The ledger is the deck
Where deck meets house is the most common failure point: missing flashing rots the rim joist invisibly for years until the deck leans. Correct sequence — house wrap, LedgerLok or lag schedule, Z-flashing, then decking — takes an extra hour and prevents the failure mode that makes local news. No deck decision matters more.
Span tables are not suggestions
Joist size, species, spacing, and span interact in tables your permit office gives away. A 2x8 at 16" OC spans ~10.5 ft; stretch it to 14 and every step bounces. Composite decking often tightens spacing further. The framing calculator flags over-spans because bounce is the symptom of a table that was ignored.
Posts, bases, and frost
Posts belong on rated post bases above grade, on footings below frost line — wood-in-concrete is the rot recipe your grandparents built and code now forbids. Hardware is ~10% of framing cost and ~90% of the longevity argument. Buy the rated hardware; the lumber is commodity, the connections are the deck.