Founder stack playbook

Ship an AI SaaS MVP solo

A production web app with authentication, metered AI, payments, analytics, and enough observability to charge the first customers confidently.

How the stack works

1. Build the product and server routes together in Next.js, keeping model credentials on the server.
2. Use Supabase for sign-in and product data, with row-level security tested before launch.
3. Route model calls through OpenRouter so models can change without rewriting the product boundary.
4. Create Stripe checkout and webhook-driven entitlements; never trust a client-side paid flag.
5. Instrument activation in PostHog and exceptions in Sentry before inviting the first user.

The stack

Full-stack application

Next.js

One TypeScript codebase can own the UI, authenticated server routes, streaming responses, and deployment shape.

Skip if: the product is mostly a static client or your team already ships faster in Rails, Laravel, or another mature backend.

Alternatives: React + Vite with Hono, SvelteKit, Remix

Hosting

Vercel

It removes deployment plumbing for Next.js and gives previews, logs, domains, and serverless execution immediately.

Skip if: workloads are long-running, egress-heavy, region-constrained, or cheaper on a persistent container.

Alternatives: Cloudflare Pages, Railway, Render

Authentication

Supabase Auth

Auth and database identity share one security model, which keeps a solo build understandable.

Skip if: enterprise federation, complex organisations, or polished prebuilt auth UI is already a sales requirement.

Alternatives: Clerk, Auth0, WorkOS

Database

Supabase Postgres

Managed Postgres, migrations, storage, and row-level security cover most MVP data needs without a second platform.

Skip if: the core workload is globally distributed writes, document-first data, or an existing database you already operate well.

Alternatives: Neon, PlanetScale, Convex

Model gateway

OpenRouter

A single API exposes several model families, making quality and cost experiments possible without provider-specific rewrites.

Skip if: procurement, data residency, or provider support requires a direct contract and direct API path.

Alternatives: OpenAI API, Anthropic API, Together AI

Billing

Stripe

Checkout, subscriptions, tax integrations, webhooks, and a customer portal form the least surprising SaaS billing path.

Skip if: you need a merchant of record to handle global tax and compliance rather than remaining the seller.

Alternatives: Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar.sh

Product analytics

PostHog

Events, funnels, recordings, feature flags, and experiments live together with a generous early-stage allowance.

Skip if: you only need privacy-light page analytics or cannot permit session replay in your compliance model.

Alternatives: Plausible, Amplitude, Mixpanel

Error monitoring

Sentry

It turns launch-day JavaScript and server errors into traces with releases and source maps instead of user anecdotes.

Skip if: an existing observability platform already captures frontend, backend, and release context reliably.

Alternatives: Better Stack, Datadog, Axiom

Verification note: Pricing and product fit checked against official pages on 12 July 2026. The estimate assumes low traffic and excludes variable model tokens, payment processing, tax, domains, and support tooling.

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