while everyone knows javascript that doesn't mean it's always the right tool for the job. Personally, i had the worst experience with node.js for the backend. There are no standards,you have to configure almost everything from scratch. The best answer might be Ruby on Rails or Laravel. Laravel might be easier to get started,though. Don't be afraid of PHP, it's just a fine, boring language that gets the job done quickly. With Laravel you get authentication and ui scaffolding in minutes, built-in modern asset pipeline with webpack, great tooling, deployment tools etc and a huge community around it.

Interesting point you raise about everyone knowing JavaScript. Thank you for responding!

TypeScript or just JS? What do you use for data layer?

Usually Typescript. I like sqlite for simplicity. Postgres if something a bit more powerful is needed.