Directory — professional 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.
Geocoding API (Address → Coordinates)
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: Nominatim OSM Public API free 1 req/s policy (fair use) + self-host $0 unlimited + 10k req/day LocationIQ Free 5k req/day + autocomplete | Pelias self-host + Geonames OSS $0. Pro: OpenCage Data $50/mo - 10k req/day (250k/mo) + reverse + batch + $0.05/1k over | LocationIQ Growth $49/mo 100k req/day | Mapbox Geocoding $50/mo - 100k req incl + $0.75/1k extra ($5/1k permo? actually $5/1k temporary?) + Places? | Google Geocoding API PayGo $5 per 1k req + Places Autocomplete session $17 per 1k + Address Validation $10/1k + $0.015 per validation. Enterprise: Google Geocoding Enterprise SLA $899/mo + volume discounts at 1M, Smarty US Streets Enterprise $149/mo 10k lookups + $0.15/1k over + International $899/mo 1M, Mapbox Enterprise Geocoding 10M req/mo $1k.
CI/CD Pipeline
Automates testing and deploying your code. Saves enormous time and prevents “works on my machine” releases.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: GitHub Actions Free $0 - 2000 mins/mo private (3000 public unlimited), 500MB package storage, self-hosted runners unlimited | GitLab CI Free 400 mins/mo + 5GB storage + 10GB transfer | CircleCI Free 6k credits/mo (~1000 mins) + 500min Docker. Pro: GitHub Team $4/user/mo + Actions Linux $0.008/min Windows $0.016/min macOS $0.08/min, Large runners $0.016-$0.96/hr, storage $0.25/GB-mo | CircleCI Performance $15/mo 25k credits + $6/25k + self-host | GitLab Premium 10k mins. Enterprise: GitHub Enterprise Cloud $21/user/mo + Actions + Advanced Security, Harness CI Pro $100/mo - 2000 mins + Cache + Hosted VMs, CloudBees CI Enterprise $50k/yr - HA + RBAC, Buildkite Enterprise $3k/mo self-host agents + SSO.
Repository Hosting / Version Control
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.
Secrets Management
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: Doppler Free $0 - 100 secrets, 1 project, Vercel/Cloudflare sync, 5 users | HashiCorp Vault Self-hosted OSS MPL $0 unlimited + HCP Vault free dev cluster | Infisical Cloud Free $0 - E2E encryption, self-host option, 10k secrets. Pro: Doppler Team $12/user/mo - Unlimited secrets, audit logs, branching, SOC2 | Team $7/seat? | AWS Secrets Manager $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k API calls + rotation Lambda free + KMS $1/key/mo $0.03/10k req | Infisical Pro $20/mo. Enterprise: HashiCorp Vault Cloud HCP Plus $0.03/hr (~$22/mo cluster) + $0.03/10k operations + HSM $1.5k/mo enterprise + Sentinel, CyberArk Conjur Enterprise $75k/yr secrets + Conjur, Akeyless SaaS Vaultless Enterprise trial ~$500/mo + $0.04/secret, Doppler Enterprise custom SSO + audit export.
Staging / Preview Environments
An isolated place to test changes before real users see them. Catches bugs without embarrassing your production users.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Vercel Preview Deploys Free $0 - Every PR unlimited on Hobby, Netlify Deploy Previews Free $0 - Every PR + 300 mins build | Render Preview Environments Free tier $0 750 hrs/instance + PostgreSQL preview branching free | Railway Preview $5 base + usage. Pro/Growth: Vercel Pro Preview unlimited + $20/seat, Enterprise Previews + Terraform Cloud $70/user/mo + Uffizzi $20 dev + per env $0.02/hr + Render preview $0 still + Neon branching free, Railway Preview envs $5 + $0.000231/vCPU-min + $0.000231/GB-min. Enterprise: Okteto Enterprise $25/user/mo - K8s preview envs + dev clusters, Terraform Cloud Enterprise $70/user/mo + Team + Governance, Garden Enterprise $500/mo K8s dev env + Spacelift $149/mo + Harness Environments Enterprise.
Uptime Monitoring / Synthetic Checks
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: UptimeRobot Free $0 - 50 monitors 5min checks, 2mo log, Status Pages free custom domain | Better Stack Uptime Free $0 - 10 monitors 3min + Slack, Instatus free trial. Pro: UptimeRobot Pro $8/mo - 50 monitors 1min + SMS + 2yr log + maintenance + 10 status pages | Better Stack Pro $24/mo 30+ monitors, Pingdom Starter $15/mo - 10 checks 1min + RUM + 250k page views, Pingdom Advanced $45/mo 50 checks + 1M RUM, Checkly $99/mo - 50k checks + Playwright + API + 10 min interval. Enterprise: Datadog Synthetics $5 per 10k test runs $15/private location host + CI/CD, Catchpoint Enterprise Backbone 300+ nodes $10k/yr + RUM, ThousandEyes Enterprise $2k/mo Internet Insights + WAN, Pingdom Enterprise trial 100 checks.
DNS Management
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 limitsFree Tier: Cloudflare DNS Free $0 - Unlimited zones, DNSSEC, analytics, API, free secondary | Namecheap FreeDNS free + PremiumDNS $4.88/yr - 100% uptime SLA, DDoS. Pro: Cloudflare Pro $20/mo (DNS included) Business $200/mo secondary - TTL 30sec, Route 53 $0.50/hosted zone/mo + $0.40/M queries first 1B + $0.60/M Geo latency + $2/M for health checks | DNSMadeEasy $29.95/yr - 10M queries incl + $6.95 per extra 5M + failover $39.95/yr, Namecheap PremiumDNS $4.88/yr. Enterprise: AWS Route 53 + NS1 Enterprise Dedicated + Pulsar traffic steering $0.35/1k decisions + Filter Chain $3000/mo, Cloudflare Enterprise $5k+/mo - 100% uptime SLA + Secondary DNS + DNSSEC + Custom TTL 10s, Oracle Dyn Enterprise $300/mo 50M queries + $1.20/1M over, Akamai Edge DNS $1.5k/mo + DDoS.
Image Optimization & Media Transform API
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: Cloudinary Free $0 - 25 credits (~25GB storage/bandwidth+transforms), 25GB bandwidth + AI cropping | ImageKit.io Free $0 - 20GB BW + 20GB storage + unlimited transforms | Uploadcare Free $0 - 3k uploads, 3GB storage, transforms 30k ops, Cloudflare Images Free 10k? No. Pro: Cloudinary Growth $99/mo - 100GB credits + AI + 50k transformations + $0.40/1k transforms over + $0.12/GB over, Scale $199/mo 250GB + AI Visual Search, $249/mo Imgix Starter 100GB BW 100k transforms $0.08/GB over $0.08/1k transforms | ImageKit Growth $48/mo 100GB + 2k video mins, Uploadcare Growth $45/mo 25GB + AI tasks. Enterprise: Cloudinary Enterprise $1000+/mo + SLA 99.99% + $0.30/GB CDN + Transform auto, Imgix Enterprise SLA $1999/mo 500GB, Fastly Image Optimizer $0.007/image + delivery, Akamai Image & Video Manager $3k/mo Enterprise + AI super-res.
Caching Layer (Redis for Listings, Filters, Geo)
Stores frequent results in fast memory so you serve less from the database. Big lever for speed and cost.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Upstash Redis Free $0 - 10k commands/day, 256MB storage, TLS, REST API, Global 300ms | Dragonfly Self-host Redis compatible multi-thread $0 | KeyDB OSS multi-master $0. Pro/Cheaper: Upstash Pro $10/mo - 100k/day + 1GB + $0.20/100k commands over, Global Pro $30/mo + 5GB + REST + 500k commands/day + $0.40/1k? | Redis Cloud Essentials $5/mo - 30MB RAM, 30k ops/sec unlimited data, $15/mo 100MB, AWS ElastiCache Serverless $0.125/GB-hr + $0.20/M ECPU + $0.0034/GB egress + 250MB free. Enterprise: AWS ElastiCache for Redis Enterprise Cloud Active-Active Global $500+ 5GB included + $1k/mo 10GB Business + $0.20/M ops, Redis Enterprise Multi-active Multi-region $2k+/mo 25GB + $0.15/GB storage + Active-Active + SLA 99.999%, Upstash Enterprise $250/mo Global + 100GB + SOC2.
Background Jobs / Queue System (Search Indexing, Geocoding)
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Nominatim OSM Public API free 1 req/s policy (fair use) + self-host $0 unlimited + 10k req/day LocationIQ Free 5k req/day + autocomplete | Pelias self-host + Geonames OSS $0. Pro: OpenCage Data $50/mo - 10k req/day (250k/mo) + reverse + batch + $0.05/1k over | LocationIQ Growth $49/mo 100k req/day | Mapbox Geocoding $50/mo - 100k req incl + $0.75/1k extra ($5/1k permo? actually $5/1k temporary?) + Places? | Google Geocoding API PayGo $5 per 1k req + Places Autocomplete session $17 per 1k + Address Validation $10/1k + $0.015 per validation. Enterprise: Google Geocoding Enterprise SLA $899/mo + volume discounts at 1M, Smarty US Streets Enterprise $149/mo 10k lookups + $0.15/1k over + International $899/mo 1M, Mapbox Enterprise Geocoding 10M req/mo $1k.
Webhooks Infrastructure & Event 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: Hookdeck Free $0 - 100k events/mo + 3-day retention + replay + 10 connections | Svix Free $0 - 50 messages/day + retries + dashboard trial | QStash Webhooks $10/mo + DLQ 5k included. Pro: Hookdeck Growth $29/mo - 300k events + 30d retention + 50 connections + $0.10/1k over + Transformations | Svix Pro $200/mo - 50k msgs/day + retries exponential + dashboard + portal + 3 envs + $0.001/5 msgs over + Signature, Svix Growth $99/mo 5k/day | QStash $10/mo + $0.002/msg over. Enterprise: Svix Enterprise $1k/mo VPC + SSO + custom contract + 10M events, Hookdeck Enterprise contract 10M events + VPC + SSO + Audit $500+/mo, AWS EventBridge Archive + Schema registry + PagerDuty $500/mo enterprise + archive $0.10/100k events.
API Gateway
Controls and protects your APIs — quotas, abuse prevention, and firewalls. Important once you have real traffic or many clients.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Kong OSS Gateway Self-host $0 unlimited requests + plugins + self-managed | Tyk OSS $0 | Zuplo Free $0 - 100k req/mo + rate limit + 10 APIs + API keys | KrakenD OSS $0 ultra performant. Pro: Zuplo Pro $150/mo 1M req + $20/1M over + monetization, Kong Gateway Cloud Dedicated $250/mo + 1M req incl + $120 per extra 1M + ingress + plugins + Service Hub | Tyk Cloud $89/mo 1M req + dashboard. Enterprise: AWS API Gateway $3.50/M req HTTP API + $1.00/M cache + REST $3.50/M + WAF $5/webACL + $1/rule + $0.60/M rule evaluations, Apigee X Enterprise $0.10/10k call units ~$3.5k/mo min 100M req + Analytics + Monetization, Kong Konnect Enterprise custom + Service Catalog + $1k+/mo, MuleSoft Anypoint API Manager Enterprise $50k/yr + 200M calls.
WAF / Edge Security
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 WAF custom rules 5 + Bot Fight heuristics $0 | Cloudflare Pro $20/mo - WAF 20 custom rules + Managed rulesets + OWASP Core, AWS WAF Free? Trial, $5/webACL + $1/rule + request fees. Pro: Cloudflare Pro $20/mo WAF + Managed rules, Business $200/mo - 50 custom rules + Managed rules free + PCI, AWS WAF $5/webACL/mo + $1/custom rule/mo + $0.60/M requests beyond 10M (10M included) + $1/managed rule group + Bot Control $10/mo per 1M + $0.50/M over, BunnyCDN WAF included $1 min. Enterprise: Cloudflare Enterprise WAF $5k+/mo + Managed Rulesets + Rate limiting + DDoS Shield Advanced $3k/mo, Fastly Next-Gen WAF (Signal Sciences) $2k/mo + $0.02/req over + corp license, Akamai Kona Site Defender Enterprise custom $1k+ ~$10k/mo + DDoS 100 Tbps mitigation + SIEM, AWS Shield Advanced $3k/mo + WAF Enterprise.
Bot Protection & Abuse Prevention
Stops bots, scrapers, and spam signups from abusing your service and inflating costs.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode Free $0 - Heuristics + JS challenge + Managed challenge | hCaptcha Free $0 - 1k solves/mo + Privacy Pass + bot check. Cheaper: Cloudflare Pro $20/mo Super Bot Fight Mode heuristics + 10 firewall + analytics, DataDome Free Trial $0 - 1M req + Dashboard + bot graph + up to 10k bot detection. Pro: Cloudflare Enterprise Bot Management ML + behavioral + fingerprint + score + challenge $5k+/mo + $0.05/1k? | DataDome Enterprise $10k/mo - ML + Challenge + 10M req + $0.30/1k over | hCaptcha Pro $99/mo 50k solves + bot score + Enterprise $199/mo 1M solves + $15/1M over + 99.9% uptime | Arkose Labs Enterprise $10k/mo + ML + Challenge + Enforcement + $0.01/solve | Kasada invisible challenge $5k/mo + bot proof, Imperva Advanced Bot Protection Enterprise $8k/mo + NOC + 5M page loads.
Lead Capture / CRM Integration API
Understands your users and supports them. Drives product decisions and retention.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: HubSpot CRM Free $0 - 1M contacts (1k marketing contacts), CRM API + Deals + Companies + Webhooks + 2k API calls/day | Attio Free 500 records + API + Sync engine + limited enrichment, Zoho CRM Free 3 users + 5k records. Cheaper: HubSpot Free CRM API free + Pipedrive Starter $14/user/mo - 3k deals + API + Webhooks + 250 MB storage per user + $0 trial, Salesforce Platform Starter $25/user/mo - API unlimited (100k calls/day). Pro/Enterprise: HubSpot Professional $500/mo - 1k marketing contacts incl + $20/mo per extra 1k contacts + Deals + Custom automation + CPQ $500/mo, Enterprise $1,500/mo + 10k contacts, Pipedrive Growth $49/user/mo, Salesforce Sales Cloud Enterprise $150/user/mo + Platform + Data Cloud $50k/yr + Einstein 1 $25k/yr min + 1M API, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise $95/user/mo unlimited + Power Automate.
Monetization / Paywall API (Featured Listings)
How you monetize with advertising. Relevant for content and media businesses.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Stripe Test Mode $0 unlimited test + 2.9% +30c live US fee + $0.7% Billing recurring (0.5% first $1M), Merchant Of Record none | Lemon Squeezy Free $0 account - 5% + 50c fee + MoR tax inclusive | Paddle 5% +50c MoR free trials. Pro: Stripe Growth? Standard 2.9%+30c + Billing $0.7% (0.5% annual) + Radar $0.02/screened transaction + Tax 0.5% per txn, Lemon Squeezy $0 account 5%+50c MoR + chargebacks $25, Chargebee Growth $299/mo + $0.99/billing + $0.99/invoice + $0.15 checkout + overages 0.75% revenue share, Paddle Growth custom 5%+50c + Checkout + billing. Enterprise: Stripe Enterprise custom $1M+ volume 2.2% + negotiated + 0.05% + Chargebee Enterprise $50k/yr + $0.50/billing, Paddle Enterprise MoR $100k/yr + tax, Zuora Enterprise $50k/yr Quote to Cash + rev rec $100k/yr, Chargebee $0.05% custom + dedicated success.
Tax Calculation API
Moves money — charges, payouts to sellers, taxes, fraud checks. Highest-stakes integration: get it wrong and you break compliance or lose revenue.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: TaxJar Sandbox Free $0 - Test API + Nexus detection + 100 transactions test + Anrok SandBox $0 + Stripe Tax test $0. Cheaper/Pro: Stripe Tax $0 live - 0.5% per taxable txn (first $100k? 0.5% uncapped) + registrations auto $0 + reporting + $10/mon per registration after first? | Anrok Starter $50/mo - 100 txns incl + VAT + $0.20/txn over + threshold monitoring | TaxJar Starter $19/mo 1000 txns incl + $0.10/txn over + State $19/mo + AutoFile $25/filing/state, TaxJar Pro $99/mo 1k txns + $0.10/extra + $0.19 API calc. Enterprise: Avalara AvaTax Standard $0 base + $0.19-$0.50 per txn (volume tiered) + $19k/yr min + Returns $19k+, AvaTax Enterprise Unlimited + Exemptions + $50k/yr, Vertex O Series Enterprise $50k/yr + 147 country + Exemption engine + 2B txn, Anrok Enterprise trial custom Global tax engine $0.10/txn volume, TaxJar Enterprise $199/mo + AutoFile 25 filings $500/mo.
Security Scanning / SAST & Dependency Scanning
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: GitHub Dependabot + CodeQL Free $0 - Public repos unlimited, private 2k mins + Dependency review + secret scanning + 500MB storage | Semgrep Free Team $0 - 2k LOC + 2k supply chain deps, Snyk Free $0 - 200 tests/mo + 1 project. Pro: Semgrep Pro $50/mo - 50k LOC + Rules 500 + SCA + 10000 API + supply chain, Snyk Team $98/mo - Container + Code + IaC + 5k tests + $25/dev over, AppRisks + Wiz trial, Snyk Business $200/mo full CSPM, Checkmarx One $80k/yr start. Enterprise: Snyk Enterprise custom $200/mo full CSPM + 500 seats + SBOM, Wiz Enterprise $100k/yr CNAPP $0.55/workload/mo + CIEM + CDR, Veracode Enterprise DAST + SAST + SCA $50k/yr + $0.15/DLOC, Palo Alto Prisma Cloud Enterprise $100k/yr Twistlock + 100 hosts, Checkmarx One Enterprise SCA + IaC $80k/yr.
Feature Flags / Remote Config
Stores API keys and credentials safely, separate from your code. Leaking secrets is one of the most common breaches.Pricing & free-tier limitsFree Tier: Unleash OSS Self-host unlimited flags $0 + 3 envs + Postgres + Unleash Cloud Free $0 - 10k requests + 3 envs | Flagsmith Cloud Free $0 - 50k requests/mo + 3 envs + 5 seats + A/B. Pro: Flagsmith Growth $75/mo 1M req + SSO + RBAC, Unleash Pro Cloud $150/mo 100k events, LaunchDarkly Growth $150/mo - 10k MAU incl + rollouts + experiments + $8.33 per extra 1k MAU + 50k exp events + $6.50/1k exp over, ConfigCat $50/mo 5M evals + 10 envs. Enterprise: LaunchDarkly Enterprise Unlimited MAU custom $36k/yr start + Federal FedRAMP + SSO + Approvals + $0.015/MAU, Split.io Enterprise $360k/yr start Experimentation + 50M impressions, Harness FFM Enterprise custom + Flag management + FedRAMP $50k/yr, ConfigCat Enterprise $500/mo 10M evals + SSO + audit.
How this professional directory checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a professional 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.