Blog News Magazine — 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.
Domain and DNS
Your human-readable address on the web plus the DNS records that point it at your servers. Skipping this is not an option — users need a domain to reach you.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Free: $0 - 1 domain, unlimited DNS, unmetered DDoS / Pro $20/mo - 20 domains, adv WAF, 20 page rules / Business $200/mo - 50 domains, 50 rules / Enterprise custom from $5k/mo incl 100% SLA / Route53 $0.50/hosted zone/mo + $0.40/M queries + $0.10/M geo queries / Namecheap: domain $6.98/yr .com + Free DNS, PremiumDNS $4.88/yr / DNSimple $6/mo 15 domains + $0.50/domain over
SSL/TLS
Encrypts traffic between your users and your servers. Without it browsers flag your site as insecure and you lose trust and search ranking.Pricing & free-tier limitsLet's Encrypt Free: $0 - 90-day certs, unlimited, auto-renew ACME / Cloudflare Universal $0 incl with proxy / ZeroSSL Free 3x 90-day certs / AWS ACM $0 for AWS resources (ELB/CloudFront) / DigiCert Standard OV $218/yr, EV $295/yr, Wildcard $600/yr / AWS ACM Private CA $400/mo per CA + $0.75/cert + OCSP
Web Hosting / Backend 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 limitsVercel Hobby $0 - 100GB bw, 6000 Edge exec hrs, 100 deploys/day / Pro $20/seat/mo - 1TB bw incl, $40/100GB overage, $0.15/GB-hr over / Netlify Free 100GB bw, 300 build mins / Pro $19/seat/mo 1TB bw, $55/100GB over / Render Free 750 hrs/mo sleeps 15min / Standard $7/mo instance never sleeps, $25/mo 2GB RAM / Fly.io Free 3 shared-CPU VMs + 3GB vol / Paid ~$3.70/mo per shared VM + $0.15/GB vol + $0.02/GB egress / AWS Amplify Free 1000 build mins, 5GB, 750hrs / PAYG $0.20/hr build + $0.023/GB storage + $0.15/GB served / DigitalOcean App $5/mo basic instance
Cloud Platform
The underlying cloud account (AWS, GCP, Azure, or an all-in-one like Vercel+Supabase) that everything else is built on. Choose early — it is hard to change later.Pricing & free-tier limitsCombo: Vercel Free + Supabase Free (500MB DB, 1GB storage, 50k MAU) / Supabase Pro $25/mo - 8GB DB, 100GB bw, 100k MAU, $0.125/GB DB over, $0.09/GB egress / DigitalOcean App $5-12/mo + Managed DB $15/mo 1GB RAM / Fly.io as above + volume / AWS Amplify PAYG + RDS db.t3.micro ~$12.50/mo + S3 $0.023/GB / Vercel Enterprise custom $2k+/mo, Supabase Team $599/mo SOC2, AWS Business Support $100/mo or 10% bill
Database (for articles & authors)
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Free: $0 - 500MB DB, 1GB storage, 50k MAU, 2 projects pause after 1w idle / Pro $25/mo - 8GB DB, 100GB bw, 100k MAU, $0.125/GB DB over, $0.09/GB egress, daily backups 7d / Team $599/mo SOC2 14d PITR / Neon Free: 0.5GB storage, 10 branches, 100 hrs compute / Launch $19/mo 10GB, 300 hrs / Scale $69/mo 50GB, 750 hrs / AWS RDS db.t3.micro $0.017/hr ~$12.50/mo + storage $0.115/GB-mo + backup $0.095/GB-mo / Aurora Serverless v2 0.5 ACU min $0.12/ACU/hr ~$43/mo + storage $0.10/GB-mo + I/O $0.20/M
File and Object Storage / Image and Media Storage
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Storage Free 1GB, 2GB egress / Pro inc 100GB + 50GB egress, $0.021/GB storage over, $0.09/GB egress over / Cloudinary Free 25 credits = 25k transforms or 25GB storage/bw / Plus $89/mo 30k credits $0.30/1k over / S3 Standard $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB + $0.09/GB egress + $0.005/1k PUT / R2 Free 10GB storage, 10M Class A ops / Paid $0.015/GB-mo + $0.36/M Class A, $0 egress / Backblaze B2 $0.006/GB-mo + $0.01/GB egress, 1TB free daily via Cloudflare
Authentication and Identity (author/admin)
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Auth Free 50k MAU incl / Clerk Free 10k MAU, 1k M2M tokens / Pro $25/mo + $0.02/MAU over 10k + $25/mo per org with memberships, 2FA incl / Auth0 Free 7.5k internal + 25k MAU B2C / Developer Pro from $35/mo 500 MAU bundle $0.07/MAU over / Firebase Auth Free unlimited + phone auth 10k SMS free then $0.06/SMS / Auth0 Professional $240/mo 5k MAU / WorkOS AuthKit Free 1M MAU
Headless CMS API (content publishing)
Manages the content and assets you publish without editing code. Essential for sites with frequent updates.Pricing & free-tier limitsSanity Free 2 seats 10k docs 10GB assets 200k API req/mo / Growth $15/seat/mo + $20k req included $15/100k over, 100k docs 50GB / Pro $30/seat 200k docs / Enterprise custom $2k+/mo / Contentful Community 25k records 2M calls / Team $300/mo 100k records 5M calls / Scale $879/mo higher / Ghost self-host Free / Starter $9/mo 500 members / Creator $25/mo 1k / Strapi Cloud Growth $29/mo 100k API $0.03/1k over
Transactional Email API / Newsletter basic
Sending transactional email (receipts, resets, alerts) and sometimes marketing mail. Deliverability matters more than features here.Pricing & free-tier limitsResend Free 3k/mo + 100/day 1 domain / Pro $20/mo 50k emails $0.80/1k over / Scale $85/mo 100k $0.70/1k over Enterprise custom / SendGrid Free 100/day forever / Essentials $19.95/mo 50k $0.40/1k over / Pro $89.95/mo 100k / Brevo Free 300/day unlimited contacts / Starter $25/mo 20k emails / Mailgun Free 1k 5-day trial 100/day / Foundation $15/mo 10k $1/1k over / AWS SES $0.10/1k emails + $0.12/GB attach / Postmark Free 100/mo / $15/mo 10k $1.80/1k over
Source-code Repository
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 2000 Actions mins/mo 500MB packages / Team $4/user/mo 3000 mins 2GB storage / Enterprise Cloud $21/user/mo 50k mins SAML audit / GitLab Free 400 CI mins/mo / Premium $29/user/mo 10k mins / Ultimate $99/user/mo 50k mins + security / Bitbucket Free 3 users / Standard $3.30/user/mo
CI/CD and Deployment Automation
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Actions Free 2000 mins Linux 500MB storage / Team 3000 mins / Enterprise 50k mins + Linux $0.008/min $0.0075/day per GB storage / Vercel auto-deploy incl with hosting / Pro 6000 exec hrs / Netlify build Free 300 mins / Pro 1000 mins $19/seat/mo extra 500 mins $7 / Render Auto-Deploy Free incl / CircleCI Free 6k credits/week 30k/mo / Performance $15/mo 30k credits $0.008/credit over / Harness Free 100 builds / Cloud $100/dev/mo / Enterprise custom $50k/yr+ / Jenkins OSS Free + infra $5/mo server
How this hobby blog news magazine checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a hobby blog news magazine 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.