How to Launch a SaaS with $0 Budget (Indie Hacker Playbook)
How to Launch a SaaS with $0 Budget (Indie Hacker Playbook)
The myth: "You need $50k to launch a SaaS."
The reality: You need $0, if you know which free tools to use.
In 2025, every layer of a SaaS stack has a genuinely free tier. Not "freemium" with crippling limits, but real free tiers that let you build, ship, and serve thousands of users without paying a cent.
The Zero-Budget SaaS Stack
Frontend: Vercel (Free) Backend: Node.js + Express (Free) Database: Supabase (Free tier with 500MB) Email: SendGrid or Resend (Free for 100-1000 emails/day) Payments: Stripe (Free until you charge customers) Analytics: Plausible (Free tier) Monitoring: Sentry (Free tier) Authentication: NextAuth or Firebase (Free) Domain: Namecheap ($9/year)
Total Year 1 cost: $9 (domain only)
Phase 1: Build the MVP (Weeks 1-4)
Step 1: Choose Your Stack
Use Next.js for frontend + Vercel for hosting. This gives you unlimited free deploys, edge functions, and global CDN with zero cost.
For the backend, use Next.js API routes combined with Supabase for managed PostgreSQL. You get a real database in the cloud for free.
Step 2: Set Up Version Control
Create a GitHub repository (free). Use git init and git remote add to connect your local project. GitHub gives you unlimited free repos and collaborators.
Step 3: Build Your MVP
Build the smallest useful product you can ship in 2-4 weeks. One core feature working end-to-end beats a polished feature nobody uses.
Focus on: user signup, core feature, basic data storage. Skip: admin dashboards, analytics, fancy UI.
Step 4: Deploy for Free
Push to GitHub and Vercel auto-deploys your app. Your app is live at yourapp.vercel.app in minutes.
Create a Supabase account, create a new project, add the connection string to environment variables. Your PostgreSQL database is ready.
Phase 2: Launch & Get Users (Weeks 5-8)
Add User Authentication
Use NextAuth.js (free) or Firebase Auth (free tier) so users can sign up with GitHub or email.
Add Payment Processing
Use Stripe (free until you charge customers). Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction only when someone buys.
Add Email Sending
Use Resend (1,000 emails/day free) or SendGrid (100/day free) for transactional emails like password resets and receipts.
Add Error Tracking
Use Sentry (free tier) to track bugs in production. Get alerts when things break so you can fix them.
Phase 3: Launch Publicly (Week 8)
Get Your First Users
Launch on Product Hunt (free), Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter, Indie Hackers. Don't spend money on ads—your first users come from places where builders hang out.
Measure What Matters
Use Plausible Analytics (free tier) or Fathom to track page views and signup conversion. No coding required.
The Reality: When You'll Actually Pay
You stay at $0 until:
- First customer via Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 per charge
- More than 1,000 emails/day: $19-99/month
- More than 1GB database storage: $15-100/month
- Vercel pro features (optional): $20/month
- Custom domain email: $6-12/month
Realistically: You'll spend $0-50/month until you hit $500+ MRR. Then maybe $100-200/month.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Don't spend money before validating. Don't build a complete app before getting users. Don't worry about perfect design—functional beats pretty at launch.
Ship as fast as possible. Get feedback. Iterate.
Summary
This tech stack costs almost nothing until you have customers. Your total Year 1 investment: about $10.
Compare that to traditional SaaS startups spending $50k-100k before shipping.
Start with this stack. Scale it thoughtfully. Spend money only when it unblocks growth.
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