The vibe coder's stack guide.
One opinionated pick per goal, dated and sourced. See what your whole stack really costs per month — and know when it's time to switch.
62 tools · every price checked against the official pricing page · updated weekly
Best picks by goal
Each page names one winner, two alternatives and a free or open-source option.
- Agent frameworkOpenAI Agents SDKReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- SaaS app builderLovableReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Coding agent / IDECursorReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Mobile app builderRorkReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Database / backendSupabaseReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Image / video APIfal.aiReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Internal toolsRetoolReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Landing pagesFramerReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Open-source / localOllamaReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Testing & QAPlaywrightReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Voice APIElevenLabsReviewed Oct 15, 2026
- Cheapest hostingCloudflare Workers & PagesReviewed Oct 15, 2026
Starter stacks
Real monthly cost of popular stacks, from verified pricing. Usage-based charges can add more.
- Free-tier stackAn open-source coding agent with free-tier backend and hosting. You only pay for model usage.≈ $0.45/mo (AI usage only; tools are free)
- Indie dev stackAn AI editor, an always-on Postgres backend and commercial-grade hosting for a product with paying users.≈ $165/mo
- Mobile app stackBuild a native mobile app from prompts with a Firebase backend on the no-cost Spark plan.≈ $20.45/mo
- Self-hosted open-source stackFully open source: Aider for coding, PocketBase as the backend, Coolify to deploy. Your VPS cost is not included; AI cost assumes local models via Ollama.≈ $0/mo
- Weekend SaaS MVPPrompt your SaaS into existence with Lovable's paid plan, connect your own free Supabase project as the backend (choose this at project start: Lovable Cloud is the default) and publish on Lovable's built-in hosting.≈ $25.45/mo
Head-to-head
- Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex vs Cline
- Cursor vs Claude Code
- Cursor vs GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf (Devin Desktop)
- Framer vs Webflow vs Carrd
- LangGraph vs OpenAI Agents SDK vs CrewAI
- Lovable vs Bolt.new vs Replit vs v0
New this week
Issue #1 · Oct 15, 2026
Haiku 5.5 gets cheap, Supabase drops Docker, agents buy domains- • Gemini 4 Argon opens to developers on the paid Gemini API
- • Visual Studio 2026 October update makes the new Copilot chat the default
- • Lovable apps can expose WebMCP tools to browser agents
- • Vercel CLI lets agents search, price and start domain purchases
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