several years ago i took a feature-rich object-storage platform (written in pike) as a backend, added a RESTful API and then built various SPA sites on top of that. once the API was sufficiently feature complete i didn't need to touch the backend at all anymore.

besides the backend itself, the only other dependency is a database.

as a result, building a site nowadays is drastically simplified. javascript and my favorite frontend framework is all i need.