Exploring the Multitude of Tech Stacks for Building Blockchain Applications

The technology stack you choose for a blockchain application decides what it can do, how much each transaction costs, who can see the data and how hard it is to hire developers for it. This guide walks through the main stacks in use in 2026, from public EVM chains to permissioned enterprise ledgers, lists the current tools for each, and explains where the parts of a blockchain application can be hosted.

1. What a blockchain application is made of

Whatever the chain, a blockchain application has the same layers:

Only the smart contracts run on the blockchain. Everything else is ordinary software that you host yourself, which matters when you plan hosting (section 7).

2. Public or permissioned?

The first decision is not a product but a model:

• Public chains (Ethereum and its Layer 2s, Solana, Cosmos chains) are open to anyone. They suit tokens, NFTs, decentralised finance and any app where users should not have to trust you. Every transaction pays a fee, and data is visible to everyone.
• Permissioned ledgers (Hyperledger Fabric, Corda) are run by a known group of organisations. They suit supply chains, trade finance and inter-company record keeping, where participants are identified, data must stay private and there is no token.

If your participants already trust a central operator, ask whether you need a blockchain at all: a conventional database with an audit log is cheaper and faster.

3. The EVM stack (Ethereum and Layer 2s)

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has the largest developer community and the most tooling. Ethereum moved to proof of stake in 2022, and most applications now deploy to Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base or zkSync, which settle to Ethereum but cost far less per transaction. Many other chains, such as Polygon PoS and BNB Chain, are also EVM-compatible, so the same code and tools work across them.

4. Solana

Solana is a high-throughput public chain with low fees, popular for consumer apps, payments and trading. Programs (Solana's name for smart contracts) are written in Rust, usually with the Anchor framework, which removes much of the boilerplate and generates a client interface. Front ends connect with Solana's JavaScript libraries and Solana wallets. Solana's account model is quite different from the EVM, so budget time to learn it even if you know Solidity.

5. Cosmos SDK

Cosmos is a network of independent blockchains that can talk to each other. Teams use the Cosmos SDK (written in Go) to build their own application-specific chain, secured by the CometBFT consensus engine (the successor to Tendermint Core), and connect it to other chains through the IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) protocol. Smart contracts can be added with CosmWasm, written in Rust.

Choose Cosmos when your application needs its own chain with its own rules and validator set, rather than a contract on someone else's chain. It is more work to run, because you are responsible for a validator network.

6. Enterprise ledgers: Hyperledger Fabric and Corda

Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain where known organisations run nodes, and data can be shared only with the members of a private channel. Smart contracts, called chaincode, are written in Go, Java or JavaScript/TypeScript. The Hyperledger projects now sit under the Linux Foundation's LF Decentralized Trust.

Hyperledger Composer, a modelling tool that older guides recommend, was deprecated in 2019; build directly on Fabric instead.

Corda, from R3, is built for regulated finance. There is no global broadcast: a transaction is shared only with the parties to it and a notary, which suits banks and trade-finance networks. Contracts are written in Kotlin or Java. Corda comes as an open-source edition and a commercial enterprise edition, and its main users are consortia rather than individual developers.

7. Where each part runs

The smart contract runs on the chain, but the rest of your application needs ordinary hosting:

• The front end. A dApp front end is usually a static site built with React, Next.js or similar. Build it locally or in CI and upload the output to any web host; it talks to the chain from the visitor's browser through their wallet.
• Back-end services. Indexers, APIs, webhooks and schedulers are usually Node.js, Go or Python services with a database.
• Nodes. Most teams use an RPC provider rather than running their own node. Running a full node, a validator or a Fabric network needs a dedicated server with large, fast storage and high uptime, and is a job for experienced operators.

Keep private keys and deployer wallets off web servers entirely. Sign deployments from a hardware wallet or a secured CI secret, and give a back-end service only the permissions it needs.

8. Running this on Domain India

• Static dApp front ends can be hosted on any Domain India shared hosting plan: upload the built files to public_html. Free SSL is included, which wallets and browsers expect.
• Node.js back ends run on the App Platform, where Node.js apps are detected automatically; Go, Python and other stacks run from a Dockerfile. See Getting started with the App Platform.
• Nodes, validators and Fabric networks need your own server. A Domain India VPS gives you root access and is self-managed: you install, secure, update and back up the software yourself. Check the chain client's published hardware requirements against the plan before you order, because a full node for a major chain needs more storage than an entry-level server.

Shared hosting is not suitable for running blockchain nodes or long-running processes.

Prices on the cards are live Domain India list prices and exclude 18% GST. For background on the technology itself, see Understanding blockchain technology and its implementation.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to build? Host your dApp front end on cPanel hosting, run your API on the App Platform, or compare VPS plans for a node. If you are not sure which fits your project, open a support ticket and describe what you are building.