Blocks
Every tool that appears in a build or comparison, grouped by the layer it fills. Each page says what it does, what it suits, what will catch you out, how our builds use it and where the figures come from.
Hosting 6
Where your app runs and how people reach it on the web. Hosts deploy your code and serve it on your domain.
Vercel
Hosting for web apps, built around Next.js.
Good for: Next.js apps, which it runs with no setup
Used in 9 builds, compared in 1
Netlify
Hosting for websites and web apps.
Good for: Static sites and simple web apps on a tight budget
Used in 5 builds, compared in 1
Render
Hosting for web services, workers and databases, priced per instance.
Good for: Simple, fixed prices per instance
compared in 1
Railway
Hosting for backends and workers, billed by the second for what they use.
Good for: Small services with light or uneven use
compared in 1
Fly.io
Runs your app on small virtual machines, billed by the second while they run.
Good for: The lowest price for a small always-on service
compared in 1
Cloudflare
Hosting for static sites and Workers, with free, unlimited static requests.
Good for: Static sites with lots of traffic
compared in 1
Database 5
Where your app keeps its data: users, orders, messages. Most builds use Postgres, the most widely used open-source database.
Supabase
A Postgres database with sign-in, file storage and row-level security in one project.
Good for: Getting a database and sign-in running in one place
Used in 7 builds, compared in 3
Neon
A serverless Postgres database, billed by how much it is used.
Good for: Apps with uneven traffic, where paying by usage beats a fixed plan
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Firebase
Google's app backend: a document database, sign-in, file storage and hosting under one roof.
Good for: Mobile apps that want sign-in and data in one place
compared in 1
Cloudflare R2
Low-cost file storage with no download (egress) fees.
Good for: Lots of files, or files that get downloaded a lot
compared in 1
UploadThing
File uploads for JavaScript and Next.js apps, with storage included.
Good for: Adding uploads to a Next.js app quickly
compared in 1
Sign-in 2
How people sign up and log in, and how your app knows who they are.
Clerk
Sign-in and user management, including organisations for B2B apps.
Good for: B2B apps where customers sign in as a company with several users
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Auth0
Sign-in and user management, free for up to 25,000 monthly active users.
Good for: Apps that need social logins and a large free allowance
compared in 1
Payments 3
How you take money. Either you are the seller (Stripe) or a merchant of record sells for you and handles tax.
Stripe
Card payments, subscriptions and tax tools. You are the seller.
Good for: Subscriptions and one-off payments where you are happy to be the seller
Used in 4 builds, compared in 1
Lemon Squeezy
Sells digital products as merchant of record, so it handles sales tax for you.
Good for: Selling downloads, software or courses without registering for tax abroad
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Paddle
Sells software and digital products as merchant of record.
Good for: Software and SaaS sold internationally
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Email 5
The emails your app sends on its own: confirmations, password resets and receipts.
Resend
Sends app emails, such as confirmations and receipts, from your own domain.
Good for: Early apps: the free plan covers 3,000 emails a month
Used in 4 builds, compared in 1
Postmark
Sends app emails, with a paid plan sized for growing apps.
Good for: Apps that have outgrown free email plans
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Brevo
Email marketing, app emails and SMS, priced by how many emails you send.
Good for: Big lists you email now and then
compared in 1
Loops
Email for software products: newsletters, product updates and app emails in one place.
Good for: Onboarding and product-update emails for an app
compared in 1
Mailchimp
The best-known email marketing tool, priced by how many contacts you have.
Good for: People who want lots of templates and guides
compared in 1
AI models 3
AI models your app calls while it runs, paid for by how much text they read and write.
OpenAI API
OpenAI's models, called from your server while the app runs.
Good for: Chatbots and AI features inside your own app
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Claude API
Anthropic's Claude models, called from your server while the app runs.
Good for: Running several AI agents together on coding or research tasks
Used in 1 build, compared in 1
Gemini API
Google's Gemini models, called from your server while the app runs.
Good for: Testing an AI feature for free before you pay
compared in 1
App builders 7
Tools that build the app for you or package it, from AI app builders to mobile build services.
Bolt
An AI app builder that builds and hosts web apps from your prompts.
Good for: Trying an AI builder for free, with hosting included
compared in 1
Replit
Build and publish apps in the browser, with an AI agent that writes code.
Good for: A paid plan from $20 a month ($18 billed annually), with $20 of credits
compared in 1
Lovable
An AI app builder that turns a prompt into a first working version.
Good for: Getting a first version on screen quickly
Used in 3 builds, compared in 1
Expo
Builds iOS and Android apps from one codebase, with a hosted build service (EAS).
Good for: One app for both iPhone and Android
Used in 1 build
Cursor
A code editor built around AI, now sold through The X Subscription.
Good for: Writing and changing code with AI in a full editor
compared in 1
Claude Code
Anthropic's coding agent for your terminal and editor, included with paid Claude plans.
Good for: Working through bigger changes across a whole project
compared in 1
GitHub Copilot
AI help inside the editor you already use, from GitHub.
Good for: Staying in the editor you already know
compared in 1
Monitoring and security 7
Checks that keep the app safe and healthy: code review, secret scanning and dependency alerts.
GitHub
Hosts your code; used here for secret and dependency checks.
Good for: Keeping your code safe and versioned
Used in 1 build
CodeRabbit
AI code review on pull requests.
Good for: Solo builders with no one else to review their code
Used in 1 build
PostHog
Product analytics, session recordings, feature flags and error tracking in one tool.
Good for: Understanding how people use your product, not just how many visit
compared in 1
Plausible
Simple, privacy-friendly website analytics on one clean dashboard.
Good for: Marketing sites, blogs and landing pages
compared in 1
Umami
Lightweight, privacy-focused analytics you can use in the cloud or host yourself.
Good for: Side projects that want free, simple stats
compared in 1
Sentry
Error and performance monitoring that shows exactly where your code broke.
Good for: Finding bugs your users hit but never report
compared in 1
Better Stack
Uptime checks, status pages, on-call alerts, logs and error tracking in one place.
Good for: Knowing your site is down before your users tell you
compared in 1