Software SaaS — professional 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.
Web Hosting for SaaS (Frontend)
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 BW, 6000 exec hrs, 1000 GB-hrs edge. Pro $20/seat/mo + $40/100GB overage. Netlify Free 100GB BW, Pro $19/mo 1TB BW $55/100GB over. Cloudflare Pages Free unlimited BW, 500 builds/mo, Pro $5/mo. Amplify $0.023/GB served + Fargate $0.04048/vCPU-hr, $0.004445/GB-hr
Backend / API Hosting & Compute
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 limitsRender Free 750 hrs/mo (sleep), Starter $7/mo 0.5CPU 512MB, Standard $25/mo. Fly.io Free allowance 3x shared-cpu VMs 160GB egress, $0.0435/vCPU-hr after. Railway Trial $5 credit, Hobby $5/mo + $0.000463/vCPU-min + $0.000231/GB-min. Cloud Run Free 2M req/mo, 180k vCPU-sec, 360k GiB-sec, $0.000024/vCPU-sec, $0.08/M req over
Database for SaaS Multi-Tenant (Postgres)
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Free 500MB DB, 1GB files, 50k MAU auth, 50k monthly active users. Pro $25/mo 8GB DB $0.125/GB over $0.021/GB egress. Neon Free 0.5GB storage, 3 projects, 190 CU-hrs. Pro $19/mo 10GB incl, $0.15/GB over + $0.16/CU-hr compute. PlanetScale Free 5GB, 1B row reads/mo, Scaler $29/mo 10GB + $0.15/GB. RDS db.t3.micro $0.017/hr ~ $12.5/mo + $0.115/GB-mo gp3
Auth for SaaS (Multi-Tenant User Management)
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsClerk Free 10k MAU, 3 social connections, Pro $25/mo + $0.02/MAU over 10k, SSO $100/mo addon. Supabase Auth Free included 50k MAU. Auth0 Free 7.5k MAU, 1k M2M tokens, Essentials $35/mo 1k MAU $0.13/MAU over. WorkOS SSO $99/mo per product, Directory Sync $199/mo, free dev 1M MAU
File Storage for SaaS (Object Storage)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsR2 Free 10GB-mo storage, 10M Class A ops, 10M Class B, ZERO egress fees, $0.015/GB-mo after $4.50/M Class A over, $0.36/M B. S3 Standard $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, $0.09/GB egress first 10TB, $0.005/1k PUT $0.0004/1k GET. Supabase Free 1GB, Pro 100GB $0.021/GB BW $0.021/GB egress over
Billing & Subscription Management for SaaS
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 limitsStripe Billing Free built-in dashboard, 0.5% of recurring rev (first $1M free under Startup), payments 2.9% + 30c. Paddle 5% + 50c per txn inclusive MoR/tax. Lemon Squeezy 5% + 50c MoR Free tier. Chargebee Free 100 subs, Growth $299/mo up to 500 subs $0.25/sub over + $0.39/invoice overage
Transactional Email for SaaS
Sending transactional email (receipts, resets, alerts) and sometimes marketing mail. Deliverability matters more than features here.Pricing & free-tier limitsResend Free 3k/mo, 1 domain, Pro $20/mo 50k incl $0.0004/email over $1/1000. SendGrid Free 100/day forever, Essentials $19.95/mo 50k contacts + $0.00045 over. SES $0.10 per 1k emails, Free 3k/mo for 12mo from EC2 free, $0.12/GB attach. Postmark $15/mo 10k, $0.00125/email over
Monitoring & Error Tracking for SaaS
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Free 5k errors/mo, 10k replays, Team $26/mo 50k errors $0.00029/error over, 100k spans. Grafana Cloud Free 50GB logs 50GB traces 10k metrics. Datadog APM $15/host/mo Pro $31/host, logs $0.10/GB ingest, custom metrics $5/100. RUM $1.50/1k sessions
Secrets Management & Env Config
Stores API keys and credentials safely, separate from your code. Leaking secrets is one of the most common breaches.Pricing & free-tier limitsDoppler Free 5 users, 100 secrets, 1 project limit? Actually unlimited? Pro $10/user/mo 200 projects, Team $24/user/mo SSO. Infisical Free self-hosted unlimited, Cloud Free 3 projects, Starter $19/mo/seat $0.25/secret over. HCP Vault Dev $0.03/hr/cluster $25/mo, Standard $0.32/hr ~ $230/mo + 1k transact
Domain & DNS for SaaS
Your human-readable address on the web plus the DNS records that point it at your servers. Skipping this is not an option — users need a domain to reach you.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Registrar at-cost .com $10.18/yr (no markup), Free DNS unlimited queries, Pro $20/mo WAF rules. Porkbun .com $10.73/yr free WHOIS + free SSL. Route53 $0.50/hosted zone/mo + $0.40/M queries, domain .com $12/yr $0.50/zone + transfer fees
CDN / Edge Delivery for SaaS
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 unlimited BW, unlimited DDoS, Pro $20/mo 20 page rules. CloudFront Free 1TB transfer + 10M req/mo for 12mo, $0.085/GB next 10TB $0.01/10k HTTP req over. Fastly dev free $50 credit $0.12/GB $0.012/10k req
Background Jobs & Queue for SaaS
Runs slow work (emails, exports, payouts) in the background so users don’t wait. Keeps your app snappy.Pricing & free-tier limitsInngest Free 50k steps/mo, Pro $20/mo 250k steps $0.0001/step over $0.02/concurrency. Trigger.dev Free 10k runs/mo, Pro $29/mo 50k runs $0.0006/run over. SQS Free 1M/month, $0.40/M after, Lambda $0.20/M req + $0.0000166667/GB-sec
Cache & Redis for SaaS
Stores frequent results in fast memory so you serve less from the database. Big lever for speed and cost.Pricing & free-tier limitsUpstash Free 10k cmds/day 256MB, Pro $10/mo 100k/day $0.20/100k over $0.45/GB storage. Redis Cloud Free 30MB, Essentials $5/mo 100MB $0.20/100MB over. ElastiCache Serverless $0.125/GB-hr storage + $0.125/ECPU-hr ~ $45/mo min + $0.27/M req
Search for SaaS (Full-Text)
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsAlgolia Free 10k records, 10k search req/mo, Growth $1/mo base $0.50/1k records + $0.50/1k search req over - ~ $0.40/1000. Typesense Free trial 14d, Starter $15/mo 1GB RAM 2GB storage $0.50/GB over. Meilisearch Cloud Free 10k docs, Starter $29/mo 1M docs 1GB RAM
Logging & Log Management for SaaS
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsBetter Stack Free 1GB/mo 3-day retention, Starter $24/mo 10GB 7d ret $2/GB over. Grafana Cloud Free 50GB logs/mo. Papertrail Free 50MB/mo search 1d, $7/mo 1GB 7d $1.50/GB over. Datadog Logs $0.10/GB ingest $0.10/GB retention 15-day $1.70/M events indexing
Product Analytics & Telemetry for SaaS
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsPostHog Free 1M events/mo, groups analytics, feature flags, Pro $0.000248/event after 1M ~ $248/1M. Mixpanel Free 28k MTUs, Growth $28/mo 20k MTUs incl $0.28/MTU over. Amplitude Free 50k MTUs, Growth $49/mo 10k sessions + $0.02/session over
CI/CD Pipeline for SaaS
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free 2000 mins/mo Linux private repos, $0.008/min Linux after $0.016/macOS. Team $4/user/mo 3000 mins pooled Pro $0.008/min. GitLab Free 400 mins/mo, Premium $19/user/mo 10k mins. CircleCI Free 6000 credits/mo (~1000 mins), Perf $30/mo 42k credits $15/25k credits over
Uptime Monitoring & Status Page
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsUptimeRobot Free 50 monitors 5-min interval, Pro $7/mo 20x 1-min monitors SMS $0.02/over. Better Stack Free 10 monitors 3-min, $24/mo 50 monitors 30-sec 100 SMS $0.10/SMS. Checkly Free 10k checks/mo, $29/mo 50k checks, 10 status pages $0.0006/check over
Customer Support & Helpdesk Infra
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsCrisp Free 2 agents 100 convos/mo, Pro $25/mo workspace 500 convos $0.03/convo over unlimited seats. Tawk.to Free unlimited agents, removal + extras $19/mo. Intercom Essential $74/mo/seat 1000 people reached $0.99/convo after + $35/mo addon. Zendesk Team $55/agent/mo
Feature Flags & Entitlements for SaaS
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 limitsPostHog flags free with 1M events/mo. GrowthBook Free self-host unlimited, Cloud Free 20k evals, Pro $149/mo 200k evals $5/10k over. LaunchDarkly Free 1k MAU 1k flag evals, Pro $20/mo per seat $0.20/1k MAU over 1k MAU + env overage, Enterprise $2000/mo base
Webhooks Infrastructure & Delivery
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsHookdeck Free 100 events/day 3d retention, Pro $19/mo 100k events/mo $0.0002/event over + $10/extra conn. Svix Free 50 msgs/day, Starter $15/mo 5k deliveries $0.0004/msg over, Business $200/mo 500k. Standard $0.0004 per retry
Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention
Stops bots, scrapers, and spam signups from abusing your service and inflating costs.Pricing & free-tier limitsUpstash Rate Limit free with Redis 10k/day, $0.20/100k req over. Cloudflare Free 1 rate limit rule, Pro $5/mo 10 rules $0.05/10k good req $1/M over. Arcjet Free 10k evals/mo, Team $30/mo 100k evals $0.50/1k over + DDoS free
Data Warehouse / Analytics DB for SaaS
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsBigQuery Free 10GB storage, 1TB query/mo free, $0.02/GB storage $5/TB scanned over on-demand. ClickHouse Cloud Free 14d 1GB $29/mo Dev 100GB storage $0.15/GB over. MotherDuck Free 10GB $0.15/GB after + compute $2/hr. Snowflake $2-4/credit + $23/TB-mo storage, 40 credits min $80/mo Standard
Container Orchestration for SaaS
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 limitsEKS $0.10/hr/cluster (~$73/mo) + EC2 nodes t3.medium $0.0416/hr ~ $30/mo each or Fargate $0.04048/vCPU-hr. GKE Standard $0.10/hr cluster $0.0445/vCPU-hr, Autopilot $0.046/vCPU-hr $0.00511/GB-hr free 8.5 e2-micro. DOKS $12/mo cluster $18/mo worker + usage
Message Queue / Event Bus (Pub-Sub)
Runs slow work (emails, exports, payouts) in the background so users don’t wait. Keeps your app snappy.Pricing & free-tier limitsSQS Free 1M req/mo, $0.40/M after, EventBridge $1.00/M custom events + $0.20/M cross-acct. Upstash QStash Free 500 msgs/day, Pro $10/mo 10k/day $0.01/1k over. Confluent Free $400 trial, Standard $60/mo cluster + $0.115/GB write + $0.05/GB read
API Gateway & Management
Controls and protects your APIs — quotas, abuse prevention, and firewalls. Important once you have real traffic or many clients.Pricing & free-tier limitsZuplo Free 1k req/day, Pro $50/mo 50k req/day $0.01/1k over + $0.005/egress GB. AWS API GW REST $3.50/M req + $0.38/hr caching, HTTP $1.00/M. Kong OSS free self-host, Konnect Plus $250/mo 3 services + $0.10/1k req. Cloudflare API Shield free + $5/m rules
Backup & Disaster Recovery for SaaS
Copies of your data so a bug, hack, or outage doesn’t become permanent loss. Cheap insurance every serious project needs.Pricing & free-tier limitsBackblaze B2 Free 10GB storage, 1GB DL/day free, $0.006/GB-mo $0.01/GB down $0.005/1k ops over. Litestream free OSS replication. AWS Backup $0.095/GB-mo warm $0.15/GB cold + EFS backup $0.05/GB. RDS backup $0.095/GB-mo free up to DB size
Enterprise SSO & Directory Sync for SaaS
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsBoxyHQ OSS free self-host, Cloud $99/mo 50 SSO connections $1/connection over. WorkOS SSO dev free 1M MAU, $99/mo per product SSO + $199/mo Directory Sync, audit logs $100/mo. Auth0 Enterprise $800/mo floor + $0.22/MAU MFA $0.06/MAU. Okta Customer Identity $2500/mo 10k MAU
Audit Logs & Compliance Trail
Keeps you secure and compliant with regulations. Required for enterprise customers and handling sensitive data.Pricing & free-tier limitsWorkOS Audit Logs Free dev 1M events, $100/mo per product 500k events $15/100k over $10k retention. Pangea Free 1k queries/mo, Starter $20/mo 100k logs $0.40/1k over. Retraced OSS free, hosted $99/mo. Datadog audit logs custom pricing $0.10/GB ingest + $1.70/M indexed
In-App Notifications 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 limitsNovu Free 30k events/mo 5k subscribers, Pro $30/mo 100k events $0.0003/event over + $0.10/10k stored. Knock Free 500 notifs/mo dev, Starter $49/mo 10k notifs + $0.005/notif over $0.002/email over. Courier Free 10k/mo, Growth $49/mo 50k
How this professional software saas checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a professional software saas 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.