For me it really just depends, at least three of my commuters are single chainring affairs, one of those is 1x7, one is fixed, and one is single speed. There's minor hills on my commute but my go to is still often my fixed gear, despite the fact that it is a true track bike frameset.. but I find with my 48x16 or it might be 15, I forget.. it's more then adequate to get me up the minor hills, which for me means when I'm using my 1x7 drivetrain bike it's really almost like cheating when I go up the hills, it's not like most of us are cycling gods either so in theory our range needs shouldn't be that huge.