I run two SaaS products — DocAPI (an HTML-to-PDF API for developers and AI agents) and FarmPosts (AI content for agricultural businesses) — and I spend $69/month on AI tools total. This is the honest breakdown of every tool in my stack, what I actually use it for, and what I dropped.
Not a sponsored list. Just what's on my credit card and whether it earns its place — the real AI tools for indie hackers picture.
Coding tools
Claude Pro — $20/month
Claude is my primary coding assistant. I use it for architecture decisions, debugging, writing tests, and drafting content. For DocAPI, Claude helped me design the USDC billing flow and the self-registration endpoint — I paste the entire codebase into context and ask it to extend a feature. For FarmPosts, I use it to write and refine the AI content generation prompts.
Monthly cost: $20 Verdict: Non-negotiable. If I had to keep one subscription, it's this one.
Cursor — $20/month
Cursor is VS Code with AI deeply integrated — tab-complete that understands your whole project, a chat sidebar that can read and edit files, and multi-file edits from a single prompt. When I'm refactoring the DocAPI webhook handler, Cursor already knows how it connects to the PDF rendering queue and billing logic. That project-wide context is what separates it from basic autocomplete.
Monthly cost: $20 Verdict: Worth it. Once you're used to project-wide AI context, going back feels like coding with one hand.
GitHub Copilot — not using it
I dropped Copilot after one month. At $10/month, it's a redundant subscription if you're already in Cursor. Copilot's autocomplete is good inside VS Code, but Cursor does everything Copilot does plus the multi-file reasoning that actually saves hours. If you're locked into VS Code for team reasons, Copilot makes sense. If you control your own toolchain, it doesn't.
Monthly cost: $0 (cancelled) Verdict: Not worth it if you have Cursor. Pick one.
Hosting and infrastructure
Vercel — $20/month (Pro)
Both DocAPI and FarmPosts run on Vercel. The free tier is generous enough to get to first revenue — no-cost deployments, preview URLs on every pull request, edge functions. I upgraded to Pro for more build minutes and log retention. I've never waited more than 45 seconds for a deployment to go live.
Monthly cost: $20 (was $0 until first paying customers) Verdict: The best dollars-per-hour-saved in the stack.
Supabase — $0/month (free tier)
Database, auth, and file storage for both products. The free tier gives 500MB database, 1GB file storage, and 50,000 monthly active users — more than enough for early-stage. Postgres under the hood means no proprietary query language, and row-level security is genuinely useful for DocAPI's multi-tenant setup.
Monthly cost: $0 (free tier) Verdict: Use the free tier until you outgrow it. You probably won't for a while.
Marketing and content
Claude for writing — included in Pro
The same $20/month covers all my content work. LinkedIn drafts, email sequences for FarmPosts customers, the DocAPI docs — all of it starts in Claude. I write a bullet-point brief, get a first draft, then edit heavily. The editing is where the writing gets good. Claude gives me something to react to instead of a blank page.
Monthly cost: $0 additional (covered by Claude Pro)
Canva — $0/month (free tier)
Social graphics for FarmPosts content previews and DocAPI launch posts. I use the free tier. It's enough. The AI image generation in Canva Pro isn't compelling enough to pay for when the free tier handles basic graphic templates.
Monthly cost: $0 Verdict: Free tier is sufficient for a solo founder's social media needs.
Operations and automation
Make (formerly Integromat) — $9/month
Make handles cross-tool automation: new DocAPI signups trigger a welcome sequence, failed FarmPosts jobs alert me on Slack, and support tickets route to the right queue. The visual builder is easier to maintain solo than custom code.
Monthly cost: $9 Verdict: Worth it. Zapier does the same thing at twice the price.
Customer support
Plain — $0/month (free tier)
Plain is support chat built for developers — clean API, GitHub integration, Slack-style interface. I use it for DocAPI support; most questions are API-related, and Plain handles code snippets well.
Monthly cost: $0 (free tier) Verdict: The best free support tool for a developer-facing product.
The total
| Tool | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Claude Pro | $20 |
| Cursor | $20 |
| Vercel Pro | $20 |
| Make | $9 |
| Supabase | $0 |
| Canva | $0 |
| Plain | $0 |
| Total | $69/month |
I built two SaaS products on $69/month of tooling. The two that matter most — Claude and Cursor — are $40 combined. Everything else is either free or sub-$10.
What I'd tell a new solo founder
Buy Claude Pro on day one. Add Cursor within the first week. Put everything else on free tiers until you have revenue that justifies upgrading.
The mistake I see is spending $200/month on tools before validating that anyone wants what you're building. The AI stack for an indie hacker doesn't need to be expensive — it needs to be fast. Same principle as shipping before you're ready: get signal from real users before optimizing infrastructure. If you want the bigger picture on why I build this way, the CS degree vs. indie hacking post covers the career reasoning. And if you want the full strategy for how to build an AI product from scratch — not just the tools, but the problem selection, pricing, and distribution — the complete indie hacker AI product guide puts it all together.
FAQ
What AI tools do indie hackers actually use? Most solo founders use Claude or ChatGPT for coding and writing ($20/month), Cursor as an AI-powered IDE ($20/month), Vercel for hosting (free to $20/month), and Supabase for the database (free tier). Total AI tooling spend for a two-product indie hacker is typically $70-100/month.
Is Claude or ChatGPT better for indie hackers? Claude is better for coding and long-context tasks like reading an entire codebase or writing detailed documentation. ChatGPT has broader integrations. Most indie hackers who use both end up keeping only Claude — the quality gap for code generation and writing is real.
How much do AI tools cost for a solo founder? Running two SaaS products with a full AI stack costs roughly $69-90/month: Claude Pro ($20), Cursor ($20), Vercel Pro ($20), Supabase free tier ($0), and smaller tools for automation and support. GitHub Copilot ($10/month) is redundant if you're already using Cursor.
What AI tools are not worth it for indie hackers? GitHub Copilot is not worth $10/month if you already use Cursor. Cursor's AI completions are better integrated and context-aware. Copilot makes sense if you're locked into VS Code for team reasons, but for a solo founder with full control of their toolchain, it's a redundant subscription.
Can you build a SaaS with AI tools on a tight budget? Yes. DocAPI and FarmPosts were both built on under $100/month of AI tooling. The free tiers on Supabase and Vercel handle early-stage traffic. The two paid tools that matter most are Claude Pro and Cursor — together $40/month — which cover the majority of coding, writing, and research.