Decentralized Application Development DApp — small scale stack.
For each requirement below, pick the option that fits your build — recommended first, then free and cheaper alternatives — or skip what your project doesn't need. Tap the info icon next to any requirement to see why it matters.
Frontend Hosting for dApp (Next.js/React)
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsVercel Hobby $0 - 100GB bandwidth, 6000 build min | Pro $20/seat/mo + $40 per 100GB overage, 24k build min. Netlify Free $0 - 100GB bw, 300 build min | Pro $19/mo + $55/100GB over. Cloudflare Pages Free $0 unlimited bw, 500 builds/mo | Pro $20/mo bundle
IPFS Pinning Service (Decentralized Frontend/Assets)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsPinata Free $0 - 1GB storage, 100GB bandwidth, 1000 files | Pro $20/mo - 100GB storage, 1TB bw, $0.15/GB storage over, $0.10/GB bw over. Web3.Storage Free $0 - 5GB, upload via w3up. Filebase Free $0 - 5GB S3-compatible IPFS
RPC Provider / Node Infrastructure
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsAlchemy Free $0 - 300M compute units/mo, 30M per app max, 1k req/sec | Growth $49/mo - 1.5B CU, 1.5k req/sec, $0.15 per 1M CU over. Infura Free $0 - 100k req/day, 3 projects | Developer $50/mo 500k req/day. QuickNode Free $0 - 10M credits, 25 req/sec | Growth $49/mo - 30M credits, $0.10/1M over
Wallet Connect Infrastructure (Protocol)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsWalletConnect Free $0 - 1000 MAU, 2 projects, 10k relay msgs/day | Team $99/mo - 10k MAU, 10 projects, $0.01/MAU over | Pro $299/mo - 50k MAU. OSS Web3Modal Free - self-hosted, no limits
Wallet UI Kit / Connection Modal
The visual and experience layer of your product. Good design drives conversion and trust.Pricing & free-tier limitsRainbowKit Free $0 - MIT OSS, unlimited, self-hosted | ConnectKit Free $0 - MIT OSS | Web3Modal Pro: Free tier $0 - 3000 MAU, Pro $99/mo - 10k MAU, $0.015/MAU over. All libraries free to use, cloud RPC is paid
Blockchain Indexing / Subgraph Service
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsThe Graph Studio Free $0 - 100k queries/mo, 1 subgraph | Pro $49/mo - 1M queries, $4 per 100k over ($0.04/1k). Goldsky Free $0 - 100k queries/day, 2 subgraphs | Pro $49/mo - 5M queries/mo. Alchemy Subgraphs Free $0 - 100k queries/mo included in RPC
Off-Chain Database for dApp
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Free $0 - 500MB DB, 1GB storage, 50k MAU, 500k Edge Function inv | Pro $25/mo - 8GB DB included, $0.125/GB DB over, $0.021/GB storage over, $0.00325/10k MAU over. Neon Free $0 - 0.5GB storage, 1 project | Launch $19/mo - 10GB
Smart Contract Development Framework
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsFoundry/Hardhat Free $0 - MIT OSS, unlimited | Tenderly Pro $49/mo - simulation, fork infra. No per-use fee, self-hosted toolchain
Automated Smart Contract Security Scanning
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsSlither/Aderyn Free $0 - OSS static analysis unlimited | MythX Free $0 - 5 scans/mo | Certora Pro $199/mo - 500 runs, $0.50/run over. OpenZeppelin Defender $35/mo - 10 operations
Smart Contract Library Registry (Standards)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsOpenZeppelin/Solmate Free $0 - MIT OSS unlimited | Defender Free $0 - 10 contract sends/mo | Pro $35/mo includes monitoring. Libraries free forever
Testnet Faucet & Local Forking Infra
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsAnvil Free $0 - unlimited local forks | Tenderly Free $0 - 10 forks/mo, 5M simulations | Pro $49/mo - 50 forks, $0.10/fork over. Alchemy/Infura testnet RPC free within 300M CU
Embedded Wallet & Auth Infrastructure
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsPrivy Free $0 - 1000 MAU, email/social wallets | Pro $200/mo - 5000 MAU included, $0.10/MAU over. Dynamic Free $0 - 1000 MAU | Pro $250/mo - 5000 MAU, $0.10/MAU over. Web3Auth Free $0 - 1000 MAU | Growth $0.05/MAU over, $99/mo base for 5k MAU
CDN / Edge Delivery Network for dApp
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Free $0 - unlimited bandwidth/CDN, 100k Workers req/day | Pro $20/mo - WAF, image polish, $5 per 10M Workers req over | Business $200/mo. Bunny.net $0.01/GB (volume), $0 min, $10/mo min billing, Free trial 14d. R2 Free 10GB storage + 10M Class A ops
Permanent Decentralized Storage (Arweave)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsIrys Free $0 - 100MB uploads free | Paid $0.06/MB ~ $60/GB one-time permanent (~$0.0005/MB AR price varies). Arweave $15-80/GB one-time permanent storage (price fluctuates). ArDrive $0.01/GB subscription wrapper. Once paid, storage forever
Smart Contract Deployment & Management
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsThirdweb Free $0 - 3 chains, deploy unlimited contracts (pay gas only) | Growth $99/mo - 10k RPC relay, 25k engine tx, $0.02/tx over | Forge/Hardhat Free $0 - self-hosted deploy scripts, only gas cost
Gasless Transaction Relayer (Meta-Tx)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsOZ Defender Free $0 - 10 relay tx/mo, 100 autotask runs | Pro $35/mo - 100 relay tx, $0.10/tx over | Biconomy Free $0 - 100 gasless tx/mo | Pro $99/mo - 1000 gasless tx, $0.08/tx over. Gelato $50/mo - 10k relay calls, $0.01/call over + gas
On-Chain Analytics & User Analytics
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsDune Free $0 - 10 queries private, unlimited public | Pro $399/mo - 1000 API credits/hr | PostHog Free $0 - 1M events/mo, 5k session replays | Growth $0.000248/event after, $248/1M. Flipside Free $0 - unlimited SQL
Secrets Management for Private Keys
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsInfisical Free $0 - unlimited secrets, 5 members | Pro $35/mo - 10 members, $0.10/member-day audit over. Doppler Free $0 - 5 projects, 25 secrets | Team $12/user/mo - unlimited. Vault HCP $0.03/hr ~$22/mo cluster
Version Control & Code Hosting
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free $0 - unlimited repos, 2000 Actions min/mo, 500MB storage | Team $4/user/mo - 3000 Actions min, private pages. GitLab Free $0 - 400 CI min/mo | Premium $29/user/mo. Radicle Decentralized Git Free OSS option
How this small scale decentralized application development dapp checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a small scale decentralized application development dapp build typically needs. Pick one of the four researched options — recommended, free, cheaper or paid — add your own with "Other", or skip the requirement if your project doesn't need it. Nothing is mandatory; the plan on the right tracks what you've decided so nothing gets forgotten.
Your picks are saved in this browser automatically, so you can come back anytime. Options are researched per build level and refreshed as vendors change their plans — always verify details on the provider's page before committing.