The Solo Founder's Tech Stack (Reference)
This chapter is your reference guide to every tool and service you need. I have organized them by function, listed free-tier details, and marked my recommendation for each category.
Use this chapter as a lookup table. Bookmark it. Come back whenever you need to choose a tool.
Infrastructure and Hosting
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Pages | Website hosting | Unlimited sites, 500 builds/month | $20/month (Pro) | Best for marketing sites |
| Cloudflare Workers | Serverless functions | 100K requests/day | $5/month (Paid plan) | Best for simple APIs |
| Vercel | Full-stack hosting | 100GB bandwidth | $20/month (Pro) | Best for Next.js apps |
| Railway | App hosting | $5 free credit/month | Usage-based | Best for full-stack MVPs |
| Fly.io | Container hosting | 3 shared VMs free | Usage-based | Best for custom backends |
| Render | PaaS hosting | Static sites free, 750 hrs/month | $7/month | Good general option |
My pick: Cloudflare Pages for marketing site + Cloudflare Workers or Railway for the product backend.
Databases
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Postgres + Auth + Storage | 500MB, 50K rows | $25/month (Pro) | Best overall for MVPs |
| Cloudflare D1 | SQLite at the edge | 5M reads/day, 100K writes/day | $0.75/M reads | Best with Workers |
| PlanetScale | MySQL | Deprecated free, $39/month | $39/month | Good but not free |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres | 512MB | $19/month (Pro) | Best serverless Postgres |
| Turso | Edge SQLite | 9GB storage, 500M reads | $29/month (Pro) | Best for edge-first |
| MongoDB Atlas | NoSQL | 512MB | $57/month | If you need NoSQL |
My pick: Supabase. The free tier is generous, it includes authentication and file storage, and the Postgres foundation scales well.
Authentication
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase Auth | Auth with your Supabase DB | Unlimited users | Included with Supabase | Best if using Supabase |
| Clerk | Drop-in auth | 10K MAUs | $25/month | Best developer experience |
| Auth0 | Enterprise auth | 7,500 MAUs | $23/month | Overkill for MVPs |
| Firebase Auth | Google's auth | 10K verifications/month | Usage-based | Good but ecosystem lock-in |
| Custom (JWT) | Roll your own | Free | Free | Only if you know what you are doing |
My pick: Supabase Auth (if using Supabase) or Clerk (if you want the fastest setup).
Do not roll your own auth unless you have security expertise. Authentication is the one area where "good enough" is not good enough. A bug in your auth system means unauthorized access to user data. Use a proven service. The $0-25/month is the cheapest security investment you will make.
Payments
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Payment processing | Free until you charge | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction | The standard for SaaS |
| Lemon Squeezy | Merchant of record | Free until you charge | 5% + $0.50 per transaction | Handles global tax/VAT |
| Paddle | Merchant of record | Free until you charge | 5% + $0.50 per transaction | Alternative to Lemon Squeezy |
My pick: Stripe. Lower fees, more control, better developer experience. Use Lemon Squeezy or Paddle only if you need a Merchant of Record to handle global tax compliance (important if you sell to consumers internationally).
AI Coding Assistants
| Tool | Purpose | Cost | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Pro / Claude Code | AI coding and reasoning | $20/month | Best for complex code generation |
| Gemini Advanced | AI coding and research | $20/month | Best for research + content |
| Cursor | AI-native code editor | $20/month | Best IDE experience |
| GitHub Copilot | In-editor code completion | $10/month (free for students) | Best for line-by-line completion |
| Windsurf | AI-native code editor | Free tier available | Good Cursor alternative |
My pick: Claude Pro ($20/month) for heavy lifting + Gemini Advanced ($20/month) for research and content. If you prefer an IDE experience, add Cursor.
Student pricing and free tiers. GitHub Copilot is free for verified students. Many AI tools offer student discounts. Always check before paying full price.
Email and Communication
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Business email | None | $7/month | The standard |
| Cloudflare Email Routing | Email forwarding | Free | Free | Budget alternative to Workspace |
| Resend | Transactional email | 3,000 emails/month | $20/month | Best for product emails |
| Postmark | Transactional email | 100 emails/month | $15/month | Best deliverability |
| Mailchimp | Marketing email | 500 contacts | $13/month | Good for newsletters |
| ConvertKit / Kit | Creator email | 1,000 contacts | $29/month | Best for content creators |
My pick: Google Workspace for business email + Resend for transactional product emails.
Analytics and Monitoring
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | Site analytics | Free | Free | Privacy-friendly, already included |
| Google Search Console | SEO analytics | Free | Free | Required for SEO |
| Google Analytics 4 | Visitor analytics | Free | Free | Standard, but requires cookie consent |
| Plausible | Privacy-first analytics | None | $9/month | Best privacy-first option |
| PostHog | Product analytics | 1M events/month | Usage-based | Best for product analytics |
| UptimeRobot | Uptime monitoring | 50 monitors | $7/month | Simple and effective |
My pick: Cloudflare Web Analytics (free, already set up) + Google Search Console (free, essential).
Design and Visual Tools
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figma | UI design | 3 projects | $15/month | Best for design |
| Canva | Graphics and social images | Generous free tier | $13/month | Best for non-designers |
| Excalidraw | Diagrams and wireframes | Free | Free | Best for quick diagrams |
| OG Image generators | Social sharing images | Various free options | Varies | Use Vercel OG or custom |
| Unsplash | Stock photos | Free | Free | Best free stock photos |
| Heroicons / Lucide | Icon libraries | Free | Free | Best icon sets |
My pick: Canva for social images and graphics (even the free tier is excellent). Excalidraw for wireframes.
Project and Task Management
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linear | Issue tracking | Free for small teams | $8/month | Best for solo devs |
| Notion | All-in-one workspace | Free for personal | $10/month | Best for docs + tasks |
| GitHub Issues | Bug tracking | Free | Free | Best if you live in GitHub |
| Todoist | Task management | Free tier | $4/month | Simple and fast |
My pick: GitHub Issues for bugs and features. Notion or a simple text file for everything else. Do not over-engineer your project management as a solo founder.
Legal and Compliance
| Tool | Purpose | Free Tier | Cost After Free | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Termly | Privacy policy generator | Free basic policy | $15/month | Good for MVP |
| Iubenda | Cookie consent + policies | Free basic | $29/year | Good EU compliance |
| Stripe Atlas | Company incorporation | None | $500 one-time | Best for US LLC/C-Corp |
| Clerk.com | Legal templates | Various free | Varies | Check for your jurisdiction |
My pick: Use AI to generate initial Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (see Appendix D). Get them reviewed by a lawyer when you hit $5K MRR.
The Minimal Stack (For the Truly Budget-Conscious)
If you want to spend the absolute minimum:
| Function | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Cloudflare Registrar | $10/year |
| DNS + CDN + Hosting | Cloudflare Pages | $0 |
| Cloudflare Email Routing (forwarding) | $0 | |
| Database + Auth | Supabase (free tier) | $0 |
| Payments | Stripe (free until transactions) | $0 |
| AI Coding | Free tiers of Claude/Gemini | $0 |
| Analytics | Cloudflare Web Analytics + GSC | $0 |
| Version Control | GitHub | $0 |
| Total | $10/year |
Yes, you can run a SaaS business on $10/year in infrastructure. The AI subscription costs ($20-40/month) are optional, free tiers work, just with lower limits.
Stack Recommendations by Product Type
B2B SaaS Dashboard: Cloudflare Pages + Supabase + Stripe + Resend
Developer Tool / API Product: Cloudflare Workers + D1 + Stripe + GitHub
Content / Media Platform: Astro on Cloudflare Pages + Supabase + Stripe
AI-Powered Product: Next.js on Vercel + Supabase + Stripe + OpenAI/Anthropic API
Marketplace / Multi-sided Platform: Next.js on Railway + Supabase + Stripe Connect
Pick the stack that matches your product type and move on. The stack does not matter as much as shipping.