Launched My Beta - Here is my tech stack
Notion released their API recently. So I decided to build an integration to sync bank account transactions using Plaid.
This was mostly to scratch my own itch so I could do some budgeting in Notion so I tried to keep things simple to be able to build an MVP quickly and get it out to users. I recently sent out an invite to those who had signed up on the waitlist.
It took me about 5 weeks of some evenings and some weekends to get everything live for Beta testing. I thought I would break down my tech stack and tools I use in hopes of helping others wanting to build and app quickly.
Backend
- Django - I am most familiar with Django so I use it for all new projects that require users + auth
- Django All Auth - made it easy to handle signup/password reset/email verification etc
- Django Rest Framework - used minimally where I needed callbacks for OAuth flows
- Postgres - Heroku has a free tier and its simple to setup with Django
- Redis - as a backend/broker for Celery - Heroku also has a free tier
- Celery - for running async jobs - I am most familiar with this library so its why I use it over other similar libraries
Frontend
- Django - keeping everything server rendered makes it so much faster to build simple apps imo
- TailwindCSS - I've never liked writing CSS until Tailwind. And with TailwindUI I'm able to put some clean UI's together quickly.
- AlpineJS - I find this perfect for apps with a simple UI - opening modals and simple interactions right in the HTML. It fits nicely with the Tailwind mental model as well.
Hosting
- Heroku ($7/mo Hobby Tier) - Free tier is great for launching simple projects and for me the time savings is worth the price once you get past the free tier.
- Postmark (free tier) - for transactional emails from the app
- Email Octopus (free tier) - for marketing emails
- Fastmail ($5/mo) email client with custom domain - I use this instead of GMail since you can add multiple custom domains for the same price.
Monitoring
- Heroku (included in Hobby Tier)
- Sentry (free)
Analytics
- Fathom Analytics ($14/mo) - I hate cookies (the internet kind) so fathom is great because you don't need cookies
Design
- TailwindUI
- Figma
So all in all it costs about $26/month to run my site currently. The nice thing is that both Fathom and Fastmail can be used for multiple sites at the same price.
Have a great day!
Hey 👋
Thanks for sharing! Was thinking about this today. My bank app is awful at displaying info that I need and I love how everything is presented on Notion so definitely a winner.
Can it work with any bank account? I’m in the UK so wasn’t sure if it would work.
PS I qeek out on tool/tech stack of cool products. I’m collecting a list of stacks from indie hackers for my site https://www.stackii.dev/
I would love to add your product to the list, if you don’t mind haha
Ya feel free to add it :)
I don't have UK support as of today but will very shortly since I use Plaid which supports the UK already - I just need to enable it.
I think I see your email on the waitlist so I will let you know when I have UK support :)
Awesome! I'll drop you a message when its up and running.
Thanks, yeah I've subscribed to the waiting list - look forward to it.
congrats on the beta
if you're looking for more feedback or validation, I'm sure people would love to hear this on Kernal. Here's an idea that Markdel (another indiehackers friend) posted on there that's been getting some traction and interested user sign ups - https://kern.al/idea/subscriptionwarranty-organizer-app
Do you get rid of having to show a cookie notice banner by using fathom or do you have other cookies that still require it?
Ya thats The only 3rd party cookie I have on the marketing site so no cookie banner required :).
Then for the app the only cookies used are by the app itself.
Cool! That seems like a huge advantage, those notices are awful. Thanks for sharing!
congrats on the launch of your beta!! This was helpful and thank you for sharing.
Thanks! Happy it was helpful :)
I like your project and Django is one of the best and fast backend you can use to quickly set up your project.
Congrats again.
Ya Django is great. I’ve used it less often for full apps and mostly for building API’s. But the combo of AlpineJS made it a really nice experience building a full stack app in Django.
Looks awesome! Thanks for outlining the stack :)
Thanks! no problem :)