Marketplace — 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.
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 Business: $200/mo - 100 domains, advanced DDoS, 100% SLA, PCI, 50 custom certs / Free $0 / DNSimple $72/yr 10 domains + $2/mo/extra / Enterprise custom $5000+/mo unlimited, 24/7, Spectrum, 100% SLA, Logpush
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 limitsAWS ACM Free $0 - private CA $400/mo per CA + Cloudflare Business SSL $200/mo 100 custom certs + advanced cipher / Let's Encrypt $0 / Pro SSL $20/mo / DigiCert EV $599/yr + $150/yr reissue, multi-domain $800/yr
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 limitsAWS ECS Fargate $0.04048/vCPU-hr + $0.004445/GB-hr ~$30/mo small svc + Vercel Pro $20/seat/mo + Fly.io Pro $29/mo 100GB bw / Render Free $0 / DO Pro $25/mo 2GB / ECS+Vercel Ent custom $2000+/mo + $150/mo/server avg
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 limitsAWS (ECS,RDS,S3,SQS) ~$150-400/mo small + Vercel Pro $20/seat - Business Support $100/mo 10% bill / Supabase Pro $25/mo / DO+Vercel Pro $37/mo / Business Support $100/mo min + $400/mo for 2-3 svcs infra
Database (multi-vendor: buyers/sellers)
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsAurora PostgreSQL $0.12/ACU-hr ~$87/mo t3.medium + Multi-AZ $175/mo, RLS buyer/seller isolation free / Supabase Pro $25/mo / Neon Pro $19/mo 10GB + $0.14/CU-hr / Serverless v2 $0.12/ACU-hr min 0.5ACU ~$43/mo + $0.10/GB-mo + $0.20/M I/O
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 limitsS3 Std-IA $0.0125/GB-mo + CloudFront $0.085/GB + R2 $0.015/GB - 500GB ~$6.25+$42.5+R2 zero egress / Supabase Pro 100GB $0.021/GB / R2 $0.015/GB / Bundle S3+R2+CF $50/mo est 500GB+500GB egress
Authentication and Identity (buyer/seller roles)
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsAuth0 Professional $240/mo 1k MAU $0.07 over RBAC orgs + WorkOS Free 1M MAU 3 SSO Starter $250/mo 100 SSO Directory $0 / Clerk Pro $25/mo / Firebase Auth Free 50k MAU $0.0055/MAU over / Enterprise $1000+/mo $0.05/MAU WorkOS Ent $750/mo
Split Payout / Marketplace Payments 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 limitsStripe Express $5/active acct/mo + $0.25/payout +2.9%+30c+0.25% Connect + Mangopay 1.8%+20c+$0.18/transfer + PayPal 3.49%+49c / Test $0 / PayPal+Stripe bundle / Custom+Adyen Sandbox: Custom $2000/mo platform Adyen $0.60+$0.13/txn+1.5% marketplace
Transactional Email API / Email 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 limitsResend Scale $500/mo 1M $0.0003 over + SendGrid Pro $89.95/mo 100k $0.0005 over + Postmark $15/mo 10k $0.00125/email over / Free 3k / SES $0.10/1k= $10/100k cheapest / Pro+Postmark $104/mo
Source-code Repository
Where your source code lives and is collaborated on. Non-negotiable for any team or serious project.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Enterprise Cloud $21/user/mo SAML 50k mins Advanced Security $49/user/mo extra / Team $4/user/mo / GitLab Premium $29/user/mo / Server custom $21/user/mo self-host +50k mins
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 $0.008/min + CodePipeline $1/pipeline/mo + Harness Free 1000 mins Pro $100/mo 10k mins / Actions $0 / CircleCI $15/mo / Harness/Ultimate $1500/mo 50k mins enterprise
Database Backups
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsRDS Automated Backups+PITR 30 days free storage $0.095/GB-mo 100GB $9.5/mo + cross-bucket $0.023/GB-mo + S3 versioned / Manual $0 / Neon PITR 30 days Pro $19/mo / Backup Vault+Aurora Backtrack $0.021/GB + $0.012/100k I/O
CDN and 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 limitsCloudflare Business $200/mo 100 page rules + CloudFront $0.085/GB 500GB $42.5/mo + Fastly Basic $50/mo +$0.12/GB 500GB $60/mo bundle $300/mo / Free $0 / Basic $50/mo / Akamai+Ent custom $3500/mo min + CF Ent $5000+/mo
Image Optimization Service
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudinary Advanced $224/mo 225k credits + Imgix $125/mo 1TB bw + Vercel Pro 5k imgs $10/5k over seller 50k ~$100/mo / Free $0 25k / Bunny Optimizer $9.50/mo 50k imgs / Enterprise $999/mo unlimited transforms + Imgix Ent $500/mo
Secrets Management / Environment Management (basic)
Stores API keys and credentials safely, separate from your code. Leaking secrets is one of the most common breaches.Pricing & free-tier limitsDoppler Team $10/user/mo 1000 secrets + AWS Secrets Manager $0.40/secret/mo +$0.05/10k API 50 secrets=$20/mo+$0.50 / Free $0 / Infisical Pro $20/mo 10 projects / Vault Cloud $0.03/hr cluster ~$22/mo +$0.40/secret
Staging Environment / Preview Deploys
Stores API keys and credentials safely, separate from your code. Leaking secrets is one of the most common breaches.Pricing & free-tier limitsVercel Pro Previews $20/seat/mo unlimited + AWS Staging ECS Fargate $40/mo + Ephemeral via Vercel+Shipyard $150/mo starter / Hobby $0 / Render Previews $19/mo / Ent $2000+/mo unlimited + AWS Staging $400/mo multi-AZ
Monitoring / Error Tracking / 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 limitsSentry Business $80/mo 200k errors $0.0004 over + Datadog APM $31/host 20 hosts $620/mo + Better Stack Logs $24/mo 10GB $60/mo 50GB / Free 5k / New Relic Free 100GB ingest +$0.30/GB over / Pro $760/mo est
KYC / Identity Verification API + Seller Onboarding
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsPersona Growth $150/mo 500 verifs $1.50 over (1k=$900/mo) + Onfido $100/mo $2/check + Stripe Identity Pro $1.50/check + onboarding free / Free 100/mo / Starter $100/mo / Enterprise $500+/mo $1.25/vol
Search Infrastructure (marketplace product search) + Content Moderation
Lets users find things fast. A slow or missing search directly costs engagement and conversions.Pricing & free-tier limitsAlgolia Growth $1/k rec + $0.50/k search Typesense Pro $40/mo 1M docs + Hive $50/mo 50k req $0.001 over + Rekognition $0.001/img 10k $10/mo / Typesense self $0 / Meilisearch $60/mo 500k docs / Premium $500+/mo 100k rec 1M search+Hive Ent $500/mo
Caching (Redis) for multi-vendor catalog
Stores frequent results in fast memory so you serve less from the database. Big lever for speed and cost.Pricing & free-tier limitsUpstash Redis Free 10k cmds/day 256MB Pro $20/mo 100k cmds/day 1GB $0.20/100k over / ElastiCache t3.micro $0.017/hr ~$12.5/mo 555MB / Free 10k / Essentials $7/mo 100MB / Serverless $0.125/GB-hr +$0.125/ECPU 10GB ~$90/mo + Ent Cloud $175/mo 10GB
Background Jobs / Scheduled Jobs / Queue (payouts, onboarding)
Runs slow work (emails, exports, payouts) in the background so users don’t wait. Keeps your app snappy.Pricing & free-tier limitsInngest Cloud Free 100k runs/mo + BullMQ OSS free + SQS Free 1M req/mo $0.40/M + Trigger.dev Free 3k Pro $30/mo 50k / QStash Free 500/d $10/mo 100k msgs / SQS Free 1M / SQS+Sidekiq Pro $99/mo+Inngest Scale $100/mo 2M runs
Webhooks Infrastructure (Stripe Connect, KYC, moderation)
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 limitsPersona Growth $150/mo 500 verifs $1.50 over (1k=$900/mo) + Onfido $100/mo $2/check + Stripe Identity Pro $1.50/check + onboarding free / Free 100/mo / Starter $100/mo / Enterprise $500+/mo $1.25/vol
API Gateway and Rate Limiting + WAF (per-seller limits)
Controls and protects your APIs — quotas, abuse prevention, and firewalls. Important once you have real traffic or many clients.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare API GW $5/mo 10M req + AWS API GW $3.50/M 10M $35/mo + WAF $6/mo ACL +$1/rule 10 rules $10/mo +$0.60/M $6/mo per-seller quota free / Free 1 rule / Kong OSS free / Business WAF $200/mo 25 rules +$6/M
Bot Protection and CAPTCHA
Stops bots, scrapers, and spam signups from abusing your service and inflating costs.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Turnstile Free unlimited - free / hCaptcha Pro $99/mo 5M req / Free $0 / Free 1M / Bot Mgmt $200/mo Business + Arkose $2000/mo custom 1M solves seller signup protection
Escrow / Held Funds + Commission / Fee Calculation + Dispute Management
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 limitsStripe Connect Separate Charges & Transfers 2.9%+30c+0.25% Connect +$2/acct + Mangopay Escrow 1.8%+20c+Commission Engine custom $0+Dispute $15/dispute / Test $0 / Sandbox $0 / Pro+Adyen+Custom: Pro $0.18/transfer Adyen sandbox $0 Custom $2000/mo platform
Tax Calculation API (Marketplace Facilitator Tax)
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 limitsTaxJar Marketplace $19/mo Sandbox $0 +$0.20/txn after 200 Starter $19/mo $0.15 over Marketplace $0.10 over / Sandbox $0 / Starter $19/mo / AvaTax Marketplace $2000+/yr + Anrok $250/mo min + Stripe Tax 0.5% per txn $0.50 cap
Shipping Rate API + Shipment Tracking API
Rates, labels, and tracking for physical goods. Needed once you actually ship products.Pricing & free-tier limitsEasyPost Pro $0.05/label+carrier + Shippo Pro $0.05/label after 40/mo free + AfterShip $11/mo 100 $0.10 over Pro $119/mo 2k / Test $0 / PAYG $0.05/label / Pro+Pro: ShipEngine $100/mo 500 labels $0.05 over + EasyPost Pro $99/mo 10k + AfterShip Pro $119/mo
Fraud Prevention / Risk Scoring 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 limitsSift Pro $1000/mo 10k events $0.04/event over + Forter $1000/mo 0.20% txn value + Kount $1000/mo min +$0.10/txn / Free 1000 / Essentials $1000/mo / Enterprise $3000+/mo+Forter+Kount+Riskified 2.5% guarantee buyer/seller fraud
Security Scanning / Vulnerability Monitoring + Privacy and Consent
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Business $80/mo 200k errors $0.0004 over + Datadog APM $31/host 20 hosts $620/mo + Better Stack Logs $24/mo 10GB $60/mo 50GB / Free 5k / New Relic Free 100GB ingest +$0.30/GB over / Pro $760/mo est
Feature Flags + Uptime Monitoring + Status Page + Customer Support API
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Business $80/mo 200k errors $0.0004 over + Datadog APM $31/host 20 hosts $620/mo + Better Stack Logs $24/mo 10GB $60/mo 50GB / Free 5k / New Relic Free 100GB ingest +$0.30/GB over / Pro $760/mo est
How this professional marketplace checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a professional marketplace 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.