6 tools
Budget Self-Hosted Stack
I run five side projects on one DigitalOcean Droplet for $24 a month. This stack handles 80k monthly visitors combined and has taught me more about infrastructure than years of managed platforms ever did.
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Public stack
A backend API that handles production traffic without a major architectural rewrite as you grow — connection-pooled Postgres, Redis job queues, containerized deployments, and managed hosting that's simpler than AWS.
Workflow stack
Primary database
Relational database for structured business data — ACID transactions, complex queries, and foreign key constraints that catch data integrity issues at the database level.
Open tool profileORM and migrations
Schema-first ORM that generates TypeScript types from your database schema — migrate with confidence and never write raw SQL for standard CRUD operations.
Open tool profileCache and queues
In-memory store for session caching, rate limiting counters, and BullMQ background job queues — keeps expensive operations out of the synchronous request path.
Open tool profileContainerization
Package the Node app with its exact dependencies so the same container runs in development, CI, and production — no more environment-specific bugs.
Open tool profileManaged deployment
One-command deployments with managed Postgres and Redis instances, automatic SSL, and environment variable management — simpler than ECS without giving up flexibility.
Open tool profileRelated stacks
I run five side projects on one DigitalOcean Droplet for $24 a month. This stack handles 80k monthly visitors combined and has taught me more about infrastructure than years of managed platforms ever did.
Add enterprise SSO, SCIM provisioning, and audit logs to your SaaS product without building it in-house. The identity features enterprise procurement teams require before signing a purchase order.
Production Python backend for AI-powered applications — designed for the async I/O, complex dependencies, and long-running inference jobs that come with serving language models at real traffic.
Prisma ORM remains free; Prisma Postgres cloud tiers run Free $0 (100k operations, 500 MB, 5 DBs), Starter $10, Pro $49, and Business $129 with included operations and storage (prisma.io/pricing, March 2026).
Redis Cloud Free $0: 30 MB shared; Essentials from ~$0.007/hr (about $5/mo total on card) 250 MB–100 GB; Pro from ~$0.014/hr with $200 free trial credit and $200/mo minimum—dedicated tier, active-active, higher SLA (redis.io/pricing).
Personal $0: Desktop, Engine, Hub (100 pulls/hr logged in), 1 private repo, 1 Scout-enabled repo; Pro ~$9/mo yearly (~$11 monthly) with unlimited Hub pulls; Team ~$15/mo yearly (~$16 mo); Business ~$24/user/mo with SSO and registry policies (docker.com/pricing).
Railway deploys services and databases from Git or Docker with usage-based CPU, memory, volume, and egress billing—Hobby and Pro plans include monthly usage credits.
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