Even Strapi needs to be hosted somewhere, and that usually involves a recurring fee. I've had great success over the past 2 years building blogs using http://webiny.com, and because they get low traffic, I've only ever had 1 bill from AWS that was around 80 cents US. Source: about 4 years ago

Strapi is awesome, I've been a fan of the project since its early days. However, I've been closely watching Webiny too. It's easier to host because you don't have to worry about running Docker containers or installing MongoDB on your local machine. Instead you put it on your AWS account (can be done with a few clicks), define your content models once it's there and you then only pay for usage. http://webiny.com. Source: over 4 years ago

Yeah I hear you, SAAS CMS platforms can get prohibitively expensive really quickly after the initial free tier expires. I've found hosting Strapi (or similar) on Heroku has saved me the cost of keeping a server instance running, which usually would cost $5-10 per month. However, the most cost effective for me so far has been Webiny. It's serverless so you install it on AWS and typically don't pay as much (if... Source: over 4 years ago

Otherwise if you want a framework to build on, there's Redwood (which works particularly well on Netlify and Vercel) or Webiny (for AWS, Azure and others). - Source: dev.to / almost 5 years ago

Pattern Monster: A simple online pattern generator to create repeatable SVG patterns. Perfect for website backgrounds, apparel, branding, packaging design and more. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago

SVG Patterns (if it counts as illustration:) https://pattern.monster/. Source: over 3 years ago

For the back of the card I'll use and SVG pattern, feel free to use the one you like the most from Pattern Monster. Also center the background image with background-position, and make it cover the full card by adding background-size: cover;. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

I'd like to put together a POC to show some possible solutions. I know there are some tools out there such as https://pattern.monster/ and https://haikei.app/ which can generate images, but ideally this would be a library or at least an API I can hook into, so admins can just create templates in our admin application without having to go to an external site and manually knock a thumbnail up. Although not required,... Source: over 3 years ago

Bonus points for adding a custom background - pattern.monster is a must-use, in my personal, humble opinion. Source: about 4 years ago