Testing And Quality Assurance — 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.
Test 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 limitsFree: Testmo Free 20 test cases / 1 project; Kiwi TCMS self-hosted unlimited. Xray $10/mo up to 10 Jira users then $4.20/user/mo. TestRail Cloud $36/user/mo billed annually ($39 monthly), Enterprise $66/user/mo. Overages: extra storage 5GB free then $10/10GB, API $0.001/call after 100k. Testmo Pro $30/user/mo after free, Enterprise $45/user/mo.
Bug / Issue Tracking for QA
Rates, labels, and tracking for physical goods. Needed once you actually ship products.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree: GitHub Issues unlimited public/private; YouTrack Free 10 users, 5GB storage. Linear Standard $8/user/mo. Paid: Jira Premium $16/user/mo (<1k users), Enterprise $20.50/user/mo. Overages: automation 1000 exec/mo free then $0.02/run, storage 10GB free then $0.45/GB-mo, 250GB pooled.
CI/CD for Test Automation
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree: Jenkins OSS unlimited minutes (own infra). GitHub Actions Free 2000 min/mo Linux, 500MB artifact storage. GitLab Free 400 compute min/mo. Paid: GitHub Team $4/user/mo + Linux $0.008/min, Windows $0.016/min, GPU $0.08/min A100. CircleCI Performance $30/mo + $0.015/credit ($0.006/min). Overages: GH $0.007/min after quota, storage $0.25/GB-mo after 500MB.
Artifact Storage for Test Builds
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: MinIO OSS self-host unlimited; R2 Free 10GB storage, 10M Class A ops, 10M Class B free, egress free. B2 $0.006/GB-mo storage, $0.01/GB download. S3 $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, $0.0125 next 450TB. Overages: S3 PUT $0.005/1k, GET $0.0004/1k; egress $0.09/GB up to 10TB then $0.085. R2 egress always $0.
Automated Testing Framework for Games
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 limitsFree: AltTester OSS unlimited seats self-hosted driver; UTF included with Unity Pro; Unreal Automation free with engine. Trial 14d. Paid: GameDriver Indie $99/mo per seat (1 concurrent), Pro $299/mo (5 conc), Enterprise $799/mo per seat unlimited conc + on-prem manager. AltTester Pro $150/mo per seat (3 conc), Enterprise $450/mo unlimited. Overage: extra concurrent $75/mo, premium support $300/mo.
Crash Reporting for QA Triage
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 limitsFree: Sentry Dev 5k errors/mo, 1k session replay, 1GB attachments; Crashlytics unlimited free. Bugsnag Lite $39/mo 25k events. Paid: Sentry Team $24/mo includes 50k errors then $0.00036/error; Business $80/mo includes 150k errors $0.00029/error; Enterprise custom. Overages: $0.40/1k errors beyond, $0.02/GB attachments, replay $0.25/1k sessions.
Device Farm for Compatibility 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 limitsFree: Firebase 30 physical device tests/day, 600 min virtual/day Spark; AWS Free Tier 1000 device min first run. Paid: AWS $0.17/device-min, unlimited slot $250/mo per concurrent. BrowserStack App Live $129/mo per parallel, App Automate $199/mo per parallel, Enterprise $349+/mo 5 parallels. Overage: AWS $0.17/min after conc limit, BrowserStack $2/min extra time.
Video Capture & Session Replay Infrastructure
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: OBS OSS unlimited recording (storage cost only). Loom Free 25 videos 5-min max. Paid: Loom Business $12.50/user/mo unlimited. FullStory Business $199/mo for 5k sessions, Enterprise $1k+/mo unlimited. GameBench Pro $200/user/mo 500hrs capture, Enterprise $450/user/mo unlimited. Overage: FullStory $0.03/session, GameBench $0.50/hr capture, storage $0.023/GB-mo.
Secrets Management for Test Credentials
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 limitsFree: Vault OSS unlimited secrets self-host; GH Secrets 1k/repo free; Doppler Free 25 secrets, 5 projects, 1 env. Doppler Startup $8/user/mo 400 secrets. Paid: AWS Secrets Manager $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k API calls. HCP Vault $0.03/hr dev (~$220/mo prod) + $0.025/secret/mo. Overage: AWS API $0.05/10k calls, Doppler $0.10/extra secret grouping.
Log Aggregation for Test Runs
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree: Loki OSS unlimited self-host; ELK OSS free; Better Stack Free 1GB/day 3-day retention. Paid: Better Stack $24/mo 12GB/mo 7-day retention. Datadog Logs $0.10/GB ingest, 15mo retention $1.70/M events; rehydration $1/1k SCAN. Splunk Cloud $90/GB/mo ingest from 5GB commit. Overage: Datadog $0.11/GB after, retention $0.02/GB/mo extra.
Notification & Alerting for Test Failures
Reaches users on their phone via SMS or push. Useful for verification codes and re-engagement; watch the per-message cost.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree: Grafana OnCall OSS unlimited alerts self-host; Slack Free 90-day history 10k messages. Opsgenie Free 5 users 2-week logs. Paid: Slack Pro $7.25/user/mo unlimited history; Business+ $12.50. PagerDuty Team $29/user/mo, Professional $41/user/mo 400 stakeholders, Business $51. Overage: SMS $0.25, voice $0.50/call; Slack extra storage $0.25/GB.
How this hobby testing and quality assurance checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a hobby testing and quality assurance 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.