Design — 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.
Game Design Document 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 limitsGoogle Docs: Free 15GB shared w/ Drive; Notion: Free = 10 guests, unlimited pages. Plus $10/user/mo billed annually ($12 monthly), Business $18/user/mo. Confluence: Free 10 users, Standard $6.05/user/mo, Premium $11.55/user/mo. Overage: AI add-on $8/user/mo.
Prototyping Tool Hosting (UI Mockups & Systems)
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 limitsFigma: Free 3 files, Starter $15/editor/mo (ann), Organization $45/editor/mo. Penpot: Free self-host unlimited, Cloud Free 1 team. Miro Free 3 boards, Starter $10/user/mo, Business $20/user/mo. Overage $2 per extra editor day.
Version Control for Design Docs
Where your source code lives and is collaborated on. Non-negotiable for any team or serious project.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free: unlimited public/private repos, 500MB Packages, 2000 Actions min/mo. Team $4/user/mo, Enterprise $21/user/mo. GitLab Free: 5 users/group limit. Overage: Actions $0.008/min, Storage $0.25/GB-mo.
Asset Storage for Design Prototypes
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 Standard $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, PUT $0.005/1k, GET $0.0004/1k. Free tier 5GB for 12mo. Drive Free 15GB, $6/user/mo Starter 30GB. R2: Free 10GB storage, $0.015/GB-mo + free egress. Overage egress $0.09/GB on S3.
Diagramming / Game Loop Flowchart Tool
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 limitsdiagrams.net: Free unlimited self-hosted. Miro: Free 3 boards, Starter $10/user/mo, Business $20/user/mo, Enterprise $35+/user/mo. Lucidchart Free 3 docs/60 shapes, Individual $9/mo, Team $10/user/mo. Overage: Guest $3/day.
Feedback Collection & Voting Platform
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 limitsGoogle Forms Free unlimited. Canny: Free 25 tracked users, Starter $99/mo (100 tracked users), Growth $299/mo (1k tracked). UserVoice Discovery $799/mo start. Overage: $0.12 per extra tracked user, +$25/mo per admin.
Analytics for Design Validation (Game Analytics)
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsGameAnalytics: Free 10M events/mo, unlimited titles. Standard $450/mo @ 50M events. PostHog: Free 1M events/mo, then $0.248 per 1k events ($248 per 1M over). Mixpanel Free 1M events, Growth $28k/yr @ 2.5M MTU. Overage $0.28 per 1000 events.
Playtest Management Platform
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 limitsDiscord Forms Free. PlaytestCloud Free 5 playtests/mo (5 players each), Lite $199/mo = 20 playtests, Pro $599/mo = 60 playtests + filters. UserTesting Essential $30k/yr (unlimited seats, 120 credits), Advanced $60k/yr. Overage: $30/playtest player on PlaytestCloud.
Knowledge Base / Wiki Hosting for Lore & Systems
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 limitsGitBook Free: 1 space, unlimited public docs; Pro $40/mo per seat. BookStack: Free self-host. Notion Wiki included in Notion pricing $10/user/mo. Confluence Premium $11.55/user/mo. Overage $5k/yr for 10k external viewers.
Task & Sprint Management for Design Iteration
The visual and experience layer of your product. Good design drives conversion and trust.Pricing & free-tier limitsLinear Free 250 issues, 10 members. Standard $8/user/mo, Business $14. Jira Free 10 users, Standard $7.91/user/mo, Premium $13.53. Trello Free 10 boards, Standard $5/user/mo. Overage: Storage $10 per 100GB.
Whiteboard & Brainstorming Platform
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 limitsFigJam Free Starter with 3 boards. FigJam Pro $5/editor/mo. Miro Free 3 boards, Starter $10/user/mo, Enterprise $35/user/mo. Mural Free 3 murals, Starter $9.99/user/mo. Overage $5 per external editor/day.
CI/CD for Prototypes (Build & Deploy)
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Actions Free 2k min/mo (private), public unlimited. Team = 3k mins. Hosted $0.008/min Linux, $0.016 Windows, $0.08 MacOS. CircleCI Free 6k credits/mo (1k min). Cloud $15/mo. Overage $0.0008 per credit (≈$0.006/min).
Feature Flags for Mechanics Testing
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 limitsUnleash: Free self-host unlimited. Flagsmith Free 3k requests/day. LaunchDarkly: Free 1k MAU + 1k service connections. Pro $10k/yr start for 10k MAU ($8.30/1k MAU over). Growth $0.18 per MAU over. SDK overage $10 per 1k connections.
Telemetry Storage for Playtest Data
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 $0.023/GB-mo, Athena $5/TB scanned. Supabase Free 1GB storage, Pro $25/mo 100GB. B2 $0.006/GB-mo storage, $0.01/GB download (free via Cloudflare). Snowflake $2-4 per credit (1 credit = 1 node hr). Overage S3 scan $5/TB.
Video Hosting for Playtest Recordings
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 limitsLoom Free 25 videos/user, 5min limit. Starter $12.50/user/mo 4hr unlimited. Mux: $0.05/min encoding, $0.005/min streaming. Free 1000 min credits +$20 mo. Stream $5/1k min stored, $1/1k min viewed. Vimeo Starter $20/mo 100GB. Overage $20 per 50GB.
User Research & Survey Tool
Interactive assessments, quizzes, or forms that capture structured input from users.Pricing & free-tier limitsGoogle Forms Free unlimited. Tally Free 100 resp/mo, Pro $29/mo unlimited. Typeform Free 10 resp/mo, Basic $25/mo 100 resp, Plus $50/mo 1000 resp. Qualtrics $1,500/yr Research Core, $5k+ XM. Overage Typeform $0.10/response, $0.20 for logic jumps.
Session Replay for Playtests
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: Free 15k recordings/mo, then $0.005 per recording ($5 per 1k). LogRocket Free 1k sessions/mo, Pro $99/mo 10k sessions. FullStory Business $199/mo 5k sessions, Enterprise $25k/yr+ unlimited. Overage $0.10 per extra full session.
Secrets Management for Playtest Builds
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 5 users/50 secrets. Team $8/user/mo unlimited secrets. Infisical Free self-host unlimited, Cloud $19/mo team. Vault HCP $0.03/hr ($22.5/mo) + $0.03 per 10k transactions. AWS Secrets Manager $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k calls. Free 20 secrets.
Backup & Archival for Design Assets
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, $0.006/GB-mo. $0.01/GB download. S3 Glacier Instant $0.004/GB, Deep Archive $0.00099/GB-mo. Veeam $13/month per workload. Overage $0.006/GB + $0 restore (first daily).
How this small scale design checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a small scale design 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.