How much it costs me to run my SaaS's in 2024

Summary

In this video, tech founder and Senior Software Engineer Anthony shares an in-depth breakdown of the costs associated with running a tech startup. He discusses two of his ventures, an Esports startup and a new influencer marketing platform, detailing monthly expenses such as AWS, Heroku, Versal, and other tools. Anthony emphasizes the importance of optimizing costs, recommends alternatives to AWS, and shares insights on managing overages and selecting the right tech stack. His goal is to inform and guide those curious about the financial aspects of tech startups.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker, Anthony, is a tech founder and Senior Software Engineer who shares insights on the cost of running tech startups.
• 💻 Anthony has experience with two tech startups, one an Esports startup and another a platform for marketers to find influencers.
• 💰 The older Esports startup has reduced its AWS costs from $600-$700 to $250 a month by moving services off AWS, with the remaining cost for an RDS Postgres database.
• 🔧 Heroku is used for backend services and costs around $82 a month for the Esports startup.
• 📊 Versal is used for analytics and costs around $20 per person plus $10 for additional analytics, but has caused unexpected high costs due to overages.
• 🕊️ Upstash is used for caching and costs around $100 a month, helping to manage intensive data aggregation.
• 📝 Better Stack Logs is used for logging and costs $85 a month, offering great support which Anthony highly recommends.
• 🌐 Cloudflare is recommended for domain hosting and DNS, with a Pro Plan costing $20 a month.
• 🚀 For the newer startup, Anthony avoids AWS, using a simple Heroku runner for $10 a month and Verso for $20 a month.
• 🎨 Figma is used for UX designs and is praised for its generous free tier, suitable for extensive design work.
• 🔗 Superbase is used for the new startup's database needs, with costs varying based on the number of records.
• 📈 PostHog is suggested for logging and feature flagging, with a generous free tier suitable for many startups.
• 🛒 Stripe is used for payment processing with fees based on a percentage of transactions, beneficial for businesses with frequent payments.
• 📈 The total monthly cost to run the Esports startup is $600, which Anthony considers reasonable for the scale of the application.
• 💡 Anthony emphasizes the importance of using free tiers and the right tools to keep startup costs low, highlighting the benefits of being a programmer and understanding industry tools.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Anthony's first tech startup?

Anthony's first tech startup is an Esports startup focused on the game Valorant, where they cover all the matches and provide services to professional teams, including analyzing a large number of series played within the Valorant scene.

How many Heroku instances does Anthony's startup use and what is the cost?

Anthony's startup uses around four or five Heroku instances to handle various different backend tasks, such as getting data from different sources and running Discord bots. The cost for Heroku instances is approximately $82 a month.

What is the main issue Anthony faced with Versal's billing system?

Anthony faced significant overages with Versal's billing system when his site was DDoSed, causing the backend to crash and the frontend to hang, which resulted in excessive serverless function running times. This led to extra charges of $400 in one month and $600 in another due to exceeding the free limit of GB hours.

What is the role of Upstash in Anthony's startup?

Upstash is used for caching in Anthony's startup. It caches the most popular pages over the last 30 days to reduce the intense data aggregation on the backend that would otherwise be required to constantly pull data for viewers.

How much does Better Stack Logs cost for Anthony's startup and what do they use it for?

Anthony's startup pays $85 a month for Better Stack Logs. They use it for logging to ensure that if anything goes wrong, they can track down where the issue is, which saves them time during debugging.

Why does Anthony recommend Cloudflare for domain hosting?

Anthony recommends Cloudflare for domain hosting because it offers peace of mind, ease of use, and additional security features like the 'under attack' mode, which helped him keep his site running during a DDoS attack.

What is the total monthly cost to run Anthony's first tech startup?

The total monthly cost to run Anthony's first tech startup is $600, which includes various services like AWS, Heroku, Versal, Uptime Robot, Upstash, Better Stack Logs, and Cloudflare.

What is the main purpose of Anthony's new startup?

Anthony's new startup is designed to help marketers find influencers to work with by allowing them to search up influencer and creator profiles and view past advertisements and brand collaborations.

How much does Anthony's new startup cost in terms of AWS usage?

Anthony's new startup does not use AWS, as they have a simple Heroku runner for the backend, which costs only $10 a month.

What is the cost of Verso for Anthony's new startup?

The cost of Verso for Anthony's new startup is between $10 and $20 a month, which is for the basic Pro Plan.

What is the cost of AI training on data for Anthony's new startup?

The cost of AI training on data for Anthony's new startup was a significant upfront cost, with an ongoing cost of $30 a month.

What payment processing service does Anthony use and how does it charge fees?

Anthony uses Stripe to collect payments from teams and marketers. Stripe charges a percentage of the transaction amount plus a small flat fee on top of it, with no flat monthly fee.

What is the estimated cost for a new SaaS startup if coded by the founders themselves?

If the founders code the startup themselves and do not use a subscription to a no-code tool, the estimated cost could be under $50, mainly covering the domain and possibly cloud hosting like Cloudflare.