If 2024 was the year of "AI Hype," 2025 was the year the dust finally settled. We stopped asking if AI would replace us and started asking how we could use it to ship faster than ever before.

Looking back at the code I wrote over the last 12 months, a pattern emerges. The fragmentation of the early 2020s—where every week brought a new framework—has collapsed into a highly efficient, opinionated "Meta Stack." We aren't fighting over tools anymore; we are fighting over shipping.

This isn't just a list of libraries. This is a breakdown of how web development actually felt in 2025, the stack that survived the hype cycle, and why I (mostly) stopped worrying about the next big thing.

1. The "Post-React" Era: Server Components Won

For years, React Server Components (RSC) were a controversial, confusing mess. In 2025, they finally clicked.

I spent the first half of the year trying to avoid the Next.js App Router, clinging to the simplicity of useEffect and client-side fetching. But by Q3, I capitulated. The mental model shifted. We stopped building "Client Apps that fetch data" and started building "Server Apps that sprinkle interactivity."

The Big Shift

  • Data Fetching: I haven't written a useEffect to fetch data in six months. Direct database calls in async Server Components became the standard. It eliminates the "loading spinner hell" of 2023.
  • Server Actions: We stopped building dedicated API routes for simple mutations. Passing a function directly to a form action <form action={updateUser}> felt like PHP in 2005, but with full type safety. It is pragmatic and it works.

The Verdict: React 19 didn't kill other frameworks, but it made React feel less like a library and more like a full architecture. You either bought into the ecosystem (Next.js/Remix) or you left for something lighter like Svelte 5.

2. The Database is Just an URL (Postgres is King)

In 2025, the debate between SQL and NoSQL effectively ended for general-purpose apps. The winner wasn't just "SQL," it was "Serverless Postgres."

I used Supabase and Neon almost exclusively this year. The friction of setting up a Docker container or managing an RDS instance is gone. You get a connection string, you paste it into your .env, and you have a scalable, branching database instantly.

Why this stuck

  • Drizzle ORM: This was the breakout star of 2025. Prisma was great, but it was heavy. Drizzle gave us the SQL-like control we wanted with zero runtime overhead. Writing db.select().from(users) felt closer to the metal, and the TypeScript inference was magical.
  • The Death of "Global State": Because Server Components allow us to fetch data right where we need it, the complex Redux/Zustand global stores shrank. We let the database be the state manager.

3. AI Didn't Replace Us, But It Changed "Coding"

This is the uncomfortable truth: I wrote significantly less boilerplate code in 2025.

Tools like Cursor (the VS Code fork) and v0 (for UI generation) became non-negotiable. My workflow shifted from "Typing syntax" to "Architectural Review."

  • The New Workflow: I don't type out a Tailwind card component anymore. I prompt v0: "Give me a dashboard card with a sparkline chart and a glassmorphism effect," copy the code, and refine it.
  • The Danger: The "Junior Developer Gap" widened. It is easier than ever to generate code, but harder than ever to understand it. I spent more time debugging subtle hallucinations in AI-generated logic than I did writing logic from scratch. But the velocity increase was undeniable.

4. The Runtime Wars: Bun vs. Node

Node.js is still the reliable grandfather, but Bun became my default for local development and scripting.

Why? Speed. bun install is instant. bun run dev is instant. The built-in support for TypeScript/JSX without configuration meant I stopped wrestling with tsconfig.json and Webpack. While I still deploy to Node environments (mostly on Vercel or AWS Lambda), my local machine runs Bun. It is the quality-of-life upgrade we desperately needed.

5. CSS is Solved (Tailwind v4)

I haven't written a pure CSS file in 2025. Tailwind CSS v4 (the Rust-based engine) launched and made the "it's too slow" argument irrelevant.

We also saw the rise of "Copy-Paste UI" libraries like shadcn/ui. We moved away from heavy component libraries (MUI, Bootstrap) that lock you into their design system. Instead, we want code we can own. 2025 was about owning your UI components but not writing them from scratch.

6. The "Self-Host" Renaissance

Perhaps as a reaction to rising cloud costs, 2025 saw a massive surge in "PaaS-on-your-own-server" tools like Coolify.

While Vercel is still the default for "getting it live," I moved several long-running background workers and heavy projects to a $5 Hetzner VPS running Coolify. It is the Heroku experience, but you own the data. It felt like reclaiming a bit of the internet from the giants.

Summary: The "Default" Stack of 2025

If I started a new SaaS product today, I wouldn't spend a second debating the stack. This is the consensus architecture that dominated my year:

  • Framework: Next.js (App Router)
  • Language: TypeScript (Strict Mode)
  • Database: Postgres (Neon/Supabase) via Drizzle ORM
  • Styling: Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui
  • Auth: Auth.js (formerly NextAuth) or Clerk
  • Runtime: Bun (Local), Node/Edge (Prod)

2025 wasn't about discovery; it was about convergence. We stopped experimenting with the "how" so we could finally focus on the "what."

Author Bio

Bradley Matera I build real working systems with AI support, AWS knowledge, and repetition. I’m not a theory-heavy engineer. I learn through debugging, deployments, and shipping things people can actually click on.