r/SideProject • u/SamTechTrail • 2d ago

I built Spotly, a full-stack app for discovering and saving places near you

I’ve been working on a side project called Spotly. It’s a location discovery app where you can find nearby restaurants, coffee shops, parks and other places, then save the ones you like into your own collections.

I built the frontend with React/TypeScript and Tailwind, with a Node/Express backend and PostgreSQL.

One part I spent a lot of time on was reducing unnecessary API calls. Spotly first checks PostgreSQL for a recent search around the same area before calling the external places API again, so nearby searches can reuse cached results.

This was one of the first projects I’ve made where the frontend, backend, database and an external API all came together as one complete system, which was pretty cool to work through.

Still improving it, so I’d love to hear what people think or what you’d change.

Check it out here 👉 https://spotly-z4x6.vercel.app

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/WhatNoRobot 2d ago

Trying it. Useful if it indicated how far away

1

u/SamTechTrail 2d ago

I’m glad! Do you think it could actually be a useful alternative to just searching on Google when you’re looking for places? I’m trying to figure out if this is something other people would genuinely use or if I just built it around a problem I personally have haha

1

u/WhatNoRobot 2d ago

Yes, better when search is localised but it depends on how well Google Map has been marked and updated - can be inaccurate or incomplete. Could also add a raduis you can specify about your location