Starter stacks
One pick per decision, for a situation you might be in — with how many makers chose each pick, the products built this way, what it costs, and the whole stack as instructions you can hand to your AI coding agent.
Ship an AI SaaS this weekendYou're one person, you write TypeScript, and the AI feature is the product. You want real users signing in and paying by Monday, and you'd rather pay a little per month than run servers.
Next.js
Supabase
Stripe
Resend
OpenAI API
AI SDK
Vercel
Sentry
Claude CodeSell worldwide without handling taxYou'll have customers in dozens of countries from the first week, you're not a company that can register for VAT everywhere, and you want someone else to be the seller of record.Next.js
Polar
Neon
Drizzle ORM
Better AuthResendVercelAI app that bills by usageEvery request costs you model tokens, so a flat subscription either loses money on heavy users or prices out light ones. You want to charge per use, credits or tiers with limits — and see what each user costs you.Next.js
Clerk
Convex
OpenRouterAI SDK
AutumnStripe
LangfuseVercelBuild it with an AI app builderYou'd rather describe the product than write it. You'll build in an AI app builder, and you want the pieces it wires up for you — so the result works on day one and a developer can take it over later.
LovableSupabaseStripeResend
Gemini APIChat with your docs (RAG)Your product answers questions from a pile of documents — help docs, contracts, a knowledge base. You need to ingest files, search them by meaning, and stream answers that cite their sources.Next.jsSupabase
pgvectorAI SDKOpenAI API
Trigger.devLangfuseVercelB2B SaaS that sells to companiesYour customers are teams inside companies. Sooner or later an IT department asks for SSO, audit trails and invoices, and a lost email or an outage costs you a contract.Next.js
WorkOSNeon
PrismaStripe
Postmark
InngestSentryVercelPython AI backend with a web front endThe AI part of your product lives in Python — models, data work, the libraries researchers publish first — and the front end is a separate web app talking to it.
FastAPI
SQLAlchemy
PostgreSQL
Pydantic AI
Claude
QdrantLangfuseNext.js
Render$0 until you have usersYou're validating an idea and don't want a single monthly bill until real people use it. Every pick here has a free tier a small product can run on in production.Next.js
CloudflareSupabaseResendGemini APISentryStripeAn AI agent that does real workYour product is an agent — it plans, calls tools and APIs, waits on people or other systems, and runs for minutes or hours on a user's behalf. Reliability and cost matter more than a chat box.Next.js
MastraClaudeInngestSupabaseLangfuseAutumnVercelThe one-person monolithYou want one codebase, one deploy and batteries included — models, admin, jobs and email built in — and you'd rather write product than wire services together.
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQL
Hetzner CloudStripePostmarkSentryClaude CodeEdge-first on CloudflareYou want your app and data close to users everywhere, a bill that stays near zero at low traffic, and no egress fees — and you're happy to build on one platform's primitives.Cloudflare
Hono
Cloudflare D1Drizzle ORM
Cloudflare R2Better AuthResendOpenAI API
Next.jsSupabaseStripeResendOpenAI APIAI SDKVercelSentryClaude CodeSell worldwide without handling taxYou'll have customers in dozens of countries from the first week, you're not a company that can register for VAT everywhere, and you want someone else to be the seller of record.Next.jsPolarNeonDrizzle ORMBetter AuthResendVercelAI app that bills by usageEvery request costs you model tokens, so a flat subscription either loses money on heavy users or prices out light ones. You want to charge per use, credits or tiers with limits — and see what each user costs you.Next.jsClerkConvexOpenRouterAI SDKAutumnStripeLangfuseVercelBuild it with an AI app builderYou'd rather describe the product than write it. You'll build in an AI app builder, and you want the pieces it wires up for you — so the result works on day one and a developer can take it over later.LovableSupabaseStripeResendGemini APIChat with your docs (RAG)Your product answers questions from a pile of documents — help docs, contracts, a knowledge base. You need to ingest files, search them by meaning, and stream answers that cite their sources.Next.jsSupabasepgvectorAI SDKOpenAI APITrigger.devLangfuseVercelB2B SaaS that sells to companiesYour customers are teams inside companies. Sooner or later an IT department asks for SSO, audit trails and invoices, and a lost email or an outage costs you a contract.Next.jsWorkOSNeonPrismaStripePostmarkInngestSentryVercelPython AI backend with a web front endThe AI part of your product lives in Python — models, data work, the libraries researchers publish first — and the front end is a separate web app talking to it.FastAPISQLAlchemyPostgreSQLPydantic AIClaudeQdrantLangfuseNext.jsRender$0 until you have usersYou're validating an idea and don't want a single monthly bill until real people use it. Every pick here has a free tier a small product can run on in production.Next.jsCloudflareSupabaseResendGemini APISentryStripeAn AI agent that does real workYour product is an agent — it plans, calls tools and APIs, waits on people or other systems, and runs for minutes or hours on a user's behalf. Reliability and cost matter more than a chat box.Next.jsMastraClaudeInngestSupabaseLangfuseAutumnVercelThe one-person monolithYou want one codebase, one deploy and batteries included — models, admin, jobs and email built in — and you'd rather write product than wire services together.Ruby on RailsPostgreSQLHetzner CloudStripePostmarkSentryClaude CodeEdge-first on CloudflareYou want your app and data close to users everywhere, a bill that stays near zero at low traffic, and no egress fees — and you're happy to build on one platform's primitives.CloudflareHonoCloudflare D1Drizzle ORMCloudflare R2Better AuthResendOpenAI API