HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is a 'full stack' website?

1 points by greyfox ↗ HN
Hi i was browsing a separate ASK HN question and saw someone mention a full stack website, and i've heard of full stack devs but never a 'full stack website'

is there a single composition of the components of a full stack website? Or does it vary?

Ask thread that mentions a full stack website: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16800510

6 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 19.2 ms ] thread
tylerhou
Do you have a link to provide context?
greyfox
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16800510
therapeutic
I think the first comment in that thread is what you're referring to. I'd hazard a guess that a "fullstack website" in this context means a site that is written entirely in Javascript (ex. React for the frontend and Node.js for the backend). The original thread question was looking for ways to improve knowledge in Javascript, so building a site entirely in that language would certainly be sufficient to give one an understanding of what you can do with it,
tylerhou
Since the commenter said "full-stack website with JS" I would assume that the commenter intended "full-stack" to mean both backend and frontend. If he meant "full-stack" to mean entirely Javascript there would be no reason to tack on "with JS".
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
smt88
That term is unusual enough that I've never seen it.

So-called full-stack developers are people who build the back-end (server side) as well as the user-facing front-end (client side). As far as I know, it only refers to web development, so the client will usually be a browser or native app.

Based on context, it seems like "full-stack website" means a website that has some business logic on the back-end. This would be distinct from a static site.

(A "static" site does technically have a back-end, but it would just be serving flat HTML/JS/CSS files that are unmodified.)