one dev · one cheap server · no fluff
Tools that earn their keep when you're the whole team.
Every review here answers one question: if you're a solo developer paying with your own card, is this tool worth a line on your invoice? I run everything I recommend on my own VPS before it gets a page.
- hosting
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean for solo devs
Managed convenience vs raw droplets — which one when you're the only ops person you've got.
- hosting
The best VPS under $10/month in 2026
Where a side project should actually live, including the unglamorous answer.
- hosting
Launch a side project for $0 with DigitalOcean's free credit
The free-credit route from idea to deployed app without spending anything up front.
- ai writing
Writesonic vs Jasper for a one-person business
Both write your marketing copy. Only one price makes sense before you have revenue.
- ai voice
ElevenLabs vs Murf: voice AI for indie apps
Adding text-to-speech to your product vs producing voiceovers — different jobs, different picks.
- marketing
Systeme.io review: the free marketing stack
Email list, landing pages, and funnels on a genuinely free plan — with the catches spelled out.
- seo
Surfer SEO vs Frase for solo bloggers
If you write your own content, one of these pays for itself. The other might not.
- field notes
How I run everything from a $5 VPS
The full stack — hosting, email, analytics, backups — for less than a takeaway coffee habit.
Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you sign up through them, SoloStack earns a commission at no extra cost to you. I only list tools I'd run on my own server. Full disclosure.