Best Tech Stack for Building a Marketplace as a Solo Developer

Marketplaces are the hardest thing on this list to build solo. I'm not going to sugarcoat that. You're building for two completely different user types (buyers and sellers), you need to handle payments between strangers, and you have the classic chicken-and-egg problem of needing supply before demand shows up.

But some of the most profitable solo developer projects are marketplaces. Job boards, directory sites, niche marketplaces for digital goods. The key is picking a stack that handles the complex parts (payments, user management, search) so you can focus on the supply side.

The Recommended Stack

Why This Stack Works for Solo Developers

Marketplaces have more moving parts than a typical SaaS. You need user profiles for both sides, listing management, search and filtering, messaging or communication, reviews, and payment splitting. That's a lot of features for one person.

This stack works because it minimizes infrastructure decisions while covering all those needs. Next.js handles the frontend and API layer. Prisma gives you type-safe database access for complex relational data (users, listings, orders, reviews). Stripe Connect handles the hardest part, splitting payments between your platform and sellers.

I built a small marketplace for digital assets using this exact combination. The most time-consuming part wasn't the tech. It was getting the first 50 sellers to list their products.

Frontend: Next.js

Marketplaces live and die by SEO. Buyers search Google for "buy handmade pottery" or "hire freelance designer," and your listing pages need to rank. Next.js gives you server-rendered pages that Google can crawl properly, plus dynamic metadata for each listing.

The App Router's server components are perfect here. Listing pages can fetch data on the server, render fast HTML, and send minimal JavaScript to the browser. Product images get automatic optimization. And you can incrementally static regenerate popular pages for even better performance.

Alternative. SvelteKit is a solid choice if you prefer Svelte. It has the same server-rendering capabilities and arguably simpler syntax. But the React ecosystem has more marketplace-specific components and templates.

Backend: Stripe Connect Is the Key

Here's what nobody tells you about building a marketplace. The payment infrastructure is 10x harder than you think. Stripe Connect handles the gnarly parts. Onboarding sellers, verifying their identities, splitting payments, handling refunds, managing tax forms, and sending payouts.

Without Stripe Connect, you'd need to build all of that yourself. I've seen solo developers try. It usually takes months and still has compliance gaps. Use Stripe Connect's "Express" mode. Sellers get a Stripe-hosted onboarding flow, and you handle zero sensitive financial data.

For the rest of your backend logic, Next.js API routes with Prisma work fine. Listings, user profiles, reviews, messaging. These are standard CRUD operations that don't need a separate backend service.

Database + Auth + Search

Database. Marketplaces have complex data relationships. A listing belongs to a seller, has multiple images, receives reviews from buyers, and connects to orders and payments. PostgreSQL handles relational data like this beautifully. Prisma makes these relationships easy to define and query.

Auth. You need role-based access. Sellers can create listings and view earnings. Buyers can browse and purchase. Admins can moderate. Clerk handles this well with its organizations and roles features. Supabase Auth works too if you want to implement roles yourself with a simple database column.

Search. Marketplace search needs to be fast and forgiving. Meilisearch gives you typo-tolerant, faceted search with minimal setup. It's open source, easy to self-host on Railway, and handles filtering by category, price range, location, or any custom attribute.

What I'd Skip

Building your own payment splitting. Use Stripe Connect. Period. The compliance requirements alone would take you months to figure out.

Real-time features at launch. Live chat, real-time notifications, live bidding. These are nice to have but complex to build. Start with email notifications and simple messaging. Add WebSockets later when you've validated the marketplace concept.

Mobile apps. Launch as a responsive web app first. Building native iOS and Android apps before you have product-market fit is a classic solo developer trap.

Complex recommendation engines. Your first 1,000 listings don't need machine learning recommendations. A simple "sort by newest/popular" and category filtering is enough.

Getting Started

1. Pick your niche. The narrower, the better. "Marketplace for vintage synthesizers" beats "marketplace for everything" when you're solo.

2. Build the seller experience first. Listing creation, image upload, and a basic seller dashboard. If sellers can't easily list their products, the marketplace is dead.

3. Add Stripe Connect. Set up Express accounts so sellers can onboard and receive payments. Test the full flow with test mode.

4. Build search and browsing. Set up Meilisearch, index your listings, and create filtering by your key attributes (category, price, etc.).

5. Recruit your first 20 sellers manually. Email them, DM them, call them. No marketplace has ever launched successfully by waiting for organic supply. Go get it.

The best marketplace stack handles payments and search so you can focus on the real challenge, building a community of buyers and sellers who trust your platform.