Every week someone asks on Indie Hackers: "What stack should I use to build my first SaaS?" The answers are all over the place because people recommend what they know, not what consistently produces results.
We took a different approach. Instead of asking what people recommend, we looked at what successful founders — those with verified public revenue — actually reported using in their case studies, build logs, and interviews. Here is what the data shows.
How We Built This List
We cross-referenced tool mentions across 200+ public indie hacker case studies, MicroConf talks, Indie Hackers revenue reports, and founder interviews. We weighted by founders who reached $1K MRR or above with verified numbers. Tools mentioned by sub-$1K founders were noted but not weighted — at that stage, almost any tool can work and tool choice matters less than distribution.
The result is not a "best of" list based on feature comparisons. It is a frequency map of what the $1K–$50K MRR cohort actually ran their businesses on.
Building: Code and No-Code
The split in the data is roughly 60/40 between traditional coding and AI-assisted or no-code builders — and that gap is closing fast. Among products launched in 2024–2025, the no-code and AI-assisted proportion is closer to 50/50.
The headline finding: Formula Bot, one of the most cited indie SaaS success stories ($226K MRR), was built entirely in Bubble with no coding experience. The tool used matters far less than the founder's ability to talk to customers and iterate fast.
For founders starting today, the recommendation is simple: use whatever lets you ship in 4 weeks or less. If you can code, Next.js + Supabase is the most documented and community-supported stack. If you cannot code, Lovable or Replit Agent both generate full-stack apps from plain English descriptions and deploy with one click.
Database and Backend
Supabase appeared in more recent case studies than any other database solution by a significant margin. The reasons are practical: it is free up to 500MB, it includes auth and storage out of the box, it integrates natively with Next.js and Lovable, and the documentation is excellent. Founders who have been building longer tend to use Firebase or PlanetScale — both work fine, but Supabase has become the default for new projects.
For hosting, Vercel and Railway split the field. Vercel is the default for Next.js and has a generous free tier. Railway handles more complex deployments — background jobs, cron tasks, databases — with simpler configuration than AWS.
Payments: Two Tools Dominate
Stripe is the most-used payment processor by raw volume, but Lemon Squeezy has been gaining fast among founders who want to avoid tax compliance complexity. The key difference: Lemon Squeezy is a Merchant of Record, meaning they handle VAT, GST, and sales tax globally on your behalf. Stripe does not — you are responsible for your own tax compliance in every jurisdiction where you have customers.
For founders selling to international customers (which is most SaaS), Lemon Squeezy's 5% + 50¢ per transaction is increasingly seen as worth it relative to the accounting overhead of Stripe. Paddle is the third option — similar Merchant of Record model, better for products with high average order values, slightly more setup friction.
Analytics: The Privacy-First Default
Plausible Analytics appeared in more case studies than Google Analytics among $1K+ MRR founders — an extraordinary finding given GA is free and Plausible costs $9/month. The reasons: GDPR compliance without cookie banners, faster page load (under 1KB script), and a genuinely simpler interface for founders who need traffic data, not enterprise marketing attribution.
Simple Analytics is the close alternative — slightly cheaper, same privacy model. Both beat GA4 for indie founders because GA4 requires configuration expertise most solo founders do not have, and its session model is confusing for simple "how many people visited and what did they do" questions.
Marketing and Distribution
Email marketing splits between ConvertKit (rebranded to Kit) and Resend. ConvertKit targets creators and has the best audience-building features. Resend is a developer-first email API — not a newsletter platform, but pairs well with a custom-coded product where you want programmatic email control.
For building in public, Twitter/X and Indie Hackers appear in virtually every successful case study. Not because they are the best platforms in theory, but because the indie hacker audience is concentrated there and has a culture of supporting and sharing products from fellow founders.
The Minimum Viable Stack
If you are starting today with zero existing infrastructure, here is the minimum stack to reach $1K MRR — based on what the data shows, not theoretical best practices:
Total monthly cost at zero revenue: $9 (Plausible only — everything else is free tier). Total monthly cost at $1K MRR: roughly $30–$50. This is the stack that lets you validate without a financial runway requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools do indie hackers use to build SaaS?
Based on 200+ public case studies, the most common tools are: Next.js or Bubble for building, Supabase for database and auth, Lemon Squeezy or Stripe for payments, Plausible for analytics, and Vercel or Railway for hosting. Lovable and Replit are increasingly common for founders who do not code.
Do I need to code to build a SaaS product?
No. Formula Bot ($226K MRR) was built in Bubble with no coding experience. Many 2024–2025 products used Lovable or Replit Agent to generate full-stack applications from plain English descriptions. The non-technical founders who succeed focus their energy on distribution and customer interviews rather than on the build itself.