Popular Indie Hacker Stack Combinations
Updated
•5 min read
Modern web stack components for building AI applications
| Category | Service/Tool | URL | Description | Key Features | Pricing Model |
| Authentication | Clerk | clerk.com | Complete auth solution | Social logins, MFA, user management, webhooks | Free tier + usage-based |
| Supabase Auth | supabase.com | Open-source auth | Email/password, OAuth, RLS, real-time | Free tier + usage-based | |
| Auth0 | auth0.com | Enterprise auth platform | SSO, MFA, extensive integrations | Free tier + MAU-based | |
| Firebase Auth | firebase.google.com | Google's auth service | Multiple providers, easy integration | Pay-as-you-go | |
| Database | Neon | neon.tech | Serverless Postgres | Branching, autoscaling, modern SQL | Free tier + compute-based |
| PlanetScale | planetscale.com | Serverless MySQL | Schema branching, horizontal scaling | Free tier + usage-based | |
| Supabase | supabase.com | Open-source Firebase alternative | Postgres, real-time, auth included | Free tier + usage-based | |
| Xata | xata.io | Serverless data platform | Full-text search, analytics, branching | Free tier + usage-based | |
| Vector Database | Pinecone | pinecone.io | Managed vector database | AI/ML optimized, high performance | Usage-based pricing |
| Weaviate | weaviate.io | Open-source vector DB | GraphQL, hybrid search | Self-hosted or cloud | |
| Qdrant | qdrant.tech | Vector similarity search | High performance, filtering | Open-source + cloud | |
| Chroma | trychroma.com | AI-native open-source | Embeddings, metadata filtering | Free + enterprise | |
| Frontend Framework | Next.js | nextjs.org | React framework | SSR, API routes, optimizations | Free (Vercel hosting costs) |
| Remix | remix.run | Full-stack React | Nested routing, progressive enhancement | Free | |
| SvelteKit | kit.svelte.dev | Svelte framework | Fast, lightweight, great DX | Free | |
| Nuxt.js | nuxt.com | Vue.js framework | SSR, static generation, modules | Free | |
| Deployment | Vercel | vercel.com | Frontend deployment | Edge functions, previews, analytics | Free tier + usage-based |
| Netlify | netlify.com | JAMstack platform | Edge functions, forms, split testing | Free tier + usage-based | |
| Railway | railway.app | Full-stack deployment | Databases, services, simple pricing | Usage-based | |
| Render | render.com | Cloud platform | Static sites, web services, databases | Free tier + instance-based | |
| AI/ML APIs | OpenAI | openai.com | GPT models & APIs | ChatGPT, GPT-4, embeddings, fine-tuning | Token-based pricing |
| Anthropic | anthropic.com | Claude AI models | Constitutional AI, long context | Token-based pricing | |
| Cohere | cohere.com | NLP platform | Generation, classification, embeddings | API call-based | |
| Hugging Face | huggingface.co | ML model hub | Transformers, inference API, spaces | Free + compute costs | |
| File Storage | Uploadthing | uploadthing.com | File uploads for Next.js | Type-safe, progress tracking | Free tier + storage-based |
| Cloudinary | cloudinary.com | Media management | Image/video optimization, transformations | Free tier + usage-based | |
| AWS S3 | aws.amazon.com/s3 | Object storage | Scalable, reliable, global | Pay-per-use | |
| Supabase Storage | supabase.com | Open-source storage | RLS, CDN, image transformations | Free tier + storage-based | |
| Monitoring | Sentry | sentry.io | Error tracking | Real-time alerts, performance monitoring | Free tier + error-based |
| LogRocket | logrocket.com | Session replay | Frontend monitoring, debugging | Free tier + session-based | |
| Axiom | axiom.co | Observability platform | Logs, metrics, traces for serverless | Usage-based | |
| Posthog | posthog.com | Product analytics | Events, funnels, feature flags | Free tier + event-based | |
| Payments | Stripe | stripe.com | Payment processing | Subscriptions, marketplaces, global | Transaction fees |
| LemonSqueezy | lemonsqueezy.com | Merchant of record | Tax handling, global payments | Transaction fees | |
| Paddle | paddle.com | Revenue platform | Subscription management, global tax | Revenue share model | |
| Resend | resend.com | Developer-focused email | React email templates, deliverability | Free tier + email-based | |
| SendGrid | sendgrid.com | Email delivery | Marketing, transactional, analytics | Free tier + email-based | |
| Postmark | postmarkapp.com | Transactional email | High deliverability, detailed analytics | Email-based pricing | |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS | tailwindcss.com | Utility-first CSS | Responsive, customizable, fast | Free |
| Shadcn/ui | ui.shadcn.com | Component library | Headless, customizable, TypeScript | Free | |
| Chakra UI | chakra-ui.com | Modular components | Accessible, themeable, React | Free | |
| State Management | Zustand | github.com/pmndrs/zustand | React state management | Simple, lightweight, TypeScript | Free |
| Jotai | jotai.org | Atomic state management | Bottom-up approach, minimal boilerplate | Free | |
| TanStack Query | tanstack.com/query | Data fetching library | Caching, synchronization, optimistic updates | Free |
Popular Stack Combinations:
The "Indie Hacker" Stack: Next.js + Clerk + Neon + Vercel + Stripe + Resend
The "All Supabase" Stack: Next.js + Supabase (auth + DB + storage) + Vercel
The "AI-First" Stack: Next.js + Clerk + Pinecone + OpenAI + Uploadthing + Vercel
The "Enterprise" Stack: Next.js + Auth0 + PlanetScale + Railway + Stripe + SendGrid
