Best Tools for Running a One-Person SaaS Business in 2026

Running a SaaS business alone means every tool choice matters. You don't have a DevOps person to manage infrastructure, a designer to make things pretty, or a marketer to handle outreach. The tools you pick need to be force multipliers, not time sinks.

After building and running a solo SaaS for 12 months, here's the exact stack that works — categorized by what you actually need at each stage.

The $0/Month Stack (Pre-Revenue)

Before you have paying customers, spend as little as possible. Every dollar you burn extends your runway.

Code Editor: Cursor ($0)

Cursor's free tier includes AI-powered code completion that genuinely speeds up solo development. VS Code is the fallback if you prefer no AI.

Why not GitHub Copilot? Copilot costs $10/month. Cursor's free tier does 80% of what Copilot does. Save the $10 until you have revenue.

Hosting: Vercel ($0)

Vercel's hobby plan handles most solo SaaS needs:

• 100GB bandwidth/month
• Serverless functions
• Automatic HTTPS
• Edge network
• GitHub auto-deploy

When to upgrade: When you hit 100GB bandwidth or need team features. For most pre-revenue SaaS products, this takes 6-12 months.

Alternative: Railway ($5/month credit free). Better for backend-heavy apps that need persistent servers.

Database: Supabase ($0)

Supabase's free tier is extraordinarily generous:

• 500MB database
• 50,000 monthly active users for auth
• 1GB file storage
• Realtime subscriptions
• Edge Functions

Why not Firebase? Supabase gives you PostgreSQL, which is a transferable skill. Firebase locks you into Google's proprietary database. For a solo founder, avoiding vendor lock-in is critical.

Payments: Lemon Squeezy ($0)

No monthly fee. They take 5% + 50¢ per transaction (higher than Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢) but they handle all sales tax, VAT, and compliance as a Merchant of Record.

When to switch to Stripe: When you're doing $5,000+/month in revenue and the 2% fee difference matters more than tax automation convenience.

Analytics: PostHog ($0)

1 million events/month free. That's enough for a SaaS with 1,000+ active users. PostHog includes:

• Product analytics
• Session replay
• Feature flags
• A/B testing

Why not Google Analytics? GA4 tells you about pageviews. PostHog tells you about product behavior — which features users actually use, where they drop off, and what paths lead to conversion.

Email: Resend ($0)

3,000 emails/month free. For transactional emails (welcome, password reset, receipt), this is plenty until you have thousands of users.

For marketing emails: Mailchimp Free (500 contacts) or ConvertKit's free plan (1,000 subscribers). See our Mailchimp vs ConvertKit comparison.

Project Management: Notion ($0) or Linear ($0)

Notion if you also need docs, wikis, and content planning. Linear if you want a clean, fast issue tracker without the noise.

Don't use ClickUp or Monday.com. They're built for teams of 10+, and you'll spend more time configuring than actually building. Read our Notion review for a deep dive.

The $20-50/Month Stack (First Customers)

Once you have paying customers, invest in reliability and speed:

Upgrade #1: Domain + Professional Email ($15/month)

• Domain: Cloudflare Registrar (~$12/year, cheapest registrar)
• Email: Google Workspace Starter ($6/user/month) — professional@yoursaas.com

Upgrade #2: Error Monitoring — Sentry ($0-26/month)

Free tier covers 5K errors/month. When a customer hits a bug at 3am, Sentry tells you exactly what happened, in which browser, with the full stack trace.

Upgrade #3: Uptime Monitoring — Better Uptime ($0)

Free tier monitors 10 URLs with 3-minute check intervals. When your SaaS goes down, you should know before your customers do.

Upgrade #4: Customer Support — Crisp ($0)

Free tier includes a live chat widget, shared inbox, and basic chatbot. For a solo founder, Crisp is the best free option.

When to upgrade: When you're handling 20+ support conversations/week, consider Intercom ($89/month) or keep Crisp's Pro plan ($25/month).

The "I Have Traction" Stack ($100-200/month)

Revenue is coming in consistently. Now optimize for growth:

Marketing: ConvertKit ($0-29/month)

Start building an email list from day one. ConvertKit's free plan supports 1,000 subscribers. Upgrade to the Creator plan ($29/month) when you need automations and sequences.

SEO: Ahrefs Webmaster ($0) + Search Console ($0)

Don't pay for a full SEO tool until you have content to optimize. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools gives you free site audits and backlink data for your own domain.

Social Proof: Testimonial.to ($0 for 10 testimonials)

Collect and display customer testimonials. Social proof converts. Use the free tier to collect up to 10 video or text testimonials.

Background Jobs: Trigger.dev ($0)

If your SaaS needs scheduled tasks, webhooks, or background processing, Trigger.dev handles it with a generous free tier.

Tools You DON'T Need (Yet)

Solo founders waste money on these too early:

| Tool Category | Skip Until... | Free Alternative | |--------------|--------------|-----------------| | Figma (paid) | You have a designer | Figma Free (unlimited personal files) | | AWS/GCP | You need custom infra | Vercel + Supabase handles 95% of needs | | Intercom | 20+ support tickets/week | Crisp Free | | Segment | 10K+ users | PostHog does analytics + CDP | | Jira | You have engineers (plural) | Linear Free | | Slack | You have a team | Discord Free + email | | Notion AI | Revenue covers it | ChatGPT Free + Notion Free |

Monthly Cost Summary

| Stage | Stack | Monthly Cost | |-------|-------|-------------| | Pre-revenue | Cursor + Vercel + Supabase + Lemon Squeezy + PostHog + Resend + Notion | $0 | | First customers | Above + Domain + Google Workspace + Sentry + Better Uptime + Crisp | $20-30 | | Traction | Above + ConvertKit + Testimonial.to + Trigger.dev | $50-100 | | Scaling | Full paid tiers as needed | $150-300 |

The Golden Rule for Solo SaaS Tools

Only pay for tools that directly increase revenue or prevent revenue loss. Everything else should be free tier.

• Hosting crashes = lost customers → Pay for reliable hosting ✅
• Analytics helps you optimize conversions → Free tier is enough ✅
• Fancy project management makes you feel productive → Don't pay ❌
• Marketing emails drive growth → Pay when your list exceeds free limits ✅

Want to see how these tools compare? Check our best dev tools roundup, hosting platform comparisons, or payment platform analysis.