Named tools, named reasons

Indie SaaS stack recommendations.

One stack per use case. Each slot names exactly one tool, the role it fills, the one-line reason it was chosen, the honest cost band, and a link to the shipped teardown. No best-of-breed hand-waving.

Solo founder

Solo-founder SaaS stack
One founder shipping a B2B or B2C SaaS without a team, on a $0-$50/month infrastructure budget at launch.
Cost ceiling: $0-$65/month at launch, plus Stripe processing fees. Most of the per-month cost only kicks in past free-tier traffic.

AI wrappers

AI-wrapper SaaS stack
Founders shipping an AI-powered SaaS (chat, agent, generation tool) where the model call is the core value proposition.
Cost ceiling: $50-$200/month plus model usage. Model usage is the dominant cost — budget for $200-$2,000/month per 1,000 active users depending on the workload.

Agency / productized service

Agency-to-productized stack
Service agencies productizing one specific deliverable into a fixed-scope, fixed-price offering — the first step from agency to SaaS.
Cost ceiling: $0-$60/month — most slots have free tiers that cover early productized volume.

Newsletter operator SaaS stack
Newsletter operators with 1,000+ free subscribers wanting to launch a paid tier or a SaaS adjacent to the newsletter.
Cost ceiling: $50-$100/month combined Beehiiv + Vercel + Supabase. Stripe and Beehiiv subscription fees scale with subscriber count.

By budget

SaaS stack under $100/month
Indie founders who want a complete SaaS infrastructure for under $100/month total, including analytics and monitoring.
Cost ceiling: $60-$100/month total infrastructure, before Stripe fees.

No-code

No-code SaaS stack
Non-engineer founders shipping their first SaaS using AI code-generation tools.
Cost ceiling: $25-$90/month including the AI tool subscription.

Marketplace

Marketplace SaaS stack
Founders building a two-sided marketplace where the platform takes a cut from transactions between buyers and sellers.
Cost ceiling: $60-$120/month plus Stripe Connect fees. Connect adds 0.25-2% on top of standard processing.

Scheduling-centric SaaS

Scheduling-adjacent SaaS stack
Founders building SaaS where booking, scheduling, or calendar coordination is the core value proposition (consultants, coaches, service-based products).
Cost ceiling: $25-$80/month total.

Audit your current stack against the diagnostic

The free 90-second Launch Diagnostic looks at your live product page and labels the failure mode — Wrong Person, Weak Offer, or Weak Belief. The stack matters; the diagnosis tells you whether your problem is in the stack or in the funnel on top of it.

Get the free diagnostic See pricing teardowns