One opinionated list — what we reach for by default across live products that take real money from real customers. Not reviews, not it-depends. Start on something proven and go build.
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The fastest way we've found to go from a prompt to a real, working app you can click through — front end, and enough of the back end to feel real. We use it to scaffold the 90% fast, then a senior dev hardens the custom 10%. If you're non-technical and want to see your idea running this week, this is where we'd start you.
Try Lovable →Postgres, auth, storage and auto APIs in one managed platform — most of the "90%" you should never hand-build. Relational from day one, so it fits real products (bookings, payments, multi-user).
supabase.com →Payments, subscriptions, order bumps, refunds, tax, hosted checkout. Nothing else has ever been on the list. Your webhook is the thing your whole business keys off: they pay, Stripe tells your server, your server grants access.
stripe.com →Pages for the site, Workers for anything with logic, KV for small fast state, cron for scheduled work. Cheap to free, no egress fees, git-deploy built in.
cloudflare.com →Transactional and broadcast email that's three lines of code, not a drag-and-drop marketing suite. Your list belongs in your own database next to everything else you know about the customer.
resend.com →For the one job Cloudflare is the wrong shape for — a long-running process or something that needs a GPU nearby. A Docker container close to your data. The exception, not the rule.
fly.io →The Stack Guide is the whole thing — every default, every "where we broke it," and the tools we refuse to use and why. It comes with the book.
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