BaseDash

How are you managing your PostgreSQL schema? It doesn't have to be hard to add or remove fields. We're working on a SQL database client at BaseDash that lets you add/remove columns in a couple clicks.

If you decide to migrate some of your data to MongoDB, you can definitely manage the two databases in parallel. For any records that need to be linked, you can treat it just like a foreign key by creating a column that points to an ID in the other database. For example, you might store user settings in MongoDB, and include a UserId field that points to your User record in your Postgres database.

Node.js and ExpressJS is a good choice for backend, the stack makes it really easy to build a REST API.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by using ExpressJS as an admin panel. Express is a lightweight backend framework for Node.js that lets you build your endpoints quickly and with minimal code. If you're looking for an admin panel to manage the data on your mobile app, check out BaseDash. It lets you view and edit data from your SQL database with the simplicity of Airtable.

Socket.IO is great for building real-time systems like chat. It's effectively a nice wrapper around WebSockets, with the ability to fallback to other methods for browsers that don't support it. We just used it to implement real-time collaboration at BaseDash, including a chat system like you're looking to build.

Node.js is probably the correct choice, especially if you're already familiar with it You'll probably still need to build an API to send requests to your server, and then use Socket.IO to push messages to your clients. This will let you authenticate users and store messages on your database so you can retrieve them later. PostgreSQL and MongoDB are good options for your database, you should be fine either way. Don't worry about speed, they'll both be sufficient.

React on the front end makes it really simple to handle real-time updating data. Again, even better since you're already familiar.

Node.js is a great option for real-time applications, especially in conjunction with Socket.IO.

In terms of databases, I'd go with PostgreSQL. MongoDB has its benefits (schema-less, sharding, map-reduce), but for most CRUD-based apps, it makes sense to store the bulk of your data in a relational database (of which PostgreSQL is the best IMO). You can throw in MongoDB if you have a specific need for it. There's certainly no need to use both MySQL and PostgreSQL.

As for GraphQL, it can be nice to work with since you don't need to predefine specific data endpoints on your backend, instead shifting the power to your frontend in requesting the data it needs. It's also useful for public APIs, when you don't know what data users want (see Github's API). It can be useful at the early stage when you're prototyping and want to be able to fetch data quickly, but certainly isn't necessary.

At BaseDash we use Node.js, ExpressJS, Socket.IO, PostgreSQL, and Sequelize to fit our use case of database management and real-time operations.

You're right that there isn't a great way to join tables with Airtable's API. The closest you can get is to use a linked record field, which acts as a pointer to another record. You still end up with the problem you mentioned of having to run another query on the second table separately.

Your best bet is to stick with an actual SQL database. Using an ORM should make your life significantly easier so you don't actually have to write raw SQL. If you still want a graphical interface to your data, BaseDash lets you view and edit SQL databases just like Airtable. A full API with join support is coming soon, so that could be your perfect solution to this problem.