Launch Your Vibe Coded Project for Under $10/Month in 2026
Complete guide to deploying AI-generated projects on a budget. Use free tiers from Vercel, Neon, Better Auth, Resend, and more to launch your vibe-coded MVP for nearly free.
The Reality: You can launch a production-ready vibe-coded project for $0-10/month using battle-tested services. Here's your complete cost breakdown and setup guide.
The Cost-Efficient Stack (2026 Edition)
This isn't about cutting corners—it's about smart architecture. These free tiers are designed for exactly your use case: launching MVPs and indie projects.
💰 Total Monthly Cost Breakdown
For a typical vibe-coded SaaS MVP
Hosting (Vercel)
Hobby tier - 100GB bandwidth, unlimited deployments
$0
Database (Neon PostgreSQL)
Free tier - 0.5GB storage, autosuspend after 5 min idle
$0
Auth (Better Auth)
Open source - unlimited users
$0
Email (Resend)
Free tier - 100 emails/day, 3,000/month
$0
OAuth (Google & GitHub)
Both free for standard OAuth
$0
Payments (Stripe)
No monthly fee - 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
$0
File Storage (Vercel Blob)
Free tier - 1GB storage
$0
Total Monthly Cost
Scales to 100s of users before you pay anything
$0/mo
Deep Dive: Each Service Explained
1. Vercel Hosting (FREE)
Why Vercel? Built by the Next.js team, it's literally designed for your stack.
Hobby Tier Includes:
- ✅ 100GB bandwidth/month - enough for 10,000+ page views
- ✅ Unlimited deployments - deploy 50 times a day if you want
- ✅ Automatic HTTPS - free SSL certificates
- ✅ Edge network - fast worldwide
- ✅ Preview deployments - every git push gets a URL
- ✅ Analytics - basic web vitals tracking
When you'll need to upgrade: When you exceed 100GB bandwidth (~$20/month for Pro tier with 1TB)
2. Neon PostgreSQL (FREE)
Why Neon? Serverless PostgreSQL with insane features for free.
Free Tier Includes:
- ✅ 0.5GB storage - good for 10,000+ user accounts with data
- ✅ Autosuspend after 5 min idle - near-instant cold starts (300ms)
- ✅ Branching - create database copies for testing
- ✅ Point-in-time restore - 7 days of history
- ✅ Connection pooling - works perfectly with serverless
Pro Tip: Use Prisma Accelerate (free tier: 100K requests/month) for even better connection pooling and global caching.
When you'll need to upgrade: When you exceed 0.5GB storage (~$19/month for Launch tier with 10GB)
3. Better Auth (FREE Forever)
Why Better Auth? Open source, no usage limits, better DX than NextAuth.
What You Get:
- ✅ Unlimited users - no caps, ever
- ✅ Email/password auth - built-in
- ✅ OAuth providers - Google, GitHub, 50+ more
- ✅ Session management - secure by default
- ✅ TypeScript-first - perfect for vibe coding
- ✅ No vendor lock-in - you own the code
Comparison:
- • Auth0: Free up to 7,000 users, then $35/month
- • Clerk: Free up to 10,000 users, then $25/month
- • Better Auth: FREE UNLIMITED ✨
4. Resend Email (FREE)
Why Resend? Developer-friendly, amazing deliverability, generous free tier.
Free Tier Includes:
- ✅ 100 emails/day - 3,000/month
- ✅ Custom domain - send from @yourdomain.com
- ✅ React email templates - design emails in React
- ✅ Analytics - delivery, opens, clicks
- ✅ No credit card required
Real-world usage: 100 emails/day covers:
- • 100 signups per day with welcome emails
- • OR 50 signups + 50 transactional emails
- • OR password resets, notifications, etc.
When you'll need to upgrade: At 3,000+ emails/month ($20/month for 50K emails)
5. Stripe Payments (PAY-AS-YOU-GO)
Why Stripe? Industry standard, zero monthly fees, incredible docs.
Pricing:
- ✅ $0/month fixed cost - only pay when you make money
- ✅ 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (standard US pricing)
- ✅ Full feature access - subscriptions, one-time, etc.
- ✅ Built-in fraud prevention
- ✅ Stripe Checkout - pre-built payment UI
Example costs:
- • Sell $49.99 product → You pay $1.75 (3.5%)
- • Sell $99.99 product → You pay $3.20 (3.2%)
- • Make $1,000 in sales → You pay ~$32
6. Vercel Blob Storage (FREE)
Why Vercel Blob? Seamless integration with your Vercel app.
Free Tier Includes:
- ✅ 1GB storage - ~1,000 profile images
- ✅ Edge-optimized delivery
- ✅ Simple API - upload in 3 lines of code
Alternative: Cloudflare R2 also has generous free tier (10GB storage, no egress fees)
The Complete Free Stack Setup
Here's exactly how to set up this entire stack in under 30 minutes:
Step 1: Create Your Accounts (10 min)
- 1. Vercel: Sign up with GitHub at vercel.com
- 2. Neon: Free account at neon.tech (no credit card)
- 3. Resend: Sign up at resend.com (no credit card)
- 4. Stripe: Create account at stripe.com
- 5. Google Cloud Console: For OAuth (console.cloud.google.com)
- 6. GitHub OAuth: Register app in github.com/settings/developers
Step 2: Generate Your Project (5 min)
# Let Cursor/Claude generate the project
"Create a Next.js 14 app with:
- Prisma + Neon PostgreSQL
- Better Auth with Google & GitHub OAuth
- Stripe payments
- Resend emails
- Tailwind CSS
- TypeScript"Step 3: Configure Environment Variables (5 min)
# .env
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..." # From Neon
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="..." # Generate with: openssl rand -base64 32
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID="..." # From Google Cloud Console
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET="..."
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID="..." # From GitHub OAuth Apps
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET="..."
RESEND_API_KEY="..." # From Resend dashboard
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY="..." # From Stripe dashboard
NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY="..."Step 4: Deploy to Vercel (5 min)
# Push to GitHub
git init && git add . && git commit -m "Initial commit"
gh repo create my-app --public --source=. --push
# Deploy on Vercel
# 1. Import GitHub repo on vercel.com
# 2. Add environment variables
# 3. Deploy → Live in 2 minutes!When You'll Need to Pay
Here's what happens as you grow:
| Users/Traffic | What Hits Limits | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 0-500 users | Nothing | $0 |
| 500-2,000 users | Potentially emails (3K/mo limit) | $0-20 |
| 2,000-5,000 users | Database storage (0.5GB) or bandwidth (100GB) | $19-39 |
| 5,000+ users | Multiple services upgrade | $50-100 |
Cost Comparison: This Stack vs Alternatives
❌ Traditional / Popular Paid Stack
- • Heroku: $7/month
- • Heroku Postgres: $9/month
- • SendGrid: $15/month (40K emails)
- • Auth0: $35/month (7,000 users)
- • S3 + CloudFront: $5/month
- Supabase (popular all-in-one):
- • Supabase Pro: $25/month (DB + Auth + Storage)
- • Custom domain on Supabase: $10/month flat (per project)
- • Production compute (e.g. Large): +$100/month → ~$125 total
- Free tier pauses after 1 week inactivity; 500MB DB, 5GB egress
Total: $71–125+/month
Supabase Pro + custom domain alone = $35/month minimum. Custom domains are a flat $10/month per project (not free).
✅ This Free Stack
- • Vercel: $0
- • Neon PostgreSQL: $0
- • Resend: $0
- • Better Auth: $0
- • Vercel Blob: $0
Total: $0/month 🎉
Real-World Examples
📱 SaaS Tool (500 users)
User dashboard, auth, payment processing, email notifications
Monthly active users:
500
Bandwidth used:
~40GB/month
Database size:
0.3GB
Monthly cost:
$0
🛒 E-commerce Store (200 orders/month)
Product catalog, checkout, order management, customer emails
Monthly orders:
200
Stripe fees:
$640 on $20K sales
Infrastructure:
Still on free tiers!
Fixed monthly cost:
$0
Pro Tips for Staying on Free Tiers Longer
1. Optimize Database Queries
Use Prisma's query optimization, add proper indexes, avoid N+1 queries. This keeps your database small and fast.
2. Implement Smart Caching
Use Next.js ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) to cache pages. Reduces bandwidth and database queries dramatically.
3. Compress Images
Use Next.js Image component for automatic optimization. A 2MB image becomes 50KB → 40x bandwidth savings!
4. Batch Emails Wisely
Send digest emails instead of individual notifications. 1 daily summary email vs 10 separate ones = 10x less email usage.
5. Monitor Your Usage
Check dashboards weekly. Vercel, Neon, and Resend all show usage. Catch issues before you hit limits.
What About Domain Names?
The only unavoidable cost (but it's tiny):
- • Domain (.com): $12/year (~$1/month) from Namecheap or Cloudflare
- • Custom domain on Vercel: FREE (automatic SSL included)
- • Email on custom domain: FREE with Resend
Total unavoidable cost: ~$1/month for a professional domain.
The Bottom Line: Math That Makes Sense
Total Launch Cost Breakdown
You can launch a production-grade SaaS for the price of a coffee per month. No excuses. Just ship.
Need Help Setting This Up?
We'll configure your entire free stack, deploy your vibe-coded project, and get you live in days—not weeks.
Get Professional Setup HelpConclusion: Budget Isn't Your Bottleneck Anymore
In 2026, lack of budget is no longer a valid excuse for not launching. The tools exist. The free tiers are generous. The infrastructure is battle-tested.
Every day you don't ship is a day you're not learning from real users. Launch on this free stack, validate your idea, and upgrade only when you're making money.
The barrier to entry is zero. The only question is: will you ship?
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