Directory — 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.
Hosting / Frontend Deployment
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 limitsFree Tier: Vercel Hobby $0 - 100GB bandwidth, 6000 execution hrs, 100 deployments/day | Netlify Free $0 - 100GB BW, 300 build mins/mo, 100 form submissions | Cloudflare Pages Free $0 - Unlimited BW, 500 builds/mo, unlimited requests | Render Static Free $0 - 100GB BW + 750 free instance hrs. Pro/Scale: Vercel Pro $20/seat/mo + 1TB BW included, $40 per 100GB overage, Functions $0.18/GB-hr overage, $0.60/1M Edge req | Netlify Pro $19/mo + 1TB BW incl, $55 per 100GB over, $0.30/1k Function invocations | Cloudflare Pages Pro $20/mo (bundled with Pro plan) - no overage, Workers $5/mo + $0.50/M req. Enterprise: Vercel Enterprise custom $2000+/mo + SLA 99.99% + 10TB+, AWS Amplify $0.15/GB served + $0.30/M req + $0.20/build min, ECS Fargate $0.04048/vCPU-hr + $0.004445/GB-hr + ALB $0.0225/hr + Global Accelerator $0.025/hr + CloudFront. EKS Multi-region $0.10/hr cluster + $150/mo per region base.
Managed Database (Postgres for Listings)
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Supabase Free $0 - 500MB DB, 50k MAU, 1GB File storage, 2GB BW, daily backups 7d retention, 2 concurrent logins | Neon Free $0 - 0.5GB storage, 3 branches, 10GB data transfer/mo, 100 hrs active time, PITR 24h | CockroachDB Serverless Free 10GB + 50M RUs. Pro: Supabase Pro $25/mo - 8GB DB included, $0.125/GB extra DB, $0.10/GB egress over, $0.09/GB storage over, PITR 7 days, 2FA | Neon Launch $19/mo - 10GB storage incl, $0.38/GB extra + $4.50 per extra compute hr, Scale $69/mo - 50GB incl + autoscale $30 base + $4.50/GB extra | PlanetScale Scaler Pro $29/mo + $0.15/vCPU-hr + $0.20/GB storage. Enterprise: AWS RDS db.t3.micro $15/mo Single-AZ, db.t3.small Multi-AZ $50/mo, db.m6g.large Multi-AZ $350/mo + 100GB gp3 $11.50/mo + read replicas $0.26/hr, Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless v2 $0.12/Aurora Capacity Unit + IO $0.20/M reads + $0.23/GB-mo storage, Global DB $1k+/mo cross-region + $0.12/GB replication | Spanner Enterprise $650/mo base + $0.90/hr node + $0.30/GB storage.
Object Storage (Listing Images & Assets)
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 Tier: Cloudflare R2 Free $0 - 10GB storage + 10M Class A ops + 10M Class B ops/mo + zero egress fees | Supabase Storage Free $0 - 1GB + 2GB egress | Backblaze B2 Free 10GB + free ops via Cloudflare | AWS S3 Free Tier 5GB standard 12mo (then paid). Paid/PayGo: R2 Standard $0.015/GB-mo storage after 10GB free + $4.50/M Class A ops $0.36/M Class B, egress $0 | S3 Standard $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB + $0.005/1k PUT + $0.0004/1k GET + $0.09/GB egress first 10TB (CloudFront egress $0.085/GB) | Backblaze B2 $0.006/GB-mo storage + $0.01/GB egress + $0.005/1k downloads, free egress via Cloudflare Bandwidth Alliance | Wasabi $6.99/TB/mo no egress / no API, $6.99 minimum per TB | Google Cloud Storage Standard $0.020/GB-mo + $0.12/GB egress. Enterprise: S3 Multi-region + Object Lambda transforms $0.015/GB transform + Cross-region replication $0.023/GB + WORM Object Lock included, CloudFront Enterprise custom.
Authentication & User Management
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Clerk Free $0 - 10k MAU, 5 organizations, unlimited social OAuth, MFA TOTP, 10k M2M tokens | Supabase Auth Free $0 - 50k MAU, social PKCE, email unlimited, phone $0.015/SMS | Auth0 Free $0 - 25k MAU (legacy 7.5k new tenants 2026), 7.5k M2M tokens, no custom domain, 2 social | Auth.js OSS self-host $0 unlimited. Pro: Clerk Pro $25/mo + $0.02 per extra MAU over 10k + B2B SSO $5/connection/mo + SAML $0.50/MAU Enterprise Plans $199/mo + | Auth0 Growth $130/mo - 7.5k MAU + 5 Ent connections + custom domain, Professional $240/mo - Enterprise connections + MFA policies + $0.02/MAU over 7.5k + $35/mo after 25k legacy | FusionAuth Cloud $37/mo - 10k MAU unlimited ent connections. Enterprise: Okta Customer Identity Cloud Pro $1500/mo - 10k MAU included + $0.05/MAU over, Enterprise SSO $0.05/MAU + $10k/yr min, WorkOS $0.05/SSO MAU + Directory Sync + MFA step-up, ForgeRock $100k/yr Identity Cloud + 100k identities.
Maps API (Location Listings Display)
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 Tier: MapLibre GL JS + OpenStreetMap tiles OSS self-host $0 unlimited loads (tile server) | Leaflet.js + OSM Public Tiles 1 tile/s free (policy limit) | Stadia Maps Free $0 - 100k map views/mo + vector + raster. Cheaper/Growth: Mapbox Free 50k map loads/mo + 50k mobile MAU, Standard $50/mo includes 100k map loads + $0.50 per 1k extra loads ($0.75/1k Mobile SDK active users), Styles $0.25/1k requests | Stadia Maps Starter $20/mo - 250k views + $0.20/1k over | Mapbox Maps API Static $0.50/1k | Google Maps Dynamic Maps $7 per 1k loads after $200/mo credit (~28k free), Static Maps $2/1k. Enterprise: Google Maps Platform Enterprise $10k/yr min - SLA 99.9%, volume discounts at 1M+ loads ~$5.50/1k + $500/mo premium + support $15k/yr, Mapbox Enterprise Scale custom 10M+ loads $0.35/1k, NVDA scale 5M+ $2500/mo, HERE Maps Fleet bundle $15k/yr includes maps, routing, geocoding, truck attributes.
Search Infrastructure (Listings Search - Basic)
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Typesense Cloud Free $0 - 0.5GB RAM node, 50k docs, 50k searches/mo, 1 cluster | Typesense Self-hosted OSS on Fly.io $0 + $5 VM | Meilisearch Cloud Free $0 - 100k docs, 10k searches/mo | Meilisearch self-host OSS $0. Pro: Typesense Cloud 1GB $29/mo - 100k docs + HA $85/mo 5GB node + $15/GB over + $0.01/1k extra searches | Algolia Starter (old Build) $99/mo - 100k records + 1M ops incl + $0.50/1k records & $0.50/1k search ops over | Growth $204/mo - 1M records, 10M ops, DSN 2 regions | Meilisearch Cloud $29/mo 100k docs. Enterprise: Algolia Growth+ $204/mo 1M records, Enterprise custom $2000+/mo - 100M ops, 99.99% SLA + Recommend + Crawler + AI Search, Elasticsearch Cloud Standard 8GB $250/mo - $0.50/GB hot storage + ML, Platinum $2000/mo - ML + Security + 64GB RAM.
Email Delivery API (Transactional)
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 Tier: Resend Free $0 - 3k emails/mo, 1 domain, 100 contacts, React Email + webhooks | Brevo Free $0 - 300 emails/day unlimited contacts, transactional + 1 SMTP | SendGrid Free $0 - 100 emails/day, 1 API key | Amazon SES Free 3k if EC2, 62k/mo free if on EC2 host + $0.10/1k beyond + $0.12/GB attachment. Pro: Resend Pro $20/mo - 50k emails incl + $0.00040/email ($0.40/1k) over, 10k contacts, unlimited domains + dedicated IP $100/mo | Postmark $15/mo - 10k emails incl + $1.80/1k over (Broadcast $25/mo extra) + Dedicated IP $50/mo + 3 DMARC | SendGrid Growth $34/mo - 50k emails, Pro $89/mo 100k + Dedicated IP $30/mo extra, $0.60/1k over. Enterprise: SES Enterprise + dedicated IP pool $24.95/IP/mo + Deliverability Dashboard $1250/mo + Expert services, SendGrid Enterprise 1M+ $750/mo + SSO + Sub-user.
CDN / Edge Delivery
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 Tier: Cloudflare Free $0 - Unlimited DDoS, global PoPs (330+), 3 page rules, cache rules, unlimited BW | BunnyCDN PayGo $1 min balance - $0.01/GB NA/EU, $0.03/GB Asia, LATAM $0.045/GB + $0.01/GB volume $0.005/GB after 500GB | Fastly Developer Free $10 trial credit. Pro: Cloudflare Pro $20/mo - WAF 20 custom rules, Image resize $5/10k? Actually $5/100k + polish $10, APO $5 | Business $200/mo - 50 custom WAF, custom SSL | BunnyCDN Volume $0.005/GB min 500GB commitment | Fastly Pro $100/mo min - $0.12/GB US/EU, $0.19 APAC + $0.0075/10k req + Image Optimizer $0.007/image | CloudFront $0.085/GB first 10TB + $0.010/10k HTTPS req. Enterprise: Cloudflare Enterprise custom $5k+/mo - 100% SLA, Shield Advanced $3k/mo + WAF enterprise + 100 Tbps DDoS, Fastly Enterprise custom, Akamai Ion Enterprise custom $1k+ min ~$3k+/mo + Shield Advanced + EdgeWorkers.
Automated Backups (DB & 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 limitsFree Tier: Supabase Daily Backups Free $0 - 7 days retention, PITR disabled (Pro enables) | Neon Free PITR branching + instant restore 24h | pg_dump cron + R2 script self-host $0 + $0.015/GB R2. Pro: Supabase Pro PITR 7 days $25/mo project + 7 days point-in-time | SimpleBackups $19/mo - 1 server + daily S3 + 7d retention, Team $29/mo - auto S3 + 5 servers + Slack, $69/mo - Team + encrypted + 30d retention + multi-region | Neon PITR 7d included Pro. Enterprise: AWS Backup Central $0.10/GB warm-tier + $0.05/GB warm + cross-region $0.02/GB, RDS snapshots $0.095/GB-mo + Vault Lock WORM $0.15/GB-mo Glacier Deep Archive $0.00099/GB-mo, Veeam Cloud + AWS Storage Gateway $400/mo base + $0.05/GB + license, Rubrik Enterprise Zero Trust Backup $150k/yr + immutable, Veeam Enterprise $10k/yr.
Error Tracking / APM
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 Tier: Sentry Free $0 - 5k errors/mo, 10k transactions, 50 replays, 1GB attachments, 30d retention | GlitchTip self-host Sentry OSS $0 unlimited | Highlight.io Free $0 - 500 sessions + 1k errors. Pro: Sentry Team $26/mo - 50k errors + 100k transactions + 500 replays + 5GB attachments + $0.00028/error over ($0.28/1k) + Tracing | Business $80/mo - 100k errors | Highlight.io Startup $20/mo - 10k sessions. Enterprise: Datadog APM $31/host/mo + $1.70/1M spans ingested, Sentry Enterprise custom, New Relic Free 100GB ingest then $0.30/GB over + full platform $349/mo, Dynatrace Full Stack $0.08/hr per 8GB host (~$57/mo) + Davis AI.
Centralized Log Management
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 Tier: Better Stack Logtail Free $0 - 1GB/mo, 3-day retention, 1 user | Grafana Cloud Logs Free $0 - 50GB logs + 50GB traces + Loki + Promtail self-host OSS | Datadog Logs Free $0 - 1GB/day ingest, 3d retention. Pro: Better Stack Team $24/mo - 30GB incl (20GB new pricing) + 30d retention + $0.50/GB over + 5 users | Grafana Cloud Pro $8/mo - 50GB logs incl $0.50/GB over + 30d retention | Better Stack Pro $24/mo 20GB. Enterprise: Datadog Logs Enterprise $0.10/GB ingest + $1.70/M Log Rehydration + 15mo retention + Archival S3 Glacier $0.10/GB-mo archival, Splunk Cloud 100GB Enterprise $2000/mo + $1/GB/day overage, Sumo Logic Enterprise $3k/mo - 100GB + UEBA.
How this hobby directory checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a hobby directory 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.