I’m exploring on-demand app development and want to understand how developers approach the backend architecture for an application that connects customers with service providers.
For an on-demand platform with features such as bookings, provider availability, real-time status updates, location tracking, payments, and notifications:
What backend architecture would you recommend?
How should real-time data and provider availability be handled?
Would REST APIs, WebSockets, or a combination be better?
Which database works well for bookings and location-based data?
How can the application remain responsive as the number of users and service requests grows?
What are the most common scalability or performance issues to plan for early?
I’d appreciate insights from developers who have worked on similar real-time web applications.