Ask HN: How to build an online review platform? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to build an online review platform?

1 pointnicdc2 comments

Hello. I would like to create an online review platform around a niche industry. Something similar to Capterra (https://www.capterra.com) would be nice, but I don't need anything that fancy. Good SEO capabilities would be great though (I guess this obvious, no?).

What stack/tools should I be looking into?

Note: Last time I built and hosted a website Dreamweaver and Geocities were popular. So it's been a while. In case it helps, I know Python (for data science, though) and have dabbled in Hugo (the static site generator).

Looking forward to your replies!

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Whew! That's a big question.

I'm assuming this is going to run in the browser so you have the same platforms available as you would building anything else. If you are the lead or only dev, then the most important factor is picking a platform that you can understand and work with, and by platform I mean language, frameworks, and tooling that you'll need to get the thing running. Asking devs "What's the best platform?" is like asking fashionistas what the best clothes are. Everybody likes different stuff. There are even no-code/low-code options that could probably be used to pull off something like you're looking for.

That's the tech side. Now if you're thinking of this becoming a business, you have a whole slew of other considerations when picking a platform, mostly related to deployment. Is this cross-platform? Is there a mobile app? Who will host it? Etc. If you know you're going for a commercial product, it's worth examining the entire "software lifecycle," as it's called, to see how you'll get that worked out. For there is no such thing as a software product, only a software lifecycle, meaning releases, fixes, upgrades, support, legal, etc.

If it's an MVP I'm pretty sure a Wordpress site with a review plugin should be enough for your needs.

This will also have good SEO capabilities as bonus.

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