Tool Categories for Tech Stack Building

tekyous· 1 July 2026· 4 min read
Tool Categories for Tech Stack Building

Every tool in the Tekyous catalogue belongs to one category. Categories serve three purposes on the platform: they let you filter the catalogue by area of the stack, they group tools into columns when you use the organised layout in the stack builder, and they structure the tool picker drawer when you are adding tools to the canvas.

Most categories contain subcategories — finer groupings that distinguish, for example, Node.js backend frameworks from Python ones, or OLTP databases from document stores. Subcategories appear in the organised canvas layout when you enable the detailed view, and each has its own catalogue page.

There are currently 19 categories.

Frontend Frameworks Frontend Frameworks

JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks for building user interfaces.

Subcategories

  • JS Frontend Frameworks — Component-based UI frameworks built on JavaScript and TypeScript: React, Vue, Svelte, and more.
  • JS Metaframeworks — Full-stack frameworks with SSR and SSG support: Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Remix, and Astro.
  • CSS Frameworks — Utility-first and component CSS libraries including Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap.
  • HTML-first Frameworks — Low-JavaScript interactivity approaches: HTMX, Alpine.js, and Hotwire.
  • Mobile Frontend Frameworks — Cross-platform mobile UI frameworks including React Native and Flutter.
  • Browser Extension Frameworks — Tooling for building browser extensions targeting the Manifest V3 API.

Backend Frameworks Backend Frameworks

Server-side frameworks and APIs.

Subcategories

  • Python Backend Frameworks — FastAPI, Django, Flask, and other Python server-side frameworks.
  • Node.js Frameworks — Express, Hono, NestJS, Fastify, and other Node.js server-side frameworks.
  • Go Frameworks — Gin, Echo, and Fiber — lightweight HTTP frameworks for Go.
  • Ruby Frameworks — Rails and Sinatra for server-side Ruby applications.
  • PHP Frameworks — Laravel, Symfony, and other PHP backend frameworks.
  • Java Frameworks — Spring Boot and other enterprise-grade Java backend frameworks.
  • Rust Frameworks — Axum, Actix-web, and other high-performance Rust web frameworks.
  • JavaScript Runtimes — Server-side JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes: Node.js, Deno, and Bun.

Programming Languages Programming Languages

General-purpose and domain-specific languages.

Databases Databases

Relational, document, graph, and vector databases.

Subcategories

  • OLTP Databases — Relational databases for transactional workloads: PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite.
  • NoSQL / Document — Document and unstructured data stores: MongoDB and Firestore.
  • Backend as a Service — Managed platforms combining database, auth, and storage: Supabase and Firebase.
  • Vector Databases — Databases optimised for embedding similarity search: Pinecone, Qdrant, and Weaviate.
  • OLAP Databases — Columnar databases optimised for analytics queries: ClickHouse, DuckDB, and BigQuery.
  • Key-Value Stores — In-memory and persistent key-value stores: Redis, DragonflyDB, and Valkey.
  • In-Process SQL — Embedded SQL engines that run in-process with your application: DuckDB and SQLite.

Hosting & Cloud Hosting & Cloud

Cloud platforms, PaaS, VPS, and serverless hosting.

Subcategories

  • App Hosting — PaaS and serverless platforms for deploying web apps: Vercel, Render, and Railway.
  • Cloud Providers — Full-service cloud infrastructure platforms: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and DigitalOcean.
  • VPS & Servers — Self-managed virtual private servers for full control over your infrastructure.

AI Builders AI Builders

AI-powered full-stack app generation platforms.

No-Code / Low-Code No-Code / Low-Code

Visual builders for non-technical and semi-technical users.

Subcategories

  • Website Builders — Drag-and-drop builders for websites and landing pages: Webflow, Framer, and Squarespace.
  • No-Code Backend — Visual platforms for databases, APIs, and workflows: Airtable and Xano.
  • E-commerce Platforms — Managed platforms for online stores: Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.
  • Mobile App Builders — No-code tools for building native mobile apps: Glide, Adalo, and FlutterFlow.

Development Tools Development Tools

IDEs, editors, and AI coding assistants — the personal developer workflow toolkit.

Subcategories

  • IDEs & Editors — Code editors and integrated development environments: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Zed.
  • AI Coding Agents — AI-powered coding assistants and autonomous agents: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code.
  • Version Control — Source control systems and code hosting: Git, GitHub, and GitLab.

Authentication Authentication

User authentication and authorization services.

Automation & Integration Automation & Integration

Workflow automation and integration platforms.

APIs & Infrastructure APIs & Infrastructure

API gateways, CDNs, and infrastructure tools.

Subcategories

  • Payment Processors — Payment APIs and billing platforms: Stripe, Paddle, and Lemon Squeezy.
  • Infrastructure — Infrastructure-as-code and cloud networking: Terraform, Pulumi, and Cloudflare.
  • GraphQL Engines — GraphQL servers and managed GraphQL platforms: Hasura and Apollo Server.

DevOps & CI/CD DevOps & CI/CD

Deployment, CI/CD, and containerisation.

Subcategories

  • Containerization — Container runtimes and orchestration: Docker and Kubernetes.
  • CI/CD Pipelines — Automated build, test, and deploy pipelines: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and CircleCI.

Data Engineering & ETL Data Engineering & ETL

Pipelines, orchestration, and data transformation tools.

Subcategories

  • Orchestration — Workflow scheduling and pipeline orchestration: Apache Airflow, Prefect, and Dagster.
  • Extract & Load — Data ingestion and replication into warehouses: Fivetran and Airbyte.
  • Transformation — SQL and Python-based data transformation layers: dbt and SQLMesh.
  • Cloud Data Platforms — Managed lakehouse and data warehouse platforms: Snowflake, Databricks, and BigQuery.
  • Streaming — Real-time data streaming and message queue infrastructure: Kafka, Redpanda, and Flink.

Data & ML Libraries Data & ML Libraries

Libraries for data manipulation, machine learning, and statistical analysis.

Subcategories

  • Data Processing — Libraries for data manipulation and numerical computation: Pandas, Polars, and NumPy.
  • ML Frameworks — Deep learning and machine learning libraries: PyTorch, TensorFlow, and scikit-learn.
  • ML Operations — Experiment tracking, model deployment, and monitoring: MLflow and Weights & Biases.

Data Apps Data Apps

Frameworks for building data-driven dashboards and interactive applications.

BI & Analytics BI & Analytics

Business intelligence platforms and visual analytics tools.

Subcategories

  • BI Tools — Business intelligence and dashboarding platforms: Metabase, Tableau, and Power BI.
  • Notebooks — Interactive computing and data exploration environments: Jupyter, Marimo, and Observable.
  • Spreadsheets — Spreadsheet tools with analytics and automation capabilities: Excel and Google Sheets.

CMS CMS

Content management systems for managing web and digital content.

Subcategories

  • Classic CMS — Traditional monolithic content management platforms: WordPress and Drupal.
  • Headless CMS — API-first content platforms that decouple content from presentation: Contentful, Sanity, and Strapi.

Observability & Monitoring Observability & Monitoring

Logging, metrics, tracing, and alerting for production systems.

Subcategories

  • Infrastructure & APM — Application performance monitoring and infrastructure metrics: Datadog, Grafana, and Sentry.
  • Web & Product Analytics — User behaviour and product analytics: PostHog, Mixpanel, and Google Analytics.

LLM LLM

Large language models and foundation model providers.

Subcategories

  • Proprietary — Hosted large language models accessible via API: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini.
  • Open-weight — Open-weight models available for self-hosting and fine-tuning: Llama, Mistral, and Qwen.

You can browse any category from the tools catalogue, or open a category's tools directly in the stack builder sandbox. For a broader overview of how categories fit into the platform, see the How Tekyous Works guide.