Audio Development — 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.
Audio Asset Storage (WAV, OGG, MP3 binaries)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsS3: Free tier none (12mo trial 5GB). Paid $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, $0.022 next 450TB. PUT $0.005/1k, GET $0.0004/1k, Egress $0.09/GB up to 10TB. R2 Free: 10GB storage + 10M Class A ops + 10M Class B ops/mo. Paid: $0.015/GB-mo, $4.50/M Class A, $0.36/M Class B, ZERO egress. B2 Free: 10GB storage + 1GB download/day + 1K API/day free. Paid: $0.006/GB-mo storage + $0.01/GB download + $0.004/10k Class B. Overage: B2 $100/TB egress cap, S3 $120/TB.
Audio Middleware Licensing / Runtime 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 limitsFMOD Free: $0 if project budget <$200k and no prior-year $200k revenue. Paid: $2000 per project per platform (one-time) + $2000 per major title update. Indie upgrade $1500/project. Wwise Free: $0 if <150 sounds in project + <500k downloads + <$150k budget. Pro: $750/seat/mo annual ($900 mo-to-mo), or $5000/title indie license, $15000/title enterprise. Steam Audio: 100% free OSS MIT, no limits. Resonance Audio: Apache 2.0 free. Overage: FMOD console add $1000/platform.
Version Control for Audio Binaries (large files)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsPerforce Free: 5 users, 20 workspaces free forever, local server. Paid Cloud: $39/user/mo annual (min 1yr), $49/mo month-to-month. Includes 1TB Helix storage + unlimited depots. Git LFS: GitHub Free 1GB LFS storage + 1GB bandwidth/mo. Paid: Git LFS Data Pack $5/mo for 50GB storage + 50GB bandwidth. Overage: $0.438/GB-mo storage + $0.438/GB bandwidth. Helix Cloud hourly $3.60/user/hr.
CDN for Audio Delivery & Patching
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 CDN Free: unlimited BW, 100GB/mo soft advisory, 10 free WAF rules, 3 page rules. R2 Free: 10GB + 10M reqs. Paid after: $0.015/GB-mo storage, egress $0. Pro $20/mo. BunnyCDN Free 14-day trial, then $1/mo minimum balance + $0.01/GB NA/EU, $0.03/GB APAC/SA, $0.01/10k requests. Volume over 5TB: $0.005/GB. CloudFront: Free tier 1TB transfer/mo first 12mo + 10M reqs. Paid after: $0.085/GB first 10TB, $0.065/GB next 50TB, $0.01/10k HTTPS reqs. Overage Bunny storage $0.01/GB-mo.
Spatial Audio Processing Service / SDK 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 limitsSteam Audio: 100% free OSS, self-hosted C++ library, baking on CPU free, no limits, no hosted cost. Resonance Audio: 100% free OSS, no cost, Google deprecated but OSS fork maintained. Oculus Audio SDK: Free SDK download, free for Quest, enterprise support via Meta $0 (forums) or third-party integrator $5000/mo support ticket SLA. Compute for HRTF baking: t3.medium $0.0416/hr or local free. No licensing overage.
Voice Recording Raw Storage & Archival
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsB2 Free: 10GB storage free, 1GB download/day free, 2500 Class B daily free. Paid: $0.006/GB-mo storage ($6/TB-mo), $0.01/GB download (first 1GB/day free), Class B $0.004/10k, Class C $0.004/10k. Wasabi: No free tier, $6.99/TB-mo min 1TB (90-day min storage), no egress or API fees. S3 Glacier Deep Archive: $0.00099/GB-mo ($0.99/TB-mo) 180-day min, restore $0.02/GB bulk 48hr, $0.025/GB standard 12hr, $0.10/GB expedited. Overage: Wasabi overage pro-rated per GB.
DAW Project Backup & Collaboration Sync
Copies of your data so a bug, hack, or outage doesn’t become permanent loss. Cheap insurance every serious project needs.Pricing & free-tier limitsGoogle Drive Free 15GB shared Gmail/Photos, then Workspace Starter $6/user/mo 30GB pooled, Business Standard $12/user/mo 2TB pooled. Dropbox Free 2GB, Plus $9.99/mo 2TB, Professional $16.58/mo 3TB. Splice Free 5GB projects, Creator $7.99/mo unlimited projects + 100GB samples, $13.99/mo Producer 500GB. Perforce $39/user/mo. Overage Drive $0.20/GB beyond pool, Dropbox $0.50/GB extra.
Audio Build / Encoding Farm (WAV→Opus/Ogg/Vorbis)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Actions Free: 2000 Linux mins/mo, 500MB cache, 500MB artifact, 20 concurrent jobs. Paid: $0.008/min Linux ($0.48/hr), Windows $0.016/min, storage $0.25/GB-mo. Hetzner CX22 $0.033/hr (4 vCPU 8GB, 80GB SSD), CPX31 $0.060/hr. AWS g5.xlarge (A10G 24GB) $1.006/hr OnDemand, $0.75/hr spot (~25% off), g5.2xlarge $1.212/hr. Batch free scheduler. Transcode throughput ~500 stereo files/min/core @48kHz Opus. Overage GH $0.004 extra 1000 mins.
Audio Middleware Build Integration CI
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsGH Actions Free 2000 mins/mo Linux + 1000 Windows mins for Pro accounts. GitLab Free 400 CI mins/mo shared runners, $0.008/min extra. GitLab Premium $19/user/mo gives 10k mins pooled. TeamCity Cloud Free 100 builds/mo + 3 agents, then $45/mo Small (6 agents), $299/mo Medium (14 agents). Self-hosted Jenkins OSS free $5-10/mo VPS. Overage TeamCity concurrent agent $50/agent/mo.
Crash Reporting for Audio Engine
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Developer: 5k errors/mo free, 1 project, 30d retention, 10k replays, 1 user. Team $26/mo inc 50k errors + 50k replays + 100k spans + 90d retention. Overage: $0.00029/error ($0.29/1k), $0.0001/transaction. Business $80/mo inc 100k errors + 500k replays. GlitchTip OSS free self-host $6/mo VPS handles 100k ev/mo, unlimited users, 90d retention. Overage Sentry caps $0.0015 per crash min $10/mo extra.
Secrets Management for Audio API Keys
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsInfisical Free: 2 projects, 500 secrets, 10 members, unlimited API keys. Paid Starter $20/mo 5 projects. Dotenv free 500 secrets. Cloudflare Workers Secrets: Free within Workers Free 100k reqs/day, $5/mo 10M reqs + $0.50/M after, unlimited secrets. AWS Secrets Manager: $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k API calls (Free 30 secrets trial 30d). HCP Vault Dedicated: $0.03/hr cluster (~$22/mo) + $0.04/hr standby. Overage Secrets Manager $0.40 per extra secret.
Voice Chat Relay Infrastructure (VOIP for players)
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 limitsSteam Voice: 100% free if distributing on Steam, unlimited MAU, no cost. Mumble OSS free self-host $5/mo VPS (Hetzner CX11 $3.29/mo) handles 100 concurrent @ Opus 72kbps ~7 Mbps. Agora Free: 10k audio mins/mo free, then $0.99/1000 audio mins (group), $3.99/1000 spatial audio mins, $0.59/1000 mins VoIP recording. Vivox Free: <$100k product revenue + <100 CCU free, then $0.008/CCU/hour + $0.04/GB VoIP traffic + $0.10/GB PSTN. Photon Voice Free 20 CCU, $15/mo 200 CCU, $95/mo 1000 CCU. Overage Vivox min $500/mo after scale.
Monitoring for Audio Performance & Latency
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsGrafana Cloud Free: 10k metrics series, 50GB logs, 50GB traces, 14d retention, 3 users. Paid Pro $8/user/mo + usage, $8/mo for 2k metrics extra. Datadog Free: 1-day retention, 1 host, Community. Pro: $15/host/mo infra + APM $31/host/mo + 150GB logs incl + $0.10/GB ingested over + $0.05/100 custom metrics + $5/synthetic test 1k runs. New Relic Free 100GB ingest/mo, 1 user full, then $0.30/GB over + $49/user/mo. Overage Datadog $0.005/custom metric hr.
Logging for Audio Playback Analytics
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsLoki OSS free self-host $5/mo VPS 100GB. Grafana Cloud Logs Free 50GB/mo logs + 14d retention, then $0.50/GB ingested + $0.15/GB 30d retention. Axiom Free: 500GB ingest/mo? Actually 500GB trial then Free 100GB? 2026 Free 100GB/mo then $0.25/GB + $0.10/100k queries. Elastic Cloud Deployment $95/mo base (1GB RAM, 20GB storage, 2 zones) includes 10GB storage, over $0.20/GB-month storage + $0.12/GB ingest. Datadog logs $0.10/GB ingested. Overage Loki S3 storage $0.023/GB.
Audio Preview Streaming Server (for reviewers)
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 limitsClyp Free 1hr uploads, max 30min/track, then Creator $5/mo unlimited 5GB. Cloudflare Stream: $5/mo per 1000 mins stored + $1/1000 mins delivered + storage included. Free 0 included. Bunny Stream: $1/mo min + $0.01/GB storage (HDD), $0.03/GB SSD, $0.005/GB BW (volume NA/EU). Mux: Free $0 starter credit 10k mins, then $0.003/min encoding, $0.003/min storage/mo, $0.06/1000 delivered mins, $0.80/1000 thumbs. Overage Bunny $0.005/GB delivered >10TB.
Object Storage for Audio Middleware Banks (.bank .pck)
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, 10M Class B ops/mo free, then $0.015/GB-mo storage, $4.50/M Class A, $0.36/M Class B, $0 egress always. B2: $0.006/GB-mo storage + $0.01/GB download, $0.004/10k API. S3 Versioned: $0.023/GB-mo x avg versions (2x typical), PUT $0.005/1k, GET $0.0004/1k, egress $0.09/GB, versioning doubles cost for rollback. Overage R2 no egress overage by design, only storage.
Audio Asset Tagging / Metadata Database
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 file storage, 2GB BW/mo, 50k MAU auth, 500k Edge Function inv. Paid Pro $25/mo includes 8GB DB, 100GB BW, 100GB file storage, $0.125/GB extra BW, $0.195/GB extra DB. Turso Free 9GB total storage, 500 databases, 500M row reads/mo, 25M writes/mo, then Starter $29/mo 24GB storage 3B reads. PlanetScale Free 5GB storage, 1B row reads/mo + 10M writes, Scaler $29/mo 10GB + 100B reads. RDS db.t4g.micro $0.018/hr ~$13/mo + $0.115/GB-mo gp3 storage + $0.115/GB backup. Overage Supabase $10 per extra GB.
CI Runner for Audio Tests (latency, loudness compliance)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsGH Actions Free: 2000 Linux mins/mo (public repos unlimited), 500MB cache, 1 concurrent macOS. Paid per min: $0.008/min Linux ($0.48/hr), $0.016/min Win, $0.08/min macOS. Buildkite OSS agent free, hosted platform $15/user/mo + self-host compute $0.033/hr CX22. GitLab Premium $29/user/mo incl 10k CI mins/mo pooled, additional mins $0.008/min. Overages GH $0.008/min ~ $60 for 125hr month.
Backup & Disaster Recovery for Audio 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 limitsDuplicati OSS free self-host, incremental block backup to B2. B2 Free 10GB storage + 1GB DL/day. Paid: $0.006/GB-mo ($6/TB-mo) + $0.01/GB restore. Wasabi $6.99/TB-mo flat min 1TB, 90-day min retention, no egress fees, no API fees. Restic OSS free. AWS Backup $0.05/GB-mo warm backup + $0.05/1000 restore reqs + Glacier Deep $0.00099/GB-mo ($0.99/TB-mo)restore $0.0225/GB Bulk 48hr, $0.10/GB expedited. Overage Wasabi $6.99/TB additional.
How this small scale audio development checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a small scale audio development 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.