Small app, big back end or better solution?

Ionic Framework ionic-v3
1

I come from a Java EE web application background, I’m used to Application Servers like Websphere, JBoss server, and front ends like JSF. Now I’m learning Angular and using Ionic framework.

I have got an idea of a simple app, and I can’t stop thinking of a backend with Wildfly application server and Postgresql database, as it is usually what I am used to work with.

I am afraid such a server and database may be too much for my app in terms of features and capabilites…
I’ve heard of Node.js, I have an intermediate JS knowledge so my questions are:

  • Would a hosting provider for Node.js be cheaper than one for a Wildfly server/Postgresql database?

  • What would be the suggested database to work with Node.js

  • How bad/good is the learning curve for Node.js?

So time, and cost are important factors. I’m used to those big servers and big RDMS but I would like know more about the light weight world :wink:

2

Do you really need your own backend at all?
Maybe you can do everything you want with Firebase?

3

It would depend on how much data you are slinging around, but I don’t think there would be a huge difference in hosting cost. I would recommend sticking with Wildfly if you’re not up for a learning curve.

If you are still reading, though, and you really want to go lightweight, you could consider the stack I use, which is gocraft/web and Postgres. The entire application server becomes a standalone binary. What used to require about a gigabyte in Wildfly comes down to around 10MB, and the performance is blazing.

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