What stack should I use?
Five quick questions about your project. The output is one of the six cheapstack guides, pre-filled in the calculator so you can adjust from there. No email, no signup, no data leaves your browser.
Pick the closest answer for each
The recommendation is deterministic. Same answers always produce the same stack. The reasoning behind each pick is shown in the result, plus a heads-up section if your answers hint at edge cases the chosen guide does not cover.
What are you building?
Pick the closest shape. The recommendation flexes on this more than anything else.
How the recommendation works
Question one (shape) picks the stack family. Landing page or waitlist gets landing-15. Newsletter gets newsletter-25. Marketplace gets marketplace-150. Course or coaching gets course-100. SaaS web apps split on budget and speed: a tight budget or weekend timeline picks mvp-50, anything else picks saas-100.
Questions three, four, and five do not change the stack. They surface caveats in the result, like “Stripe Connect adds 0.25%+$0.25 per payout” if you said marketplace fees, or “production-grade SLAs are hard under $50/mo” if your polish target and budget do not line up.
All six destination guides have prices verified within the current month. See methodology for the full pricing approach.