I start as simple as possible. If I can get by with a landing page using @typeform, I will just do that. For those scenarios, my goto is either a @carrd or @WordPress with a purchased theme (themeforest) and then hosted on @ServerPilot + @digitalocean.
Once I've decided that I need to build something custom, I will start mapping out the MVP functionality. Sometimes functionality will impact architecture decisions, but for the sake of this thread I will focus on the simple (majority of mine) SaaS products.
See my stack below.
See my stack below.
Ruby 2.5 / Rails 5 - I've been developing in Ruby/Rails for close to 10 years now so I know my way around. The time frame isn't a pre-req, but working in something that you are comfortable with is. Rails documentation, community and plugin (gems) ecosystem does that for me.
On the backend I use Postgres for my DB, this is mostly out of comfort. Postgres has some cool things like Full Text Search and JSON column types, but I rarely use these at the start. At this stage the DB is a low cost decision. (See @levelsio Nomad List - $1M+ ARR on SQLite.)
I use a queue in almost all apps (ex: sending emails), for this I use @sidekiq and Redis. Sidekiq integrates beautifully with Rails, takes about 10 minutes to setup and comes with a very powerful UI. The syntax is simple and allows you to do cool things like schedule future jobs.
For file storage, I use S3 with the Carrierwave gem. I remember there being a cheaper S3 solution out there but I can't remember the name. For now this works for me. Most will make the AWS free tier and this will be free.
For authentication, I use the clearance gem. Clearance is lighter weight than devise and will give you login/logout/forgot password functionality in hours. I prefer not to use any external auth APIs (auth0) at this stage.
For transactional emails I am using @sendgrid. With @heroku they offer 12,000 emails a month for free. That's a no brainer. Easy to setup and can have emails working very within hours. For email design, there are a ton of templates out there, here is one. github.com/mailgun/transa…
On the frontend, I use bootstrap and some bootstrap based template. I rarely build a UI from scratch. Partly because I'm not great at it, but mostly because there is no point. I've been meaning to try out @tailwindcss, but until then Bootstrap it is.
I don't stray away from vanilla JS unless I absolutely have to. This means no JS framework, just plain old HTML+CSS+JS. I even still use jQuery. This may be unpopular, but I find JS frameworks to be a PITA and for what I need to do, they are unnecessary (future rant coming).
For hosting I love @heroku. It is simple, cheap enough and it just works. I can have multiple environments, CI/CD pipelines, tons of free addons and when the time comes to scale, it's easy. Yes it can be more expensive as you grow, but it's not prohibitive.
@heroku I am a strong believer of not prematurely optimizing. Why build something for scale that may never need it. Heroku is not great for everything, but for the audience that I am targeting this thread for, it should be enough to start.
@heroku For all of the administrative stuff. I use gsuite for email, namecheap for DNS, mailchimp for marketing emails, google analytics for tracking. Don't reinvent the wheel.
@heroku Software Architecture/Design Considerations: I always start with a monolith. Don't get sucked into the hype. Monoliths are just fine and will only help you move faster. For this reason I stay away from SPAs as they force you to build out an API and fragment your codebase/focus.
@heroku I am a big proponent of testing, but it's not a silver bullet. 100% test coverage is silly and just a vanity metric. Test the parts that are critical to your business - billing, integral business logic, calculations, etc. For testing I use Rspec, and mostly out of comfort.
@heroku I don't want specs to detract from feature development. At the very start, I don't write any tests, but once I see that a project is growing and will need to be maintained, I start to slot in time to write them. As a solo dev, specs act as a QA sanity check and documentation.
@heroku For uptime monitoring I use @HappyAppsIO. It's free for 3 site checks every 5 minutes. I just want to make sure that my homepage is up. There is no need for anything more elaborate.
@heroku @HappyAppsIO For performance monitoring, I like to use the free version of New Relic on Heroku. A lot of the good stuff is restricted ( transaction tracing ), but it at least gives you a good sense of overall performance.
@heroku @HappyAppsIO For logging, I use whatever is free on the Heroku marketplace. Big fan of timber.io but I tend to run out of space on the free tier with my noisy logs. A good backup is LogDNA, which has a larger free tier.
@heroku @HappyAppsIO For payments I only use @stripe . I hold off on building anything custom until I get some traction. For @indicatorbot we just built a wordpress site and hooked up a stripe plugin to handle this. Months later with traction, we are now starting a custom integration.
@heroku @HappyAppsIO @stripe @IndicatorBot Another example is with @huntifyio, where I used @gumroad to sell marketing bundles and have deferred the need to build in anything payment related. Others have done the hard work for you, let them help.
@heroku @HappyAppsIO @stripe @IndicatorBot @huntifyio @gumroad With all of those resources, the total cost comes to be less than $20/month
Mailchimp - Free
AWS - Free Tier
Postgres - Free
Redis - Free
Theme - Free
Sendgrid - Free
Heroku - $7/month
Gsuite - $6/month
Domain - $10/year
Mailchimp - Free
AWS - Free Tier
Postgres - Free
Redis - Free
Theme - Free
Sendgrid - Free
Heroku - $7/month
Gsuite - $6/month
Domain - $10/year
@heroku @HappyAppsIO @stripe @IndicatorBot @huntifyio @gumroad This is the plan I've used to build 20-30 SaaS projects. It's only getting easier and faster to do.
TLDR:
- Start simple
- Don't over-engineer
- Be resourceful and find free products
- Ignore the herds, do what makes sense for you
- Build in comfort zone
TLDR:
- Start simple
- Don't over-engineer
- Be resourceful and find free products
- Ignore the herds, do what makes sense for you
- Build in comfort zone
