Engine Development — 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.
Version Control for Engine Source (Large C++ Monorepo)
Where your source code lives and is collaborated on. Non-negotiable for any team or serious project.Pricing & free-tier limitsPerforce Free: 5 users/20 workspaces free forever. Paid: $39/user/mo billed annually (min 20 users). GitHub Free: unlimited repos 500MB LFS, Enterprise $21/user/mo includes 50GB LFS + compliance. Overage: GitHub LFS $0.60/GB-mo, Perforce extra $0.15/GB-mo
Build Farm for Engine - High-end Bare Metal 64-core/128GB RAM
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsEquinix Metal m3.large.x86: $0.85/hr ~$500-550/mo per host (2026). Hetzner AX161: $250/mo flat. BuildKite: Free 1 concurrent, $15/user/mo + $0.008/min Linux 4-core. Incredibuild Cloud: $45/user/mo + $0.40/core-hr. Overage: Equinix bandwidth $0.10/GB over 10TB
CI/CD for Engine Builds (Large Runner, 200GB cache)
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Actions Hosted: Free 2000 min/mo (2-core), Large 4-core $0.016/min, 16-core $0.064/min, 64-core $0.256/min. Jenkins: $0 free self-hosted (hardware cost only). BuildKite: Free tier 1 agent, Team $15/user/mo. Overage: GH cache $0.25/GB over 10GB, minutes $0.008/min linux
Artifact Storage for Engine Binaries & OBJ/LIB Caching
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: Free tier none in 2026, $0.023/GB-mo storage, $0.09/GB egress. R2: $0.015/GB-mo, 10GB free, $0 egress. JFrog Free: 2GB storage 10GB transfer, Cloud Pro $45/mo 5TB transfer 100GB, Enterprise $135/mo 500GB storage. Overage: R2 $0.015/GB, Artifactory $0.10/GB storage
Container Registry for Engine Toolchain Images (Clang, SDK)
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 limitsGHCR: Free 500MB storage 1GB transfer, Pro $4/user/mo adds 2GB, Team $21/user/mo 20GB + 20GB transfer. ECR: $0.10/GB-mo storage, $0.09/GB egress first 1GB free. Harbor OSS: $0 self-hosted. Overage: GHCR $0.25/GB storage, $0.50/GB transfer
Static Analysis for C++ Engine Code (PVS, clang-tidy)
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 limitsclang-tidy/cppcheck: $0 free OSS. SonarQube Community: $0 free, Developer $150/mo 1M LOC, Enterprise $2000/mo 1M LOC. PVS-Studio: Individual $500/yr 1 dev, Team $2430/yr 5 devs, Enterprise $7500/yr unlimited. Coverity: OSS free, Commercial $15k/yr per 10 devs. Overage: PVS extra dev $500/yr
Profiler Infrastructure - CPU/GPU Frame Capture (Tracy, PIX, RenderDoc)
Powers AI features — model access, embeddings, and inference. Costs scale with usage, so watch the meter.Pricing & free-tier limitsTracy: $0 MIT licensed free forever, self-host server $0. RenderDoc: $0 MIT. PIX on Windows: $0 free (Microsoft). RAD Telemetry: Free tier 5 seats/3 months data, Pro $15/user/mo unlimited retention. Superluminal $149 perpetual seat + $99/yr support. Overage: RAD storage $0.20/GB-mo over 100GB
Crash Reporting / Native Crash Symbolication (Sentry Native, Breakpad)
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 Cloud: Free 5k errors/mo 1 member, Team $26/mo 50k errors + 5 members + 100k replay, Business $80/mo 100k errors + advanced DSYM. Self-hosted Sentry OSS: $0 free (hardware cost). Backtrace: $100/mo 50k dumps. Overage: Sentry $0.00036/error over quota ($0.36 per 1k), replay $0.10 per 1k
Symbol Server for Engine PDBs/DWARF (SymStore, debuginfod)
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 limitsSymStore + S3: S3 $0.023/GB-mo, ingress free, ~200GB PDB per build. Sentry Symbols: included free 2GB symbols (Free tier), Team 10GB, Business 100GB. R2 Symbols: 10GB free then $0.015/GB-mo zero egress. Self-hosted debuginfod: $0 OSS. Overage: S3 egress $0.09/GB, Sentry symbols $0.10/GB over
Build Cache / Distributed Compilation Accelerator
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsccache/sccache: $0 free MIT/Apache2, needs S3 $0.023/GB-mo (typically 100-500GB cache). Incredibuild Cloud: Free 250 core-hrs/mo trial, Pro $45/user/mo includes 1000 core-hrs, Enterprise $75/user/mo unlimited coordinator. Overage: Incredibuild core-hr $0.40, S3 cache $0.023/GB-mo
Issue Tracking for Engine Bugs & Tasks (Jira equiv)
Rates, labels, and tracking for physical goods. Needed once you actually ship products.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Issues: Free unlimited within repo. YouTrack: Free 10 users cloud, then $4.40/user/mo. Linear: Free up to 10 users, Standard $8/user/mo includes 250 issues automation, Enterprise $14/user/mo. Jira: Free 10 users, Standard $7.16/user/mo, Premium $15.25/user/mo (2026 list). Overage: Linear automation $0.01/run over 5k
How this hobby engine development checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a hobby engine 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.