The Ultimate Tech Stack for Building an App with AI

Building a powerful, AI-driven app takes more than great ideas—it takes the right tools. Rulo is a social coordination app focused on connecting padel players, and in order to build it, we've used a modern tech stack that blends AI, sleek design, and scalable infrastructure. From planning with AI agents to deploying seamless mobile and web experiences, every tool in our stack helps us move faster, build smarter, and deliver a better experience for our users.

Here's a comprehensive breakdown of all the tools and technologies we used to build Rulo - the social coordination app.

Core AI Development Tools

Modern app development starts with the right AI-powered development environment. These tools form the foundation of how we plan, write, and deploy code.

Notion - We use Notion's embedded AI agents to plan projects and track our sprints. It serves as our central hub for documentation, roadmaps, and team collaboration.

GitHub - Stores all our code and lets us automate our development pipeline builds. Version control and collaboration happen here, with automated workflows that deploy code changes instantly.

Cursor - Our main code editor that helps organize our AI agents and write code faster. Cursor integrates AI directly into the development environment, making coding feel more like conversation.

Claude Code - AI agent for planning features, writing code, and debugging. Claude Code understands context across our entire codebase and can generate complex functionality from natural language descriptions.

Wispr Flow - AI voice tool that lets us speak our prompts instead of typing. This accelerates development by allowing us to describe features and changes verbally while reviewing code or testing the app.

App & Website Technology

The frontend and backend technologies we chose enable fast development, smooth user experiences, and easy maintenance.

Frontend (What Users See)

React Native - Builds our mobile app for iPhone (and Android in the future). React Native lets us write code once and deploy to multiple platforms, dramatically reducing development time.

React - The foundation for how we build web pages and user interfaces. React's component-based architecture makes our code reusable and maintainable.

Next.js - Makes our website load quickly and show up in Google searches. Next.js provides server-side rendering and static site generation, critical for performance and SEO.

Tailwind CSS - Styles the app and website using prebuilt design utilities. Instead of writing custom CSS, we compose interfaces using Tailwind's utility classes, speeding up design implementation.

Framer Motion - Adds smooth animations and transitions. These micro-interactions make the app feel polished and responsive, improving the overall user experience.

Backend (What Runs Behind the Scenes)

Supabase - Manages our database, user accounts, chat system, and file storage all in one place. Supabase provides PostgreSQL database, authentication, real-time subscriptions, and storage in a unified platform, eliminating the need for multiple backend services.

Expo - Deploys the mobile app and pushes updates without App Store delays. Expo handles the complex build process for iOS and Android, and enables over-the-air updates so we can fix bugs and ship features without waiting for app store approval.

Vercel - Hosts the website and automatically updates it when we make changes. Every time we push code to GitHub, Vercel deploys the new version instantly with zero downtime.

Stripe - Handles payments securely and lets event organizers get paid directly. Stripe processes all transactions, manages subscriptions, and handles complex payment flows while remaining PCI compliant.

Resend - Sends all automated emails like confirmations and notifications. Resend provides reliable email delivery with a developer-friendly API, ensuring users receive timely updates about their events and activities.

Data, Analytics & Infrastructure

Understanding how users interact with Rulo helps us make better product decisions and optimize the experience.

PostHog - Tracks how people use the app so we can improve features. PostHog provides product analytics, feature flags, and session recordings, giving us insights into user behavior without invasive tracking.

Squarespace Domains - Manages our website addresses and DNS setup. Squarespace Domains provides straightforward domain management with reliable DNS infrastructure.

Why This Stack Works

This combination of tools enables a two-person team to build and deploy a full-featured mobile and web application in just two months. The common thread running through every tool choice is AI-powered acceleration combined with integrated platforms that eliminate complexity.

Rather than cobbling together dozens of services or writing everything from scratch, we chose tools that play well together and provide powerful functionality out of the box. Supabase handles our entire backend. Expo manages mobile deployment. Vercel takes care of web hosting. This lets us focus on building features users want rather than maintaining infrastructure.

The AI development tools—particularly Claude Code and Cursor—transformed what would traditionally require large engineering teams into work achievable by a small, focused team. These tools don't just autocomplete code; they understand context, generate entire features, and help debug complex issues through natural conversation.

Getting Started with Your Own AI-Powered Stack

If you're planning to build an app with AI, here are key principles that guided our tool selection:

Choose integrated platforms over point solutions. Tools like Supabase that combine database, auth, storage, and real-time functionality save weeks of integration work.

Prioritize AI-native development tools. Cursor and Claude Code aren't just code editors with AI features bolted on—they're built from the ground up to leverage AI for faster development.

Pick tools with strong community support. React, Next.js, and Tailwind have massive communities, which means abundant resources, examples, and solutions when you hit obstacles.

Don't over-engineer. We could have chosen more complex tools or built custom solutions for everything. Instead, we used proven platforms that let us ship quickly and iterate based on real user feedback.

Ready to Build?

The barrier to building powerful apps has never been lower. With the right tech stack and AI-powered tools, small teams can now accomplish what previously required large engineering organizations and months of development time.

Whether you're building a social coordination app like Rulo, a business tool, or something entirely different, this modern stack provides a blueprint for rapid, AI-accelerated development. The key is choosing tools that integrate well, leverage AI effectively, and let you focus on solving problems for users rather than wrestling with infrastructure.

Ready to build your own AI-powered application? Lowcode Garage specializes in helping teams select the right tech stack and implement AI-accelerated development workflows. Let's discuss how we can help you turn your app idea into reality.