Every time you start developing your application, you are left with the initial effort of setting up the development environment.
It carefully requires you to connect different technologies, follow conventions and ensure that everything is set up properly before writing the first business logic code.
However, things change if you use a starter kit like the T3 and T4 stack.
In this article we will examine what a T3 stack and a T4 stack do for you. And how you as a developer can use it to fast track your web development process.
Let’s start.
What is T3 Stack?
The T3 Stack defines itself as a “CLI” that gives developers a tool to run a fully thread-safe Next.js application. Eliminates the need to manually set up the project, link different libraries and tools.
It contains the following technologies:
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
- tRPC
- Prism
- TypeScript
- NextAuth.js
The BEST stack for your next project.
According to the creator of T3 Stack, he wanted developers to use the starter kit to start their project. T3 Stack aims to give complete power to the developer as it allows them to choose what they want.
The T3 stack starter kit has gained a lot of popularity. At the time of writing it has reached 21.9 thousand stars. It is also an active project with ongoing issues being resolved by open source developers of 277+ contributors.
What is T4 Stack?
T4 App is another bundled solution that allows developers to create universal web applications. T4 Stack was developed by Tim Miller with a focus on three key elements: performance, rapid development and developer experience.
With the T4 stack, developers can create a full range of universal React applications. It has extensive support for various technologies including Next.js, TypeScript, Expo, Authentication, Cloudflare Workers and others.
The project is constantly updated, but it is significantly less popular compared to the T3 set. At the time of writing, it currently has 21 contributors with 814 stars.
Comparison of T3 vs. T4 set
Now that we have established what T3 and T4 are, we can move on to comparing them. To make the comparison digestible and help you decide what to use for your next web project, we’ve kept the criteria below:
- Platform compatibility
- Feature set and customization
- Documentation and community support
- Learning curve
- Performance and optimization
- Third party integration
Platform compatibility
Both T3 stack and T4 application allow you to develop full-stack web applications. Basically, the T3 app is focused on Next.js, while the T4 app is focused on React.
With T4 you can create applications for all platforms. This includes iOS, Web and Android. In addition, it also supports Windows, Linux and macOS.
T3, on the other hand, focuses primarily on web development. Since it’s a stack, you can add libraries or tools to build Windows or Linux applications, but that can require a lot of workarounds.
Philosophy and feature set
The underlying philosophy of both sets is simple…minimize development time and improve the development experience and application performance whenever applicable. This corresponds to the current market demand for rapid first-to-market development.
The T3 core philosophy includes the following:
- Troubleshooting: Every element of the T3 stack has been added to solve the problem — whether it’s state libraries, authentication libraries, or third-party tRPC or Prisma integration.
- Bleed responsibly: The T3 lineup includes cutting-edge technology, but only to a certain extent. It gives developers the ability to use these technologies, but in less risky parts.
- Optional type safety: Type safety is at the heart of the T3 assembly. It depends a lot on TypeScript and make sure you focus on finding and fixing bugs during development, not compile time.
On the other hand, the T4 stack has a similar philosophy. It supports cutting-edge technology that allows you to develop quickly. For example, it supports tRPC, ts-pattern and Tanstack Query for data retrieval. It puts performance first, with access to performance-optimized libraries like Next.js, Drizzle, Expo and so on.
Customization and modularity
The T3 is highly adaptable and modular in design. During use, you can decide to use only what you want. So when you use it, you can choose to exclude anything you want, creating a minimal template for your project.
Similarly, T4 also offers the freedom to set up the project according to your needs.
Learning curve
When it comes to choosing the right stack for your web development, you might find the T3 stack a bit challenging. However, with a few implementations, you can work quickly, saving a lot of time.
The T4 suite of apps, on the other hand, offers a slight learning curve.
Performance and optimization
If you’re looking for an optimized set to help you in your development endeavours, you’ll find both appealing. The T3 and T4 sets are focused on performance-optimized libraries. For example, the T4 suite provides access to Tuborep, a TypeScript high-performance build system. Similarly, the T3 stack offers technologies such as Upstash that allow you to improve the performance of Redis in serverless projects.
Conclusion
Both the T3 and T4 bundles aim to make your life as a web developer easier. With it, you can create scalable web solutions whose core is flexibility, performance and modularity.
T3 stacks are older and therefore more mature. Its type-safe approach also makes it an excellent choice for web development – reducing development time and stack download time.
T4 is also a great choice, especially if you want to build a React full-stack app. It offers access to performance-optimized libraries. Also, T4 gives you a wider option when it comes to developing applications for other platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac.
Frequently asked questions
Is T4 Stack a sequel to T3?
No it’s not. They are completely different. The T3 stack is a Next.js starter kit that offers modularity at its core. T4, on the other hand, is a responsive starter kit that allows you to develop complete web applications.
Which one should you use? T3 application or T4 application?
It depends on your project requirements. Both are great for web development. However, if you are looking for a more mature starter kit, then the T3 is an excellent choice. Also, T3 targets Next.js, so choose that if you intend to use it. If you’re focused on building a React.js full-stack application, T4 seems to be the ideal choice.