# Indie SaaS

> Claude is the pair, Figma is the design surface, Vercel is the deploy target. End-to-end indie SaaS from idea to billing in a weekend.

Source: https://aistack.sh/stack/indie-saas
Category: Code · Builder
Level: Advanced
Last verified by a human: 2026-05-05

## The tools

### Claude — Pair programmer

- Pricing: Free · $20/mo Pro · $100/mo Max 5x · $200/mo Max 20x · Sonnet API $2/$10 per M tokens (input/output)
- Site: https://claude.ai
- Why this one: Long context + best code edits. Use a project per repo with the codebase as context.
- Swap in instead: ChatGPT
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/claude

### ChatGPT — Quick lookups + voice

- Pricing: Free · $8/mo Go · $20/mo Plus · $100/mo Pro 5x · $200/mo Pro 20x · $25/user/mo Business
- Site: https://chatgpt.com
- Why this one: Faster for one-off questions; better voice mode for thinking-out-loud sessions.
- Swap in instead: Claude
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/chatgpt

### Figma — UI sketching

- Pricing: Free · Pro from $12-$20 per seat/mo (seat-based)
- Site: https://figma.com
- Why this one: AI plugins draft from text; you only have to refine.
- Swap in instead: Canva
- More: https://aistack.sh/tool/figma

## Monthly cost

### $40/mo — Weekend MVP (small)

- Claude: $20
- ChatGPT: $20
- Figma: Free

### $75/mo — Side project (medium)

- Claude: $20
- ChatGPT: $20
- Figma: $15
- + infra: $20

### $220/mo — Full-time founder (heavy)

- Claude: $80 API
- ChatGPT: $20
- Figma: $15
- + infra: $105

## Workflow

### 1. Sketch UI (Figma)

Figma + AI plugin: text to wireframe. 30 minutes of cleanup.

### 2. Scaffold (Claude)

Claude in IDE: scaffold the full stack from the wireframe.

**Prompt: Project scaffold prompt**

```
Scaffold a production-ready Next.js (App Router) project for the following product:

Product: {{1-line description}}
Core jobs the user does: {{list 3 to 5}}
Auth: {{Clerk | Auth.js | none}}
DB: {{Postgres (Neon) | SQLite | Supabase}}
Payments: {{Stripe Checkout | Lemon Squeezy | none}}
Hosting target: Vercel

Generate, in this order:
1. `package.json` with pinned versions for the latest stable Next, React, Tailwind v4, Drizzle (or chosen ORM), and the auth/payment SDKs.
2. File tree (no code yet) with `app/`, `lib/`, `db/`, `components/`. Note which routes are public vs protected.
3. `db/schema.ts` with the minimum tables to support the core jobs above.
4. The first 2 routes end-to-end (page.tsx + server action + DB call).
5. A `README.md` with setup, env vars, and `npm run dev` instructions.

Constraints: no class components, no `getServerSideProps`, no axios. Server components by default. Tailwind utility classes inline. Single source of truth per concept (no parallel "old" and "new" patterns).
```

### 3. Iterate live (ChatGPT)

Voice mode in ChatGPT for thinking-out-loud while debugging.

### 4. Ship (Claude)

Deploy to Vercel. First sale before bedtime.

## What it produced

**Indie hacker, 2 days, $300 MRR by month 2**

Niche SaaS for property inspectors. ~$40/mo tooling cost; the rest is hosting + Stripe.

## Pitfalls

- **AI-shaped slop UI** — Default Tailwind + shadcn looks generic; spend a half day on type scale + spacing.
- **Skipping the 'why this'** — Founders ship the MVP and forget the landing page. Write the page first, the product second.

## Other ways to do this

- [Indie SaaS (Gemini long-context)](https://aistack.sh/stack/indie-saas-gemini): Whole-codebase pair programming. Paste the repo, get architectural diffs back. — $75/mo

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Curated by alex-w on aistack.sh. Last updated 2026-05-05.