Ask HN: Using Flask for the product

3 points by dupa99 12y ago ↗ HN

I want to build MVP and I'm thinking about the tech stack that I should choose. The app will be basic CRUD application that gather data from 100 e-mail and show a report to the user. Later on there will be analytics, sharing etc. B2B, max 2000 Users.

My first choice is Flask + Heroku + PostgreSQL. Ideally I want something that is very easy to build MVP, but not totally to throw away later on. Hoodie is interesting, but I need backend.

Any Java, Scala, Python, js, Go suggestion?

6 comments

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gpsarakis 12y ago ↗

You could also consider Google AppEngine https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/

codegeek 12y ago ↗

There is obviously no black or white answer for this but I would say go for it using Flask + heroku + PostgreSQL. Flask is excellent in terms of rapid prototyping and even though it does not come with batteries included like other bigger frameworks, it makes up for it through its excellent Extension Ecosystem. Check out Flask-SQLAlchemy, Flask-Login, Flask-WTForms, Flask-Scripts etc. Excellent documentation for everything. I have not used Heroku personally yet but they do offer free tier.

I am pretty sure that flask is not a throwaway framework. Lately on Stackoverflow careers, I see a few companies using flask in production if that's one way to measure it. See this http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?searchTerm=flask

lumens 12y ago ↗

We use Flask in production at Mighty Spring (https://www.mightyspring.com). What started as a simple MVP has become a fully-featured web app and Flask has been great to work with along the way.

dupa99 12y ago ↗

awesome. you may want to add it here http://flask.pocoo.org/community/poweredby/ :)

bjoerns 12y ago ↗

We use Flask + MongoDB + Heroku at Spreadgit (http://www.spreadgit.com). Was meant to serve as an MVP initially but so far it's been awesome. as your project grows you can replace your module with packages etc. if you're going with PostgreSQL maybe it's worthwhile looking at Flask-SQLAlchemy?

NathanRice 12y ago ↗

Honestly, I would either choose Python or a JVM language.

The nice thing about Python is that the library support is amazing, and there is a fairly easy path to performance improvements using PyPy and/or wrapped C code.

Obviously a JVM language will have a huge ecosystem of libraries and good performance out of the box. I prefer Python as a language but that is entirely personal.

While Go is really popular around here, the language doesn't have a very ecosystem of libraries.