Building a Startup Tech Stack for Under $100/Month

YC-backed startups spend $5,000-15,000/month on SaaS tools before reaching product-market fit. GitHub Teams, Slack, Vercel, Datadog, HubSpot—the "standard" stack costs $60K-180K annually.

Bootstrapped founders can't afford this. Self-hosting the same functionality costs $50-100/month while learning valuable DevOps skills.

This guide builds a complete startup infrastructure for a 5-10 person team: code hosting, CI/CD, communication, project management, analytics, and monitoring—all for less than a Netflix subscription.

The Default SaaS Stack (What VCs Expect)

"Standard" Startup Tools

| Category | Tool | Cost/Month | Annual | | ------------------ | --------------- | -------------- | ---------------- | | Code hosting | GitHub Teams | $80 (5 users) | $960 | | CI/CD | CircleCI | $70 | $840 | | Hosting | Vercel Pro | $200 | $2,400 | | Database | PlanetScale | $40 | $480 | | Communication | Slack Standard | $40 (5 users) | $480 | | Project management | Linear | $80 (5 users) | $960 | | Analytics | Mixpanel Growth | $200 | $2,400 | | Monitoring | Datadog | $150 | $1,800 | | Error tracking | Sentry Team | $70 | $840 | | Total | | $930/month | $11,160/year |

For a team that hasn't made $1 in revenue yet.

The Self-Hosted Stack: $50-100/Month

Infrastructure Overview

Base requirement: 2 VPS servers

1. Main application server (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM): $38/month
2. Infrastructure tools server (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM): $12/month

Total infrastructure: $50/month

Optional additions:

• Backup storage (500GB): $5/month
• Domain name: $12/year ($1/month)
• Email sending (SendGrid): $0-20/month

Maximum total: $76/month ($912/year)

vs. SaaS: Saves $10,248/year (92% reduction)

Server 1: Application Infrastructure ($38/month)

Provider: Hetzner CPX41 (8 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD) Cost: €35/month (~$38) Location: Germany (GDPR-friendly)

What Runs Here

1. Application (Next.js/React)

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    image: your-app:latest
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://db:5432/app
      - NODE_ENV=production

2. PostgreSQL Database

db:
  image: postgres:16
  restart: always
  volumes:
    - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  environment:
    - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${DB_PASSWORD}

3. Redis (Caching)

redis:
  image: redis:alpine
  restart: always
  volumes:
    - redis-data:/data

4. NGINX (Reverse Proxy + SSL)

# Install
apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Configure SSL
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

# Auto-renews via cron

Resources used: 4GB RAM, 2 CPU cores Remaining: 12GB RAM, 6 CPU cores for traffic handling

Server 2: Dev Tools & Infrastructure ($12/month)

Provider: Hetzner CX22 (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD) Cost: €5/month (~$12)

What Runs Here

1. GitLab CE (Code Hosting + CI/CD)

# docker-compose.yml for GitLab
services:
  gitlab:
    image: gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest
    hostname: git.yourdomain.com
    environment:
      GITLAB_OMNIBUS_CONFIG: |
        external_url 'https://git.yourdomain.com'
        gitlab_rails['gitlab_shell_ssh_port'] = 2224
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "2224:22"
    volumes:
      - gitlab-config:/etc/gitlab
      - gitlab-logs:/var/log/gitlab
      - gitlab-data:/var/opt/gitlab

Replaces:

• GitHub Teams ($960/year)
• CircleCI ($840/year)
• Savings: $1,800/year

2. Mattermost (Team Communication)

mattermost:
  image: mattermost/mattermost-team-edition
  restart: always
  ports:
    - "8065:8065"
  environment:
    - MM_SQLSETTINGS_DRIVERNAME=postgres
    - MM_SQLSETTINGS_DATASOURCE=postgres://mattermost:password@db:5432/mattermost

Replaces:

• Slack Standard ($480/year)
• Savings: $480/year

3. Plausible Analytics

plausible:
  image: plausible/analytics:latest
  restart: always
  ports:
    - "8000:8000"
  environment:
    - BASE_URL=https://analytics.yourdomain.com

Replaces:

• Google Analytics (privacy issues) + Mixpanel ($2,400/year)
• Savings: $2,400/year

4. Taiga (Project Management)

taiga:
  image: taigaio/taiga:latest
  restart: always
  ports:
    - "9000:80"

Replaces:

• Linear ($960/year) or Asana ($600/year)
• Savings: $960/year

5. Uptime Kuma (Monitoring)

uptime-kuma:
  image: louislam/uptime-kuma:latest
  restart: always
  ports:
    - "3001:3001"
  volumes:
    - uptime-data:/app/data

Replaces:

• Datadog ($1,800/year)
• Savings: $1,800/year

6. Sentry (Self-Hosted Error Tracking)

# Use official sentry-docker
git clone https://github.com/getsentry/self-hosted.git
cd self-hosted
./install.sh

Replaces:

• Sentry Team ($840/year)
• Savings: $840/year

Resources used: 3.5GB RAM, 1.5 CPU cores Remaining: 500MB RAM, 0.5 CPU cores (buffer)

Complete Setup Guide (2-4 Hours)

Step 1: Provision Servers (15 minutes)

Hetzner account setup:

1. Sign up at hetzner.com
2. Create project
3. Add SSH key
4. Deploy 2 servers:
   • CPX41 (Germany)
   • CX22 (Germany)

DNS configuration:

A     yourdomain.com          → Server 1 IP
A     git.yourdomain.com      → Server 2 IP
A     chat.yourdomain.com     → Server 2 IP
A     pm.yourdomain.com       → Server 2 IP
A     analytics.yourdomain.com → Server 2 IP

Step 2: Server 1 - Application (45 minutes)

# SSH into Server 1
ssh root@server1-ip

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

# Install Docker Compose
apt install docker-compose

# Create app directory
mkdir /opt/app && cd /opt/app

# Create docker-compose.yml (your application stack)
nano docker-compose.yml

# Start application
docker-compose up -d

# Install NGINX + SSL
apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Configure NGINX reverse proxy:

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/app
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Step 3: Server 2 - Dev Tools (2 hours)

# SSH into Server 2
ssh root@server2-ip

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

# Create infrastructure directory
mkdir /opt/infrastructure && cd /opt/infrastructure

# Clone infrastructure repo (create your own)
git clone YOUR_INFRASTRUCTURE_REPO
cd infrastructure

# docker-compose.yml contains:
# - GitLab
# - Mattermost
# - Plausible
# - Taiga
# - Uptime Kuma
# - Sentry

docker-compose up -d

# Wait 5 minutes for services to initialize

Configure NGINX subdomains:

# Install NGINX
apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Create configs for each service
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/git
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/chat
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/pm
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/analytics

# Get SSL certificates
certbot --nginx -d git.yourdomain.com
certbot --nginx -d chat.yourdomain.com
certbot --nginx -d pm.yourdomain.com
certbot --nginx -d analytics.yourdomain.com

Step 4: Configure Services (45 minutes)

GitLab initial setup:

1. Visit https://git.yourdomain.com
2. Set root password
3. Create first project
4. Configure GitLab CI runner

Mattermost setup:

1. Visit https://chat.yourdomain.com
2. Create admin account
3. Create team
4. Invite team members

Taiga setup:

1. Visit https://pm.yourdomain.com
2. Create admin account
3. Create first project
4. Configure sprints and backlog

Plausible setup:

1. Visit https://analytics.yourdomain.com
2. Create account
3. Add site
4. Install tracking script on main app

Step 5: CI/CD Pipeline (30 minutes)

GitLab CI configuration:

# .gitlab-ci.yml in your project
stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - docker build -t app:$CI_COMMIT_SHA .
    - docker push app:$CI_COMMIT_SHA

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - npm install
    - npm test

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ssh user@server1 "cd /opt/app && docker-compose pull && docker-compose up -d"
  only:
    - main

Total Cost Breakdown

Monthly Costs

| Item | Provider | Cost | | ------------------------ | ------------- | ---------------- | | Application server (8GB) | Hetzner CPX41 | $38 | | Dev tools server (4GB) | Hetzner CX22 | $12 | | Backup storage (500GB) | Backblaze B2 | $3 | | Domain name | Namecheap | $1 (annual ÷ 12) | | Email sending (optional) | SendGrid Free | $0 | | SSL certificates | Let's Encrypt | $0 | | Total | | $54/month |

Annual Cost: $648

vs. SaaS Stack: $11,160/year Savings: $10,512/year (94% reduction)

What You Get

Feature Comparison

| Feature | SaaS Stack | Self-Hosted Stack | | ------------------ | ---------------------- | ----------------------- | | Code hosting | GitHub (limited) | GitLab (unlimited) | | CI/CD minutes | CircleCI (2,500/month) | GitLab CI (unlimited) | | Team chat | Slack (90-day history) | Mattermost (unlimited) | | Project management | Linear (5 users) | Taiga (unlimited users) | | Analytics | Mixpanel (100K events) | Plausible (unlimited) | | Error tracking | Sentry (50K events) | Sentry (unlimited) | | Monitoring | Datadog (5 hosts) | Uptime Kuma (unlimited) | | User limits | Per-user pricing | Unlimited | | Storage limits | Vendor-defined | Your disk space | | Data ownership | Vendor controls | You control |

Advanced Additions (Optional)

Database Backups ($5/month)

# Automated PostgreSQL backups to B2
# /usr/local/bin/backup-db.sh

#!/bin/bash
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
BACKUP_FILE="db-backup-$TIMESTAMP.sql.gz"

# Create backup
docker exec postgres pg_dump -U postgres app | gzip > /tmp/$BACKUP_FILE

# Upload to B2
b2 upload-file backup-bucket /tmp/$BACKUP_FILE backups/$BACKUP_FILE

# Clean local backup
rm /tmp/$BACKUP_FILE

# Keep last 30 days only
b2 list-file-names backup-bucket --maxFileCount 1000 | \
  tail -n +31 | \
  xargs -I {} b2 delete-file-version backup-bucket {}

Cron: Daily at 2 AM

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup-db.sh

Staging Environment (same servers)

Use Docker Compose profiles:

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  app:
    profiles: ["production"]
    # production config

  app-staging:
    profiles: ["staging"]
    image: app:staging
    ports:
      - "3001:3000"

Deploy staging:

docker-compose --profile staging up -d

Cost: $0 (runs on same servers)

CDN for Static Assets ($0)

Cloudflare Free Tier:

• Unlimited bandwidth
• Global CDN
• DDoS protection
• SSL/TLS

Setup:

1. Add domain to Cloudflare
2. Change nameservers
3. Enable "Proxy" (orange cloud) on DNS records
4. Configure cache settings

Scaling Strategy

Phase 1: 0-1K Users (Current Setup)

Infrastructure: 2 servers ($50/month) Handles: 10K requests/day, 5-10 person team Cost: $50-100/month

Phase 2: 1K-10K Users

Add: Application server #2 (load balancing) Infrastructure: 3 servers

• App server 1: $38/month
• App server 2: $38/month
• Dev tools: $12/month
• Load balancer: NGINX on existing server

Cost: $88/month Handles: 100K requests/day

Phase 3: 10K-100K Users

Add: Dedicated database server Infrastructure: 4 servers

• 2× App servers: $76/month
• Database server (16GB RAM): $60/month
• Dev tools: $12/month

Cost: $148/month Handles: 1M requests/day

Phase 4: 100K+ Users

Consider:

• Managed database (RDS, PlanetScale)
• CDN for dynamic content
• Dedicated monitoring
• Hybrid approach: Self-host dev tools, use managed services for production scaling

Labor Costs (Be Honest)

Initial Setup

Time investment:

• Server provisioning: 1 hour
• Application deployment: 2 hours
• Dev tools setup: 3 hours
• CI/CD configuration: 2 hours
• Total: 8 hours

At $100/hour: $800 one-time cost

Monthly Maintenance

Tasks:

• Security updates: 1 hour/month
• Backup verification: 30 minutes/month
• Service monitoring: 30 minutes/month
• Total: 2 hours/month

At $100/hour: $200/month

Still cheaper than SaaS ($930/month), even with labor.

When to Stay SaaS

Keep SaaS for:

1. Email (Gmail, Fastmail)

   • Self-hosting email is deliverability hell
   • Cost: $6-12/user/month

2. Accounting (QuickBooks, Xero)

   • Tax compliance requires vendor expertise
   • Cost: $15-50/month

3. Payments (Stripe)

   • PCI compliance complexity
   • Cost: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

4. DNS (Cloudflare)

   • Free tier is excellent
   • DDoS protection included
   • Cost: $0

Rule: Self-host commodity infrastructure. Use SaaS for specialized compliance.

Real Startup Example: Bootstrapped SaaS

Company: 3-person team building B2B SaaS Revenue: Pre-launch (0 MRR)

Infrastructure:

• Next.js application
• PostgreSQL database
• Redis for caching
• GitLab for code + CI/CD
• Mattermost for team chat
• Plausible for analytics

Monthly cost: $54

vs. Equivalent SaaS:

• Vercel Pro: $200
• GitHub: $48
• CircleCI: $70
• Slack: $24
• Mixpanel: $200
• Total: $542/month

Savings: $488/month ($5,856/year)

Founder perspective:

"We're pre-revenue. Every dollar saved extends our runway. Self-hosting gave us 6 extra months to find product-market fit."

The Exit-Saas Startup Perspective

YC's advice: "Don't optimize prematurely. Just use Heroku/Vercel."

This makes sense IF:

• You have $500K+ in funding
• Your time is worth $200+/hour
• You're prioritizing speed over efficiency

But if you're bootstrapping:

• Every $500/month saved = 6% more runway
• Learning DevOps makes you a better engineer
• You own your infrastructure from day one

The irony: Most successful startups eventually migrate off expensive SaaS to self-hosted infrastructure. Why not start there?

Basecamp, GitHub, Stack Overflow all self-host core infrastructure.

Starting self-hosted means:

• No migration pain later
• Better understanding of your stack
• $10K/year reinvested in product or talent

Browse our tools directory for deployment guides and infrastructure templates.

The best startup infrastructure is the one you can afford indefinitely.