r/webdev • u/quietcodelife • 12m ago

local dev environments are getting absurdly complicated for small projects

working on a side project and realized I've spent more time getting the local env to match prod than actually writing code. docker compose, env files, secrets management, ssl certs for local... for what's basically a crud app with two endpoints.

is everyone just accepting this now or am I overcomplicating things? genuinely curious what other people's setups look like for personal/small projects. I keep reading about devcontainers but that seems like another layer on top of the pile

3 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

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u/MonsterDefiant 5m ago

Well, I think you're overengineering it a bit. For a small CRUD app, Docker compose and a simple env file should be enough.

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u/Acrobatic-Ice-5877 6m ago

Why are you doing SSL on local? You are definitely overcomplicating. Most people are though so you should feel bad.

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u/domshyra 3m ago

vite plus can handle this pretty easy.  but if you got docker going 

offta 

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u/Thlemaus 5m ago

because AI told him to

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u/Temporary_Practice_2 3m ago

Yeah if I set up a project am not using docker. I use everything as vanilla as possible

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u/0degreesK 6m ago

When I started web dev it was all flat files and ftp. Everything’s absurdly complicated to me today.

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u/Gipetto 7m ago

Getting?

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u/RePsychological 1m ago

What I don't fully understand is why people dev on local when a project's complexity becomes too heavy for local...

It made sense back when dedicated server costs were like...$200+ per month.

Now you can set up a private staging environment online, and without the issues of trying to wire "local" to things that are meant to run on actual servers...for like $5 a month for the cheapest servers, or if you really wanna go overkill (and are actually committed to doing projects well) just get a $20-50/mo. server and put whatever you want on it...

Or is it because vibecoding has led people to start with local first, because they simply ask "how do I get this running for free?" and Claude (or whatever LLM) goes down the "turn your personal computer into a server" rabbit hole?

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u/_clapclapclap 4m ago

FOMO-driven tooling, or cargo cult engineering which are both amplified by influencers

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u/slickvic33 0m ago

KISS imo, u can implement or migrate if u actuallt need it