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February 16, 2026· 4 min read· Evren Arat

The Default Stack for First-Time Hackathon Teams

Stop researching. Here's the exact stack to use when you don't have time to evaluate options. Next.js, Supabase, and Vercel — and why everything else can wait.

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One of the most expensive decisions in a hackathon is the decision that never gets made — the endless comparing of options while the clock runs down.

This post gives you a default. It's opinionated on purpose. You can deviate from it when you have a specific reason. Until then, use this.

The Stack

Framework: Next.js 14 (App Router) Database + Auth: Supabase Styling: Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui Deployment: Vercel AI (if needed): Vercel AI SDK + Claude Haiku or GPT-4o mini

That's it. Resist the urge to swap any piece of it until you have a working prototype.

Why This Stack

Every choice here optimizes for the same thing: working software in less time. Not flexibility. Not scalability. Not the most interesting architecture. Working software that you can demo in 24 hours.

Next.js 14

Full-stack in one repo. Server Components mean you can hit your database directly in components without building an API layer. API routes are there when you need them. Deployment is one command. The file-based routing means new pages are fast to add.

Most importantly: if you run into a problem, the answer is on Stack Overflow. Next.js is boring in the best way.

Supabase

Postgres database, authentication (Google OAuth, magic links, email/password), file storage, and realtime subscriptions — all in one dashboard. Free tier is generous for hackathon use.

The thing that makes Supabase specifically valuable for hackathons is the auth. Implementing authentication from scratch is a 3-hour detour. With Supabase, Google OAuth is about 15 minutes: create a project, enable the provider, add the callback URL. Done.

Row Level Security (RLS) policies mean your data access rules live in the database, not scattered across your API. Set it up once and you get authorization for free.

Tailwind + shadcn/ui

Tailwind is a CSS utility library. You already know what it does. shadcn/ui gives you production-quality components (buttons, dialogs, forms, tables) that you own — they're copied into your project, not installed as a package dependency.

The combination means you can build something that looks good without writing custom CSS. This matters at a hackathon because the demo needs to look credible, and you don't have time to fight with design decisions.

Vercel

One command to deploy: vercel. Or connect your GitHub repo and it deploys on every push. Preview deployments for every branch. Works natively with Next.js because Vercel built Next.js.

The only reason to use something else for a hackathon is if your team is already on Railway or Render and knows it cold. Otherwise, Vercel is the path of least resistance.

When to Deviate

Mobile first? Use Expo + React Native. The component library situation is less mature, but if your idea only makes sense on a phone, this is the right call.

Pure Python backend? If your team is all Python and the frontend is thin, FastAPI + Streamlit is a reasonable combination. Less polished, but faster if that's your native environment.

Realtime-heavy? Supabase has realtime built in via Postgres Changes. For most hackathon use cases this is enough. If you're building something like a live multiplayer game, consider Liveblocks or Ably — but exhaust Supabase's realtime first.

Need a vector database? If you're doing RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), pgvector is a Supabase extension that's one click to enable. You don't need a separate vector database for a hackathon prototype.

What to Skip

Bun: Still not stable enough for production in mid-2026. Using it to go slightly faster on a build step isn't worth the debugging time when something breaks.

New ORMs (Drizzle, Prisma): Supabase's auto-generated TypeScript client is fine. You don't need an ORM layer on top of it for a 24-hour project.

Docker: Not for a hackathon. If your deployment target requires it, reconsider the deployment target.

Multiple databases: One Supabase project. You don't need Redis for caching or a separate vector store. Keep it simple.

Full AI agent pipelines: LLM agents are impressive in theory and fragile in practice. If you're using AI, use it for a single, focused task: classify text, generate a summary, answer a specific question with specific context. Don't build an autonomous agent that makes decisions on behalf of the user for your first hackathon AI feature.

The First 30 Minutes

  1. npx create-next-app@latest — App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind
  2. Create a Supabase project (supabase.com) — free tier
  3. npm install @supabase/supabase-js @supabase/ssr — add the client libraries
  4. Add your Supabase URL and anon key to .env.local
  5. Enable Google OAuth in Supabase → Authentication → Providers
  6. vercel or push to GitHub with Vercel connected
  7. Start building your actual feature
Everything after step 7 is your idea. The stack is just the infrastructure.

One More Thing

The stack you use matters less than the clarity of your idea and the quality of your demo. Teams win hackathons with Django and Bootstrap. The default stack removes the decision overhead so you can spend your mental energy on the thing that actually matters: solving the problem.

Use the default until you have a reason not to.

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