https://cheapstack.dev Real numbers for builders on $50–$200/mo budgets. Stack guides, comparisons, framework deep-dives, tool roundups. en-us Fri, 08 May 2026 18:06:15 GMT https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/saas-100 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/saas-100 A reference stack for shipping a real SaaS on a single Stripe-team-seat budget. Auth, database, transactional email, cache, error tracking, analytics — everything wired, dated, and built on tools we have running in production right now. stack https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/mvp-50 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/mvp-50 First-100-user budget. Ship in a weekend, validate before you pay for anything fancier. Auth, database, payments, email — all live, mostly on free tiers, with one paid line item where it actually matters. stack https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/newsletter-25 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/newsletter-25 A working newsletter operation: a primary ESP, a backup ESP, a fast static site, a domain, and a real forms tool. Up to about 2,500 subscribers without paying for the inbox. stack https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/marketplace-150 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/marketplace-150 Two-sided. Buyers and sellers, payments split between them, listing search, KYC, image storage. The $150 line is honest — you can't ship a marketplace for less and stay legal. stack https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/course-100 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/course-100 Lessons, lesson videos, paid enrollment, cohort emails, scheduled calls. Video is the line item that ruins most $50 budgets — this stack keeps it civil. stack https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/landing-15 https://cheapstack.dev/stacks/landing-15 One page, one form, one conversion goal. Anyone selling you more than this for a landing page is selling you the wrong thing. stack https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/firebase-vs-supabase https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/firebase-vs-supabase Pick the wrong one and you spend three months migrating away from it instead of shipping. Both are real backends. They are not interchangeable. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/vercel-vs-railway-vs-render https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/vercel-vs-railway-vs-render Three different bets on what 'deploy a backend' should feel like. Pick the wrong one and you fight your hosting choice every week instead of shipping product. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/stripe-vs-lemonsqueezy https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/stripe-vs-lemonsqueezy Stripe is the payment infrastructure of the internet. Lemonsqueezy is a Merchant of Record. The right choice depends on whether you want to own the tax problem or pay someone else to. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/beehiiv-vs-ghost https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/beehiiv-vs-ghost Beehiiv is a newsletter platform that bolted on a website. Ghost is a website CMS that bolted on a newsletter. Same surface area, very different bets about what you're actually building. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/clerk-vs-auth-js https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/clerk-vs-auth-js Clerk is auth-as-a-service. Auth.js is auth-as-a-library. The decision is whether you'd rather rent the auth UI or own the integration. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/postmark-vs-resend https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/postmark-vs-resend Postmark has 15 years of deliverability reputation. Resend has the developer experience of 2026. Whether the difference matters depends on whether your transactional email reaches the inbox. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/neon-vs-planetscale https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/neon-vs-planetscale Both rebuilt the database for the serverless era. One bet on Postgres + branching. The other bet on MySQL + Vitess. The bets diverged enough that the choice is now mostly about which engine you want. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/plausible-vs-fathom https://cheapstack.dev/comparisons/plausible-vs-fathom Two privacy-first, cookieless web analytics tools that emerged in opposition to Google Analytics. They look almost identical from a feature list. The real differences hide in pricing model, hosting story, and whose value system you'd rather buy. comparison https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/nextjs https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/nextjs The most opinionated full-stack React framework. App Router is the default in 2026; Pages Router is legacy. The right choice for most product builds — for the right reasons, not for hype. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/sveltekit https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/sveltekit The compiler-first React alternative. Smaller bundles, tighter API surface, and a runtime so light it almost doesn't feel like a framework — until you need an ecosystem feature React already has. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/astro https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/astro Content-first by default, with islands for the interactive bits. Ships dramatically less JavaScript than React or Svelte for the same page — when the page is mostly content. The wrong tool for app-shaped products. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/remix https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/remix The web-platform React framework. Now technically part of React Router 7, with the Remix ergonomics merged in. Less marketed than Next.js, more portable, more form-friendly — and increasingly the answer when you want React without the Vercel-shaped opinions. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/nuxt https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/nuxt Vue's Next.js. The most opinionated full-stack framework in the Vue ecosystem, with auto-imports, file-based everything, and a server engine (Nitro) that deploys to nearly every host. The right answer if your team writes Vue. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/solidstart https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/solidstart The fine-grained-reactive metaframework. SolidJS's runtime is so small it almost doesn't feel like a framework, and SolidStart wraps it in a Next.js-shaped full-stack experience. Niche, but the best DX in this set if you can stomach the smaller ecosystem. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/qwik https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/qwik The resumability framework. Skips hydration entirely — pages are interactive from first paint without re-executing component code in the browser. The most architecturally novel bet in this set, with the steepest mental model. framework https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/hono https://cheapstack.dev/frameworks/hono The Express of the edge era. A tiny, fast, ultraportable backend framework that runs on every JavaScript runtime that exists. Not a metaframework — there's no client-side rendering layer here. The right answer when you need a backend, not a full-stack framework. framework https://cheapstack.dev/tools/newsletter-platforms https://cheapstack.dev/tools/newsletter-platforms Five email platforms that hit the spectrum from general-purpose marketing automation to indie-built, markdown-first publishing. Picked for honest pricing at indie scale, real growth tools, and exit ramps that don't require a migration project. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/transactional-email-apis https://cheapstack.dev/tools/transactional-email-apis Five APIs that send the magic-link, the receipt, the password reset. Picked for deliverability reputation, indie-friendly pricing, and DX that doesn't fight you on the first integration. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/indie-databases https://cheapstack.dev/tools/indie-databases Five databases that hit the sweet spot of free-tier-credible, scale-friendly, and serverless-aware. Picked for honest pricing curves, not vendor-marketing. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/auth-services https://cheapstack.dev/tools/auth-services Five auth tools that hit the spectrum from 'free library' to 'managed platform.' Picked for honest pricing curves, B2B feature support, and exit ramps that don't require user-password resets. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/payment-providers https://cheapstack.dev/tools/payment-providers Five ways to take money on the internet. Picked for tax-handling, indie-friendly fees, and developer ergonomics that don't punish you for not running a finance team. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/indie-hosting https://cheapstack.dev/tools/indie-hosting Five hosts that hit the spectrum from $2.99/mo budget WordPress to managed cloud containers. Picked for honest pricing at indie scale and exit ramps that don't require a migration project. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/privacy-analytics https://cheapstack.dev/tools/privacy-analytics Five analytics tools that don't need a cookie banner. Picked for honest pricing, GDPR-native posture, and dashboards that load faster than your site does. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/headless-cms https://cheapstack.dev/tools/headless-cms Five ways to give non-developers a place to write copy without breaking your build. Picked for free-tier credibility, framework integrations, and editor UX that doesn't make you apologize to your team. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/landing-page-builders https://cheapstack.dev/tools/landing-page-builders Five tools for shipping a single converting page without standing up a full Next.js project. Picked for honest pricing, low time-to-live, and outputs that don't embarrass on mobile. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/domain-registrars https://cheapstack.dev/tools/domain-registrars Four registrars covering the spectrum from cheap-and-cheerful to premium-with-real-support. Picked for honest renewal pricing, free WHOIS privacy, and not-evil track records on transfers and outages. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/seo-tools https://cheapstack.dev/tools/seo-tools Four tools spanning the spectrum from $0 free official to $130/mo enterprise-grade research. Picked for honest scope, real keyword data, and dashboards that don't pretend the indie operator is an enterprise team. tool roundup https://cheapstack.dev/tools/crm-platforms https://cheapstack.dev/tools/crm-platforms Four CRMs covering free-and-friendly to flexible-database-shaped. Picked for free tiers that aren't traps, contact limits that work at indie scale, and exit ramps that don't require a CSV migration nightmare. tool roundup