What “low-cost” stack would you recommend for a first-time founder launching a product to save money
AI is a great, cheap foundation – we can all agree on that (depending on token usage, of course). 😀
When you’re building your first product, and you’re not sure if it will work and earn money, the obvious goal is to keep costs as low as possible and avoid burning money early on.
That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with my upcoming Chrome extension for LinkedIn. I don’t know if it will take off, so I want to go with the most cost-efficient stack possible.
Could you recommend the best low-cost alternatives for infrastructure and launching?
Databases
Payments/money management (I’m currently considering Stripe)
Analytics
Hosting and domains?
If there are other essential tools I’m missing, feel free to add them. I’m especially open to dev advice since my experience here is basically zero.
I believe your suggestions could help others in a similar situation, too. And if you know any good promo codes, don’t hesitate to share them. 😄
Replies
I work on AWS so most of the stuff i use is from there and more Entreprise level, as i build to scale:
Database: DynamoDb - fastest you can get, highly available and cheap
Search - Typesense, offers rich search, typo tolerance etc all the good stuff and much cheaper than OpenSearch, and in the Supabase search sucks
Supabase Auth - only Auth as it is cheap and good alternative to Cognito (which gets expensive at scale).
Payments - Stripe, as the compliance is good, flexibility and integrations
Hosting - Route53 as part of the AWS, but outside of AWS i would choose Squarespace Domains. GoDaddy isn't cheap anymore..
Keeping code - GitHub
Analytics - Posthog and Google Analytics, i also have my own analytics for the authenticated users
LLM - Bedrock as it is cheaper than OpenAI or Claude, offers more models, and customer data stays private
Running code - AWS Lambda with RPC, cheap, fast and typesafe. Much cheaper than running the server in the container.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@adrian_witaszak What about the MongoDB? Good or rather not?
@busmark_w_nika MongoDB is fine, it'll do the job and the Atlas free tier is generous enough to start. I just wouldn't reach for it for what you're building. Two honest reasons. First, for a small Chrome extension you probably don't want a separate database service at all, you want one thing that gives you DB and auth together, and that's where Supabase earns its keep on a first build. Mongo means wiring up auth and hosting separately. Second, Mongo's no-fixed-schema flexibility sounds great early but it quietly bites you later, it's very easy to end up with messy, inconsistent data when you're moving fast and still learning. A relational DB nudges you into structure you'll thank yourself for. I'm a DynamoDB person myself, but that's an AWS-ecosystem call and honestly overkill for a first extension. For where you are, I'd keep it boring: Supabase for DB and auth, Stripe for payments, and don't add Mongo unless you hit a specific reason you need it. Fewer moving parts is the real cost saving.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@adrian_witaszak Thank you for explaining it to me! For such my case, I will stay low cost! :D
@busmark_w_nika Anytime, Nika. Low-cost and boring is exactly right for a first build. You can always add complexity once something is actually working. Good luck with the launch :)
@busmark_w_nika GitHub Pages for hosting, free if it's static, no server needed. Supabase for the database, generous free tier and you get auth built in too. Stripe for payments is the right call, no reason to look elsewhere for a first product. For analytics, PostHog has a free tier that's actually usable, not the crippled kind. Domain from Namecheap or Porkbun, both cheap.
Skip anything with a monthly fee until you have users. You can always upgrade once something breaks from traffic, that's a good problem to have.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@alex_iliescu Thank you, I need to have a look at GitHub Pages because I haven't observed it well :)
The infra picks here are solid (Supabase + Stripe + Vercel/Railway covers most of it). One thing nobody's flagged though: for an AI product your real variable cost isn't infra, it's the per-call spend, and it scales with every single user. On my own AI tool the search/retrieval calls ended up being ~80% of the bill, way more than the LLM itself. I'd instrument cost-per-action from day one so you can spot which feature is quietly unprofitable before you scale it. And yeah, cheaper models for the non-critical calls helps a lot.
@busmark_w_nika I run a multi product portfolio on almost exactly this stack, so some specifics for your case.
For a Chrome extension the infrastructure need is tiny. Most of it is auth plus a small database plus the odd serverless function, and all of that sits inside free tiers for a long time. Supabase covers database and auth on one free plan and has extension auth guides, so that is the obvious starting point. Host the marketing page on Vercel or Cloudflare Pages, both free at your stage. The only unavoidable spend is a domain, roughly ten a year, so do not agonise over it, that is the cheapest line you will ever pay.
On the Stripe question you keep asking: the real decision is not Stripe versus a cheaper processor, it is processor versus merchant of record. Stripe is a processor, so you are on the hook for VAT and sales tax in every country you sell into. A merchant of record like Paddle, Lemon Squeezy or Dodo becomes the legal seller and files all of that for you, for a few points more margin. An extension usually sells internationally from day one, and that tax admin is the hidden cost that actually bites, so paying two or three points to never touch a VAT return is worth it pre revenue. If you were US only with a US entity, plain Stripe would be fine. That is the whole trade.
One rule that saves the most money early: every tool you named has a free tier, so your real early cost is not infrastructure, it is anything you start paying for before a single user has paid you. Stay on free tiers until someone gives you money, then upgrade only the one thing that is actually straining.