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cheapstack — v1 · may 2026production-tested receipts, not vibes

The cheapest stack that actually ships.

Reference stacks for indie devs and bootstrapped founders who’d rather spend $87/month than $870. Every guide is itemized, dated, and built on tools we have running in production right now.

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Every stack itemizedtool by tool, with last-updated date
Updated quarterlyprices re-verified, changes flagged in RSS
FTC-disclosedaffiliate links, no pay-to-play picks

stack.txt — receipts/saas-100.mdmonthly

SERVICENOTESUSD

DigitalOcean App Platformhosting (5USD droplet)$5

CloudflareDNS + CDN + DDoSfree

Supabase Propostgres + auth$25

Postmarktransactional email$15

Upstashcache + rate limit$10

Sentry Teamerror tracking$26

Plausibleprivacy analytics$6

SUBTOTAL · monthly7 services · 1 free tier$87/mo

>cheapstack — runs in production. read the build →

featured / 6 stacks

Pick a budget. We’ll show you the receipt.

Six reference builds, from a $11 landing page to a $150 two-sided marketplace. Every tool in every stack is listed by name, with last-updated date and our actual current monthly bill.

STACK / 01cap $100/mo

Build a SaaS

$87/mo actual Updated May 2026

Auth, payments, transactional email, observability. Scales to ~10k MAU before re-pricing.

HostingDigitalOcean App Platform$5
CDNCloudflarefree
DatabaseSupabase Pro$25
EmailPostmark$15
CacheUpstash$10
ErrorsSentry Team$26
AnalyticsPlausible$6

Read the build →

STACK / 02cap $50/mo

Build an MVP

$43/mo actual Updated May 2026

First-100-user budget. Ship in a weekend, validate before you pay for anything fancier.

HostingVercel Hobbyfree
DatabaseTurso starter$9
AuthClerk freefree
EmailResend freefree
PaymentsLemonsqueezy$29
Domain.com / 12$1
Miscmonitoring$4

Read the build →

STACK / 04cap $150/mo

Build a Marketplace

$132/mo actual Updated May 2026

Two-sided. Payments, KYC, listings search. The $150 line is honest — you can't ship a marketplace for less and stay legal.

HostingRender starter$19
DatabaseNeon Scale$19
SearchMeilisearch Cloud$30
PaymentsStripe Connect$25
EmailPostmark$15
StorageCloudflare R2$10
ErrorsSentry$14

Read the build →

STACK / 05cap $100/mo

Build a Course / Coaching platform

$78/mo actual Updated May 2026

Video hosting is the line item that ruins most $50 budgets. Here's how to keep it civil.

SiteNext.js / Vercelfree
VideoMux Pay-as-you-go$30
AuthClerk Pro$25
DBSupabasefree
PaymentsStripefree
EmailResend$20
CalendarCal.com$3

Read the build →

STACK / 06cap $15/mo

Build a Landing page

$11/mo actual Updated May 2026

One page, one form, one conversion goal. Anyone selling you more than this for a landing page is selling you the wrong thing.

HostCloudflare Pagesfree
Domain.com / 12$1
FormFormspree$10
AnalyticsPlausiblefree

Read the build →

tool / preview

Or describe what you’re building.

A 30-second estimate of what your stack will cost in the first six months. Move the controls; the number on the right moves with them.

tool / 01 · estimatorlive preview · not a quote

What are you building?

Expected traffic

Add-ons

Transactional emailError tracking + uptime

Estimated monthly

$123/mo

Base (saas)$94

Email$13

Errors / uptime$16

Updated May 2026Open full calculator →

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