How we skipped weeks of backend setup and still launched fast

Curious how other teams are handling backend setup these days.

At Raftlabs, we recently kicked off a client project and decided to try AWS Amplify instead of setting up our usual stack. To our surprise, it saved us a ton of time.

In just a few days, we had:

Auth (Cognito)

File storage (S3)

GraphQL + REST APIs (AppSync + Lambda)

CI/CD auto-deploying the frontend

Proper environment separation (dev, staging, prod)

No custom infra scripts, no hours lost in IAM policies. Just shipped real features.

It made us wonder:

How are you handling the backend setup right now?

Do you build from scratch or lean on tools like Amplify, Supabase, or Firebase?

What’s been your biggest trade-off using managed backends?

Where do you draw the line between flexibility and speed?

Would love to hear how others are approaching this, especially for early-stage products.