How I Build and Deliver B2B SaaS Software as a 1.5* Person Indie Developer

1

Webpack

This one solution produces multiple web applications, console applications and client (JavaScript) applications when built – including the marketing site and main web application. A cold build takes almost 5 minutes on my laptop (although most of that time is spent in Webpack). Despite this, it’s still a positive ROIT for one reason: most of this code existed before I pivoted to Assetbots. I got a huge head start by not having to develop (or learn!) a database layer, auth layer, permissions system, common app services, build and deployment systems, and more. And despite how slow a cold build is, I rarely have to perform one.

#Web Application Bundler #JS Build Tools #Module Bundler 219 social mentions

2

Vercel

Make my deployment cheaper by using multiple hosting options for multiple needs – for example Vercel for the marketing site, a container for the MVC bits, and deno for the API endpoints.

#Developer Tools #Web Development Tools #App Deployment 523 social mentions

3

Tailwind CSS

I use tailwindcss with a light sprinkling of Material Design as a starting point for design and layout. I do not have a designer, so it is essential that I can make attractive, usable interfaces easily.

#Developer Tools #Design Tools #Website Design 867 social mentions

4

react-context

There is no Redux, MobX or any other state management to be found. Most state is handled at the feature level using React context.

#Javascript UI Libraries #Front-End Frameworks #JS Library 207 social mentions

5

React

On the client, Assetbots is written in TypeScript using React. Like the server, the client is a monorepo using Yarn workspaces and contains the code for all of the web applications produced by the Visual Studio solution, as well as some additional services like MJML email templating.

#Javascript UI Libraries #JS Library #JavaScript Framework 775 social mentions

6

Node.js

#Runtime #JavaScript Runtime #JavaScript 785 social mentions

7

Next.js

While I use a ton of third-party libraries, a lot of the client is hand-rolled. I think Next.js and create-react-app are great, but this code has been adapted across multiple projects of mine and is therefore faster for me to ship with.

#Developer Tools #Web Frameworks #JavaScript Framework 921 social mentions

8

MJML

On the client, Assetbots is written in TypeScript using React. Like the server, the client is a monorepo using Yarn workspaces and contains the code for all of the web applications produced by the Visual Studio solution, as well as some additional services like MJML email templating.

#Email Marketing #Email Newsletters #Email Productivity 86 social mentions

9

GitHub Actions

When I need to deploy an infrastructure change (for example, I recently upgraded my Node.js version from 14.16.0 to 16.9.1), I update the relevant Template.json file, commit the change, and push to develop. Within a second or so, I can navigate to my GitHub Actions panel, choose the workflow for the environment I want to deploy to, and click Run Workflow.

#DevOps Tools #Continuous Integration #Continuous Deployment 275 social mentions

10

esbuild

Make my builds faster by forcing myself onto esbuild from the beginning, even if that makes delivering some capabilities harder (like web workers and service workers, Hot Module Replacement, and so on).

#JS Build Tools #Web Application Bundler #Project Management 120 social mentions

11

Azure Resource Manager

Infrastructure (in other words, my hosting architecture) is defined entirely in code using a combination of Azure Resource Manager templates and PowerShell scripts. Terraform is the standard in the industry, but ARM templates are more than sufficient for my simple use case. Using ARM templates, I’m able to define a single file that deploys my entire architecture idempotently, in parallel.

#DevOps Tools #Continuous Integration #Continuous Deployment 12 social mentions

12

Deno

Make development faster by sharing more code between client and server – for example, running my API endpoints on a platform like deno.

#Typescript #JavaScript #Web Development Tools 195 social mentions

13

SQL Azure

Www Services for hosting the marketing site. This includes a Key Vault, Storage Account, Service Bus Namespace, Azure SQL database and an App Service.

#Databases #Relational Databases #Tool 9 social mentions

14

Microsoft Azure

Assetbots is hosted in Azure exclusively through PaaS services. I don’t use any virtual machines or containers. I maintain four subscriptions, one for each environment: development, test, quality assurance and production.

#Cloud Infrastructure #Cloud Computing #IaaS 64 social mentions