IONICWEBCREATOR
Node.js Backend Development

The unglamorous half that decides whether it works

Frontends get rewritten every few years. The data model outlives all of them. We build Node.js backends where the database enforces the invariants, the boundaries are typed, and the system tells you what it is doing before you have to guess.

Book a discovery callAll services
  • Constraints in the database
  • Typed boundaries
  • Observable from day one

Almost every serious production incident traces back to one of three things: data that should never have been allowed into that state, a boundary that was not validated, or a system that could not tell you what it was doing. All three are decided early and cheaply.

The database is not a bucket

Foreign keys, unique constraints, check constraints, and the right transaction boundaries. If an invariant matters, it belongs where it cannot be bypassed — not in a service method someone will forget to call. Migrations are versioned, reversible, and reviewed like code, because they are.

Typed to the edges

Every input crossing a boundary is validated against a schema, and that same schema generates the types the application uses. There is one definition of what a valid request looks like, so the validator and the type can never disagree.

  • Structured logs with a request id you can follow across services
  • Background jobs with retries, backoff, and a dead-letter queue you can actually inspect
  • Load-tested before launch, not after the first spike
Problems we solve

What this work is for

The situations teams are usually in when they bring us this problem.

  • Inconsistent data

    Orphaned rows and impossible states because the constraints only exist in application code. We move them into the schema.

  • Jobs that silently fail

    No retries, no dead-letter queue, no alert. Work disappears and nobody finds out until a customer does.

  • Blind in production

    No traces, no metrics, no useful logs — so every incident is archaeology. Observability is part of the build.

Our approach

How the work runs

The same sequence on every engagement, so there are no surprises in week three.

  1. Model the data

    Entities, relationships, and the invariants that must always hold. This is the decision everything else inherits.

  2. Define the boundaries

    Schema-validated inputs, typed outputs, explicit error shapes. Nothing untrusted reaches business logic unchecked.

  3. Build and instrument

    Services shipped with logs, metrics and traces from the first deploy — added later, they never get added.

  4. Prove it under load

    Load tests against realistic traffic, with the slow query log read rather than assumed. Indexes follow evidence.

What's included

What you get

Concrete deliverables — all of it yours to keep, run, and hand to another team.

  • Schema and migrations

    A documented relational model with constraints, indexes, and reversible migrations.

  • Typed services

    Business logic behind validated boundaries, with the API layer kept thin.

  • Background processing

    Queues, retries, idempotency keys, and a dead-letter queue with tooling to replay it.

  • Observability

    Structured logging, error tracking, metrics and traces, wired to alerts that mean something.

  • Runbooks

    What to do when it breaks, written before it breaks, by the people who built it.

Technology

What we build it with

Chosen for the problem, not for novelty.

We are not tied to any of these. If your team already runs something that works, we build with it.

Runtime

Fastify over Express for schema-first validation and the performance headroom that comes with it.

  • Node.js
  • Fastify
  • TypeScript
  • Zod
Data

Postgres, because most data is relational and pretending otherwise is a decision you pay for later.

  • PostgreSQL
  • Prisma
  • Redis
  • Migrations
Operations

Reproducible environments and traces that cross service boundaries — the two things you want during an incident.

  • Docker
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Sentry
  • GitHub Actions
Questions

Before you get in touch

The questions that come up in almost every first conversation.

Why Node rather than Go or Python?

Because one language across the stack means one set of types, one validation library, and shared code between the API and the web app. If your problem is genuinely CPU-bound or your team is already strong elsewhere, we will say so.

Can you work on our existing backend?

Yes. Typically we start by adding validation at the boundaries and observability inside, which makes the real problems visible before anyone commits to changing them.

Do you do microservices?

Only when there is a reason — team boundaries or genuinely divergent scaling. A well-structured monolith with clear internal boundaries beats a distributed one for most companies.

Tell us what you're building.

Bring the problem, not a spec. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right team and outline a concrete first step — no obligation, no sales theatre.

Book a Discovery Callsupport@ionicwebcreator.com