I don’t pick tools because they’re trendy—I pick them because they help me ship faster, stay focused, and still scale later. In this video I break down the exact $0/month production stack I’m using in 2025 across real apps I’ve shipped (like ProofyBubble and my custom course platform at nextjscourse.dev). The core is Next.js + React + TypeScript, because I want server components and server actions so I can colocate UI and backend logic instead of juggling a separate API layer. And yes, I’m opinionated here: the times I skipped TypeScript, I regretted it. The one piece I don’t gamble on anymore is auth. Auth is the entry point to your app, and migrating it mid-project is painful because it touches sessions, roles, and integrations. That’s why I’m switching from Clerk to WorkOS AuthKit: it’s the “grown-up auth stack” from day one (SAML, SCIM, magic links, social logins), and the UI is customizable because it’s built with Radix. I also cover the rest of my stack: Tailwind + shadcn/ui for UI, Zod + React Hook Form for forms, Neon Postgres + Prisma for the database layer, MDX for docs, UploadThing for files, and how AI is baked in by default (OpenAI, Vercel AI SDK, Cursor). Finally, I share the production tools I rely on—Vercel logs/cron/preview, Sentry, Resend, and Datafast—so you don’t ship blind.