so the integration keeps working. Most projects also need an admin panel for support, content, or operations teams, which we build with React and Next.js or the CMS admin UI.
Have a platform to build or rebuild?
Book a 25-minute call. We'll talk through the architecture and the integrations, and come back with a scoped plan.