SaaS MVP (login + payments + database)
Start in Lovable so login, database and hosting come built in, charge with Stripe from day one, then export to GitHub and move onto Claude Code + Supabase + Vercel once real customers depend on it.
Who it's for: Solo founders and non-technical builders who want a paid web app (sign-up, a core feature, a subscription) live this week.
Prices last verified
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Day one 0–10 (you + testers)
$25.87/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ai builder | Pro (100 credits/mo) | $25.00 | Fastest route from idea to a working app with login and data. Pro adds custom domains and lets you edit/download the code. Cost note$25/mo monthly, or $250/yr (~$21/mo). Top-ups cost $15 per 50 credits. Price from Lovable's official docs page; lovable.dev/pricing loads prices with JavaScript and wouldn't fetch. | |
| backend | Included monthly Cloud grant | $0.00 | Lovable sets up the database, login and hosting from chat. No second dashboard to learn. Cost noteAssumes usage stays inside the free monthly Cloud credit grant (20 Cloud credits/mo per the docs). Anything above that bills against your credits. Check Usage in Lovable. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| Free | $0.00 | Simple API for transactional email (sign-up, password reset, receipts). Good docs that AI agents get right. Cost note3,000 emails/mo, capped at 100/day. | ||
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | Product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one tool, with a generous free tier. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $25.87 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- You're buying more than ~2 credit top-ups a month ($15 per 50 credits). Your build loop is outgrowing chat.
- Chat edits keep breaking features that already worked. Time to sync to GitHub and add a coding agent.
First users ~100
$45.87/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ai builder | Pro (100 credits/mo) | $25.00 | Keep using it for UI and new screens while the product changes fast. Cost note$25/mo monthly, or $250/yr (~$21/mo). Top-ups cost $15 per 50 credits. Price from Lovable's official docs page; lovable.dev/pricing loads prices with JavaScript and wouldn't fetch. | |
| coding agent | Claude Pro | $20.00 | Fixes bugs and writes tests on the GitHub-synced code where chat edits keep failing. Cost note$20/mo monthly or $17/mo billed annually. Claude Code is included in Pro. Heavy daily use may need Max (from $100/mo). | |
| backend | Included monthly Cloud grant | $0.00 | Lovable sets up the database, login and hosting from chat. No second dashboard to learn. Cost noteAssumes usage stays inside the free monthly Cloud credit grant (20 Cloud credits/mo per the docs). Anything above that bills against your credits. Check Usage in Lovable. | |
| code hosting | Free | $0.00 | Owns your code outside any AI builder. Needed for exporting, Cloudflare/Vercel deploys and Claude Code. Cost noteFree plan: unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/mo. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| Free | $0.00 | Simple API for transactional email (sign-up, password reset, receipts). Good docs that AI agents get right. Cost note3,000 emails/mo, capped at 100/day. | ||
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | Product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one tool, with a generous free tier. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $45.87 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- Lovable Cloud usage regularly goes past the monthly grant.
- You need daily backups, a staging environment, or direct SQL access for support work.
- Paying customers make downtime expensive. Move the code into a repo you deploy yourself.
Scale ~1,000
$85.87/mo| Category | Tool | Plan | $/mo | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coding agent | Claude Pro | $20.00 | Main builder now. Works on the real codebase with tests and reviews. Cost note$20/mo monthly or $17/mo billed annually. Claude Code is included in Pro. Heavy daily use may need Max (from $100/mo). | |
| code hosting | Free | $0.00 | Owns your code outside any AI builder. Needed for exporting, Cloudflare/Vercel deploys and Claude Code. Cost noteFree plan: unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/mo. | |
| database auth | Pro | $25.00 | Postgres + auth + storage with daily backups, and no pausing. Covers 1,000 users with lots of headroom. Cost note$25/mo includes a $10 compute credit that covers the Micro instance, 100k MAU, 8GB disk, 250GB egress and 100GB storage. A bigger instance adds cost (Small +$15/mo, Medium +$60/mo). | |
| hosting | Pro (1 seat) | $20.00 | Smooth hosting for the Next.js/React app the export becomes. Pro is required for commercial use. Cost note$20/mo per developer seat. Includes $20 of usage credit, 1TB transfer and 10M CDN requests. Assumes 1 seat and usage within the included credit. | |
| payments | Pay-as-you-go | $0.00 | Industry-standard checkout and subscriptions. Every AI builder and coding agent knows it well. Cost noteNo monthly fee. Takes 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card charge, +1% for international cards, and $15 per dispute. Not included in the totals because it scales with revenue. You handle sales tax/VAT yourself (or use a merchant of record, see alternatives). | |
| Pro (50k emails) | $20.00 | The 100/day cap on Free becomes a real limit once you have hundreds of active users. Cost noteAssumes ~1,000 users × ~10 transactional emails/mo ≈ 10k emails. That's over Free's 3,000/mo and 100/day, and well inside Pro's 50k. | ||
| analytics | Free tier (pay-as-you-go beyond) | $0.00 | Product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one tool, with a generous free tier. Cost noteFree each month: 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K exceptions. Assumes you stay under these (about 1,000 users × ≤500 events/mo). | |
| errors | Developer (free) | $0.00 | Get alerted to crashes before users email you. Cost noteFree for 1 user and 50k errors/mo. Team plan is $26/mo when a second person needs access. | |
| domain | .com at cost | $0.87 | At-cost renewals, DNS and hosting in one dashboard. Cost note~$10.46/yr .com amortized monthly. Price seen on a third-party price tracker (domainoffer.net), not Cloudflare's page; Cloudflare doesn't publish a per-TLD list publicly. Check your renewal price in the Cloudflare dashboard. | |
| Split total | $85.87 | Excludes: Transaction fees (Stripe/MoR % of revenue), any one-time fees, and usage above stated assumptions. | ||
Switch when…
- Database CPU stays high. Upgrade Supabase compute (Small adds $15/mo).
- A second developer joins: +$20/mo Vercel seat, Sentry Team $26/mo.
- International sales and VAT paperwork take real time. Consider a merchant of record (Polar or Lemon Squeezy).
Alternatives
Bolt Pro aff. program
$25.00/mo · pricing source ↗
Beginner-friendly alternative to Lovable. Comparable $25 plan with built-in hosting and a custom domain. Pick whichever chat UI you prefer.
Polar (merchant of record)
$0.00/mo · pricing source ↗
Instead of Stripe if you'd rather not handle global sales tax yourself. Starter costs 5% + 50¢ per transaction (+1.5% international); Pro is $20/mo at 3.8% + 40¢.
Cloudflare Workers Paid
$5.00/mo · pricing source ↗
Cheaper hosting than Vercel Pro at Scale ($5/mo minimum, 10M requests included) if you're comfortable with a bit more Next.js setup.
All prices are in USD, billed monthly unless noted, and come from each tool's official pricing page as of October 17, 2026. Usage-based costs use the assumptions in each cost note. Some links are affiliate links (marked affiliate: true). StackSpeedrun may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Picks are based on fit, not payout, and every affiliate link must be clearly disclosed on the page where it appears.