First of all, you need a minimal Unix environment: a command shell like bash or sh, utilities make, awk, sed. Note that the scripts contained in the distribution assume that the local language is set to the standard, i.e. "C"; other settings may break them. Use export LC_ALL=C (sh/bash) or setenv LC_ALL C (csh/tcsh) to prevent any problem when running those scripts.
If you are not compiling a stable release from tarballs, you will also need git v.2.13 or later to get the external libraries. You will need either CMake v.3.20 or later, or the configure command from autoconf v. 2.64 or later.
Second, you need a Fortran compiler compliant with F2008 standard and any half-decent C compiler. For parallel execution, a parallel MPI-aware Fortran compiler and MPI libraries implementing v.3 of the standard (notably, non-blocking broadcast and gather operations) are required. For massively parallel machines, or for simple multicore parallelization, an OpenMP-aware Fortran compiler and libraries are also required. To compile for NVidia GPUs you need the NVidia HPC SDK (software development kit) v.21.7 or later, freely available for download.
As a rule, QUANTUM ESPRESSO tries to keep compatibility with older compilers, avoiding nonstandard extensions and newer features that are not widespread or stabilized. If however your compiler is older than a few (∼5) years, it is likely that something will not work. The same applies to mathematical and MPI libraries.
Big computing centers typically provide a Fortran compiler complete with all needed libraries. Workstations or ``commodity'' machines using PC hardware, may or may not have the needed software. If not, you may use the open-source gfortran compiler from the gcc distribution, and possibly open-source MPI libraries and run-time software. You may also get a commercial compiler, some of which are available free of charge under some conditions (e.g. academic or personal usage, no support) and may provide MPI libraries and run-time software as well.