Best Tech Stack for a SaaS MVP
What I actually use to ship production SaaS in weeks
After building BookBed (multi-tenant booking SaaS), Callidus (clinic management), and Pizzeria Bestek (real-time ordering), I keep landing on the same core stack. Not because it's trendy — because it ships fast, handles production load, and doesn't require a DevOps team to maintain.
React framework with built-in routing, SSR, and API routes
App Router gives you server components, API routes, and static generation in one package. The mental overhead of a separate frontend + backend disappears. For a solo founder or a small team, that's a meaningful speed advantage.
Postgres + Auth + Storage + Realtime in one platform
Row-Level Security lets you build multi-tenant data isolation in SQL — no application-layer tenant checks scattered across your codebase. Realtime subscriptions handle live dashboards without a separate WebSocket server. The free tier is generous enough to validate before you pay anything.
Subscription billing, one-time payments, webhooks
Stripe's API is verbose but predictable. The webhook system for handling subscription lifecycle events (trial_end, invoice.paid, subscription.deleted) is the right mental model — you react to events rather than polling. Stripe's hosted checkout handles PCI compliance so you don't have to.
Developer-first email API with React template support
Sendgrid and Postmark are fine. Resend is just easier — React Email templates, clean SDK, solid deliverability out of the box. For a new SaaS that needs welcome emails, password resets, and billing notifications, it handles all three without configuration pain.
Zero-config Next.js deployment with edge functions
For a Next.js SaaS, Vercel removes the deployment problem entirely. Preview deployments on every PR, automatic scaling, edge middleware for auth. The free tier covers most early-stage traffic. Move to their Pro plan or self-host on Railway/Fly when the bill starts to sting.
Typed JavaScript — catch errors at compile time, not in production
Non-negotiable on any production codebase you intend to hand off. The time you spend writing types is paid back immediately when you refactor a data model at month 3. If you're building alone and plan to hire, TypeScript is the difference between a codebase people want to work in and one they're afraid to touch.
If I were starting a SaaS MVP today: Next.js + Supabase + Stripe + Resend + Vercel. This stack ships production-grade multi-tenant software without a dedicated DevOps hire. The only swap I'd consider is Firebase if the product is mobile-first — but for web-first SaaS, Supabase's RLS is a more natural fit than Firestore's client-side security rules.