What is Software Stack?

A software stack is a set of software components or subsystems that are used to build applications that operate on a computer network without requiring additional outside resources to run optimally. For a software engineer to build a desktop or mobile application, they must make use of various components (or sections) of the stack. Software stacks typically have different levels (e.g. operating system, web server, middleware, database), and applications are said to run on top of the stack. Within most network architectures, the stack consists of multiple layers — such as the application layer, client layer, and service layer.