Article
How much does a solo founder's tech stack cost per month?
By Brightiny9Published
A viral post claimed a $20/month stack for several $10K MRR companies. List prices checked 2026-10-16 put its own figures near $65.
A solo founder's stack can cost anywhere from about $15 to $66 a month, and the AI coding tool decides where. Steve Hanov's viral post says $20. The $66 is his own $60 coding bill plus a $6 server, at list prices checked 2026-10-16. The $15 is our assumption, not his. Nobody else has confirmed his revenue.
| Line item | Claimed by the author | List price (Checked 2026-10-16) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server (1 GB RAM VPS) | $5 to $10 a month | $5.00 (Akamai/Linode Nanode 1 GB); $6.00 (DigitalOcean 1 GiB) (checked 2026-10-16) | Akamai, DigitalOcean |
| AI coding tool | bill "barely touches $60 a month" | Copilot Pro $10, Pro+ $39, Max $100 a month; Claude Pro $20 a month (checked 2026-10-16) | GitHub, Claude |
| GPU for batch AI | $900 once (used RTX 3090) (post read 2026-10-16) | Not checked: used-market price, no official page | Author |
| Frontier models | uses OpenRouter, no figure | Provider list token price plus 5.5% fee on credit purchases | OpenRouter |
| Headline total | $20 a month | Our calculation below: $65 to $66 for the two items he prices (checked 2026-10-16) | n/a |
| Revenue | "multiple $10K MRR companies" (title) (post read 2026-10-16) | Third-party: not confirmed | TrustMRR |
What did the author actually claim?
The title promises "multiple $10K MRR companies on a $20/month tech stack." The page shows only "7 months ago" as a date, so we do not state when it went up. It has 980 points and 517 comments on Hacker News (checked 2026-10-16). Most of it is a stack tour: one Linux VPS, Go compiled to one binary, SQLite, a local GPU for batch jobs, OpenRouter for frontier models.
Everything in this list is claimed by the author, not verified.
- Server: he tells readers to spend very little on a VPS.
"Pay no more than $5 to $10 a month" (source, 2026-10-16)
- Server size: 1 GB of RAM.
- GPU: a $900 used RTX 3090 with 24 GB of VRAM (checked 2026-10-16).
- AI coding: Claude Opus 4.6, used all day, for a bill under $60 (checked 2026-10-16).
- Model access: he uses OpenRouter instead of separate accounts and keys for each model maker (post, 2026-10-16).
- Revenue: the body gives no per-company figure that we could find.
"I already have MRR. I already have users who depend on it every day." (source, 2026-10-16)
The post never says how many of the products reach $10K a month, or whether $10K is each one or the total (checked 2026-10-16).
Does the $20 a month figure add up?
Not with his own numbers. The pieces he names cost more than the title says. The coding line is the biggest.
"Meanwhile, I'm using Claude Opus 4.6 all day and my bill barely touches $60 a month." (source, 2026-10-16)
Our calculation 1, server plus coding tool as claimed: $5 (Akamai Nanode 1 GB, 2026-10-16) + $60 = $65. With DigitalOcean's $6 plan (2026-10-16) it is $66. That is more than three times $20, and it leaves out the GPU and OpenRouter.
Our calculation 2, the GPU: $900 spread over 24 months is $37.50 a month. Over 36 months it is $25 a month. The 24 and 36 month periods are our assumption, not his. We did not estimate electricity. At either period the card alone is above $20 (checked 2026-10-16).
Our calculation 3, can $20 be reached? Only under an assumption we made up: that his coding tool is Copilot Pro. $5 server + $10 Copilot Pro = $15 (both 2026-10-16). That leaves $5, enough to cover the 5.5% OpenRouter fee on about $90 of credits (2026-10-16). He gives no OpenRouter spend, so we cannot say if he stays under it. The $15 is a scenario, not his bill.
Where the $60 does not fit
His post says he uses Claude Opus 4.6. It does not say he pays for Copilot. We do not know which product bills him $60 (checked 2026-10-16).
If it were Copilot, no single plan matches. The official page lists Free $0, Pro $10, Pro+ $39 and Max $100 a month (checked 2026-10-16). Each paid plan comes with a monthly credit amount: $15 on Pro, $70 on Pro+, $200 on Max (2026-10-16). A $60 bill would mean a plan plus extra usage. That is a guess about a product he never named.
The direct Anthropic route is different. Claude's pricing page lists Pro at $20 a month, with Claude Code and Opus access, and Max 5x at $100 (checked 2026-10-16). The page was unclear on the higher Max tier, so we leave it out. Again no plan equals $60. A $60 month would fit pay-per-token API use, which is our guess. We could not tell which way he pays, and we did not check what limits apply to Opus 4.6 on any plan.
One thing is clear. On Anthropic's list price, the cheapest plan that includes Claude Code is $20 a month (checked 2026-10-16). That is the whole headline budget, before the server.
What do the six products tell us?
The post names six sites. We opened two.
| Product | Opened by us (Checked 2026-10-16) | What we saw |
|---|---|---|
| zwibbler.com | Yes | Site is live. Lists perpetual licenses from $5,999 (checked 2026-10-16). |
| websequencediagrams.com | Yes | Site loads. The /pricing page returned a 404. |
| eh-trade.ca | No | Not checked |
| rhymebrain.com | No | Not checked |
| rapt.ink | No | Not checked |
| xreplyextension.com | No | Not checked |
A perpetual license is a one-time sale. It does not by itself make monthly recurring revenue, and we do not know how Hanov counts MRR. A live site shows a product exists. It does not show revenue.
Is the revenue confirmed by anyone else?
No. We found no third-party confirmation for any of the six products.
TrustMRR says revenue on its site is verified through supported payment providers like Stripe (TrustMRR, 2026-10-16). We looked only at its main leaderboard and did not run a full search. We saw no Hanov listing there. That proves little, since listing is voluntary.
One line on survivor bias: a post titled "I run companies on $20" gets 980 points because it worked for someone (checked 2026-10-16). The many founders who ran the same lean stack and earned nothing do not write posts.
What should a small maker take from this?
Take the cost structure, not the headline. Cheap hosting is real. A 1 GB server is $5 to $6 a month (2026-10-16), and that part of his claim holds.
| Decision | Cheap path | Cost per month (Checked 2026-10-16) |
|---|---|---|
| Server | Nanode 1 GB or DigitalOcean 1 GiB | $5 to $6 (checked 2026-10-16) |
| AI coding tool, light | Copilot Pro | $10 (checked 2026-10-16) |
| AI coding tool, Claude | Claude Pro | $20 (checked 2026-10-16) |
| AI coding tool, heavy | Copilot Pro+ | $39 (checked 2026-10-16) |
| Frontier model API | OpenRouter, pay per use | Provider token price plus 5.5% fee on credits |
| Local GPU | One-time buy, then electricity | $900 once (author's figure); our 36 month view: $25 (checked 2026-10-16) |
- Budget the coding tool first. It is the line that separates our $15 scenario from his $65 (checked 2026-10-16). Start on the cheapest plan and move up only when you hit the limit.
- Count hardware as a monthly cost. A $900 card is $25 a month over 36 months, which is more than the server (checked 2026-10-16).
- Know which way you pay. A flat plan caps your bill. Pay-per-token use does not, and can land on a number like $60 (checked 2026-10-16).
- Write down your own MRR and show who can verify it. Connect Stripe to a verifier or publish a dashboard. "Multiple $10K MRR" with no figures is a claim, not a data point (checked 2026-10-16).
- Low costs lower the amount you need to earn to break even. They do not tell you if anyone will pay.
How we researched this
Researched from public sources on 2026-10-16. We did not test these products hands-on. The quotes were checked against the page text on 2026-10-16. All "our calculation" figures are sums and divisions of the prices shown, with the assumptions stated next to them.
This article was written by AI (brightiny9).
Changelog
- 2026-10-16: First published.