Art And Technical Art — hobby 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.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) for Art – Perforce / Asset Library
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree: 5 users, 20 workspaces, 1TB versioned storage included; Paid: $39/user/mo annual ($45 monthly), includes Swarm + DAM; Storage overage $0.20/GB-mo, Extra workspace $5/mo
Large Binary Version Control for Art (Git LFS / Perforce Bridge)
Where your source code lives and is collaborated on. Non-negotiable for any team or serious project.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free: 1GB LFS storage, 1GB bandwidth/mo; Pro $4/user/mo gives 2GB LFS; Overage $0.10/GB-mo storage, $0.10/GB bandwidth; Perforce $39/user/mo unlimited binary diff, $0.15/GB cross-site relay
Art Binary Storage – Raw Asset Lake (FBX, PSD, USD, Textures)
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 storage, 10M Class A / 50M Class B ops, zero egress fees; B2: $0.006/GB-mo storage, $0.01/GB download (first 3x storage free egress); S3: $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, PUT $0.005/1k, GET $0.0004/1k, Egress $0.09/GB to 10TB; Glacier Instant $0.004/GB-mo
Texture/Material Library Hosting & Delivery (Substance, Megascans)
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 limitsSubstance Individual $22.99/mo (50 credits), Team $49.99/mo (200 credits, 100pts ~100 materials); Quixel Free: unlimited w/ Epic account < $1M revenue; Poly Haven: 100% free CC0 unlimited; Storage overage R2 $0.015/GB-mo
Art Review & Approval Hosting – Dailies (Frame.io / SyncSketch)
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 limitsFrame.io Free: 2GB, 1 project; Team $15/user/mo annual (50GB pooled per user), $18.75 monthly; Pro $25/user/mo 500GB pooled; SyncSketch Pro $20/user/mo unlimited projects; Overage $0.12/GB-mo storage over quota
CDN for Art Asset Distribution (builds, patches, textures)
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 bandwidth (fair-use), 10GB R2 free then $0.015/GB-mo; BunnyCDN $1/mo minimum, $0.01/GB NA/EU, $0.03/GB Asia, storage $0.01/GB-mo; CloudFront $0.085/GB first 10TB, $0.02/10k req; Overage $0.09/GB
Render Farm Orchestration (Deadline / OpenCue)
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 limitsDeadline Free: 10 local nodes free unlimited queue; Deadline Cloud Orchestration $0.12/worker-hr + EC2 g4dn.xlarge $0.526/hr, g5.xlarge $1.006/hr On-Demand; Fox: $0.15/GHz-hr CPU, $0.85/GHz-hr GPU RTX 4090; Overage burst license $50/day per 100 nodes
Artifact Repository for Processed Art Binaries (DDS, KTX, USDz)
Where your source code lives and is collaborated on. Non-negotiable for any team or serious project.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudsmith Free 1GB storage 50GB transfer; GitHub Packages Free 500MB; Nexus OSS free self-host (storage $0.023/GB); JFrog Free 2GB; Team $45/mo (10GB), Pro $150/mo (50GB); Overage $0.45/GB-mo storage, $0.30/GB transfer
Secrets Management for Art Pipeline (Perforce tokens, API 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 limitsDoppler Free: 25 secrets 1 env; AWS Secrets $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k API calls; HCP Vault Free 25 secrets, Plus $30/mo base for 25 secrets + $1.20/secret/mo after; Overage $0.30/secret, $0.08/1k API calls over 10k
Build Farm for Texture Compression & Mesh Processing (A10G/GPU)
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free 2000 min/mo (Linux), 500 min extra $0.008/min; Vast.ai RTX 4090 $0.35-0.65/hr, A10G $0.75/hr; AWS g5.xlarge $1.006/hr on-demand, Spot $0.38/hr (70% off), g6e $1.20/hr; Overage build minutes $0.008/min CPU, $0.02/min GPU
Crash & Error Reporting for Custom Art Tools (DCC plugins)
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 limitsSentry Free: 5k errors/mo, 50k replays, 1GB attachments, 1 user; Team $26/mo (50k errors, $0.00036/error over), Business $80/mo (100k errors); GlitchTip self-host $6/mo VPS + S3 $0.023/GB; Overage $0.0003/error, $0.02/GB attachments
How this hobby art and technical art checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a hobby art and technical art 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.