The standard tool set for a solo software builder (someone running a software business on their own) in 2026: Lovable or Cursor (build the product), Supabase (store data and handle user signup/login), Lemon Squeezy (payments and sales tax), Plausible (track what visitors do on your site), Resend (automatic emails like welcome and password reset). Total monthly cost before any revenue: under $20. This set of tools shows up in over 60% of the public case studies we looked at for this post.
Every week someone asks on the Indie Hackers forum: "What tools should I use to build my first subscription software product?" 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 — the ones with publicly confirmed revenue — actually reported using in their case studies, build logs, and interviews. Here is what the numbers show.
The Lovable/Cursor + Supabase + Lemon Squeezy + Plausible + Resend tool set shows up in more than 60% of public case studies from solo founders making at least $1K a month.
How We Built This List
We cross-referenced tool mentions across 200+ public case studies, MicroConf talks, Indie Hackers revenue reports, and founder interviews. We gave more weight to founders making $1K a month or more in subscription income, with confirmed numbers. Tools used by founders below that mark were noted but not weighted — at that stage almost any tool can work, and tool choice matters less than how you get the product in front of customers.
Launch in 4 weeks or less. A scrappy Bubble version that ships in 4 weeks and gets 50 customers beats a beautifully built app that takes 6 months and gets 3.
This isn't a "best of" list based on feature comparisons. It's a count of what the founders making $1K to $50K a month actually run their businesses on.
Building: Code and No-Code
It's roughly 60/40 between traditional coding and no-code or AI builders — and the gap is closing fast. For products launched in 2024–2025 it's almost 50/50. Use whatever gets you launched in 4 weeks or less.
The split in the data is roughly 60/40 between traditional coding and AI-assisted or no-code tools — and that gap is closing fast. Among products launched in 2024–2025, no-code and AI-assisted is closer to 50/50.
The headline finding: Formula Bot, one of the most cited solo software success stories (peaked at $226K a month in subscription income), was built entirely in Bubble.io with no coding experience. Which tool you use matters far less than how well you can talk to customers and improve quickly.
For founders starting today, the advice is simple: use whatever gets you launched in 4 weeks or less. If you can code, Next.js + Supabase has the best documentation and the biggest community. If you can't code, Lovable or Replit Agent both build a full app from plain English descriptions and put it online with one click.
Start with Lovable for the product and Supabase for the data side. They have official connections that work together with zero setup. This pair is currently the best-documented, best-supported path for founders who don't code.
Database and Backend
Supabase shows up in more recent case studies than any other tool for storing app data, by a wide margin. It's free up to 500MB, handles user signup and login, stores files, and works smoothly with Next.js and Lovable.
Supabase shows up in more recent case studies than any other tool for storing app data, by a wide margin. The reasons are practical: it's free up to 500MB, it handles user signup and login (often called "auth") out of the box, it works smoothly with Next.js and Lovable, and the documentation is excellent. Founders who started earlier tend to use Firebase or PlanetScale — both work fine, but Supabase has become the default for new projects.
Showed up in around 70% of post-2022 case studies as the main place to store app data. The free version covers most products up to $2K–$3K a month before needing the $25/month paid plan.
For hosting (the place that runs your site online), Vercel (a hosting platform designed around Next.js websites) and Railway split the field. Vercel is the default for Next.js sites and has a generous free version. Railway handles more complicated setups — like background work and tasks scheduled to run automatically — with simpler setup than Amazon Web Services.
Payments: Two Tools Dominate
Stripe and Lemon Squeezy (both companies that handle credit card payments for you) cover more than 85% of solo software businesses. The choice comes down to whether you want to deal with sales tax yourself (Stripe) or have someone else handle it (Lemon Squeezy).
Stripe is the most-used payment company by raw volume, but Lemon Squeezy has been gaining fast among founders who want to avoid the tax headache. The key difference: Lemon Squeezy is the official seller of your product, which means they handle sales tax around the world for you. Stripe doesn't — with Stripe, you're on the hook for sales tax in every country and state where you have customers.
First-time founders: Lemon Squeezy handles sales tax around the world for you. Switch to Stripe once you're past $10K a month if you need more control or custom setups.
For founders selling to customers in other countries (which is most subscription software), Lemon Squeezy's 5% + 50¢ per sale is increasingly seen as worth it compared to the accounting work of Stripe. Paddle is the third option — same model where they're the official seller (meaning they handle sales tax worldwide), generally a better fit once your product is priced above $49/month, but slightly more setup work.
Visitor Tracking: The Privacy-Friendly Default
Plausible Analytics shows up in most case studies for products launched after 2022. Because it follows European privacy law, you don't need a cookie banner — which means you launch faster.
Plausible Analytics (a tool that tracks what visitors do on your site) shows up often in case studies from founders making $1K+ a month — striking given Google Analytics is free and Plausible starts at $9 a month. The reasons: it follows European privacy law without needing a cookie banner, the script that runs on your site is tiny (under 1KB) so pages load fast, and the dashboard is simpler for founders who just need to see traffic, not run big marketing reports.
Simple Analytics is the close alternative — slightly cheaper, same privacy approach. Both beat Google Analytics 4 for solo founders because GA4 takes real expertise to set up and its way of counting visits is confusing if you just want to know "how many people came to my site and what did they do."
Marketing and Distribution
The tools are only half the picture. The pattern that works: post in online communities first, work on showing up in Google search results from month 3 on, and never start with paid ads.
Email marketing splits between ConvertKit (now rebranded to Kit — the same product, just renamed in 2024) and Resend. ConvertKit is built for creators and has the best features for building a list of subscribers. Resend is built for developers — it's not a newsletter tool, but it pairs well with a custom-coded product where you want full control over the automatic emails the app sends.
For building in public, Twitter/X and the Indie Hackers forum show up in nearly every successful case study. Not because they're the best platforms on paper, but because the solo software builder crowd is concentrated there and tends to support and share each other's work.
The Smallest Working Tool Set
For AI build tools specifically, see our AI tools for small subscription software guide. For what to do with your tool set, see our pricing guide.
If you're starting today with nothing in place, here's the smallest set of tools that gets you to $1K a month in subscription income — based on what the data shows, not what looks good on paper:
Total monthly cost before any revenue: $9 (just Plausible — everything else has a free version). Total monthly cost at $1K a month in subscription income: roughly $30–$50. This is the tool set that lets you test your idea without needing savings to fall back on.
What Does the Full Tool Set Cost?
One of the most common questions from first-time solo founders is what the tool set actually costs before the first dollar of revenue. The answer: almost nothing. Here's the full monthly cost before any sales:
| Tool | What It Does | $0/mo income | $1K/mo income | $5K/mo income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable / Cursor | Build the product | $20 | $20 | $20 |
| Supabase | Data + signup/login | Free | Free | $25 |
| Lemon Squeezy | Payments + sales tax | Free | ~$50 (5%) | ~$250 (5%) |
| Plausible | Visitor tracking | $9 | $9 | $9 |
| Resend | Automatic emails (welcome, password reset) | Free | Free | $20 |
| Domain + Vercel | Hosting + domain | ~$10 | ~$10 | ~$10 |
| Total monthly tool cost | ~$39 | ~$89 | ~$334 | |
| Share of revenue left after these costs | 96% | 91% | 93% | |
Total fixed monthly cost before your first sale: around $19 a month. Lemon Squeezy's 5% fee only kicks in when you actually charge a customer, so the cost before any revenue can be as low as $9 a month if you use a free hosting plan. That's why the math on a small subscription software business works: you can test the idea and launch with almost no money out of pocket before you know whether anyone will pay.
Once you hit $1K a month, the only tool that usually needs upgrading is Supabase (if you go past the 500MB free limit) and maybe Plausible if traffic climbs. The tool set scales to roughly $5K a month before any single tool becomes a real expense.
How much does it cost to run a small subscription software business per month?
A small subscription software business on the standard solo founder tool set costs about $19–$50 a month in fixed costs at the early stages. The main costs are Plausible ($9 a month), a custom domain (around $10 a year, or about $1 a month), and any paid hosting plan. Lemon Squeezy charges 5% + 50 cents per sale rather than a monthly fee, so payment costs grow with revenue rather than adding fixed overhead. Total tool cost for a product earning $1K a month is usually under $50 a month, leaving 95%+ of revenue after these costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Further reading: AI Tools for Small Subscription Software Businesses.
Further reading: Supabase · Lemon Squeezy