Express + React. JS and Mongo if it’s just a proof of concept, TS and Postgres if it has some small chance of becoming a real app one day. Zustand is my favourite simple state management solution, and it’s not too hard to swap it for Redux Toolkit later on.

If I was building something where the Django Admin Panel could be a huge advantage I’d use DRF instead, but overall for most small projects I like it less than Express.

Front End bloat doesn’t really matter when you’re just trying to get a prototype done as fast as possible.

I have landed on the TALL stack for building my homespun apps with minimum faffing around.

Especially with the components feature offered by Laravel’s Blade it usually takes a while before I really start reaching for JS.

I use Django and HTMX now for home projects these days.

I do server-rendered React with Restify in my day job, but I don’t really need the complexity of a full frontend framework for my fun projects.

Java and .NET MVC stacks, with a sprinkle of vanilaJS.

If it has to be PWA style, Angular.