Picking Your Stack
Your stack is not a list of logos on a slide. It's a set of bets about what you're willing to own and what you're willing to rent.
Your stack is your kitchen equipment. The oven, the fridge, the POS system. You don't build any of it — you rent the best equipment for your type of restaurant and focus on the food.
The Decision Framework
Four questions before adding any tool.
Usable free tier?
Some free plans let you build a real product. Others cut you off at five users. The free tier is your runway to product-market fit.
One-person operable?
If the docs assume you have a DevOps engineer, keep looking. You need dashboards, not CLI-only management.
Scales without rewrite?
The tool at zero users should work at ten thousand. If you'll need to rip it out later, that's not scaling — that's rebuilding under pressure.
Painless migration?
Some tools make it easy to leave. Others hold your data hostage. Always check the exit before you check in.
The Stack I Chose
Every tool in production with cost and restaurant role.
React Native + Expo
One codebase, both app stores. Expo handles builds, OTA updates, and native config. The alternative was Flutter — React Native won on ecosystem size and hiring options.
Supabase
PostgreSQL database, auth, file storage, edge functions — all in one platform. Dashboard is usable by non-engineers. RLS protects data by default.
Webflow
Marketing site, CMS, character pages. No-code with custom code injection where needed.
ElevenLabs
Voice generation, speech recognition, text-to-speech. If your product has any audio component, this is the leading platform.
Claude API
AI reasoning — assessments, corrections, study guides. Sonnet for complex work, Haiku for batch processing.
Stripe + Apple IAP
Web payments via Stripe, mobile via Apple IAP. Two systems, one subscription logic layer.
Monthly Cost Breakdown
What it actually costs to run the full stack.
The Full Stack at a Glance
| Tool | Role | Cost | Restaurant |
|---|---|---|---|
| React Native + Expo | Mobile app | $0–$33/mo | Dining room |
| Supabase | Database + auth + functions | $25/mo | Back office |
| Webflow | Marketing site + CMS | $29/mo | Front window |
| ElevenLabs | Voice AI + TTS | $22–$99/mo | Waitstaff |
| Claude API | AI reasoning | Variable | Head chef |
| Stripe | Web payments | 2.9% + $0.30 | Cash register |
| Apple IAP | Mobile payments | 15–30% | Credit terminal |
| GitHub | Code storage | $0 | Recipe binder |
| Sentry | Error tracking | $0 | Smoke detector |
| Discord | Alerts | $0 | Kitchen intercom |
What I'd Change
After eighteen months, the only reconsideration is Webflow. Excellent for marketing but the CMS hits limits at scale — API doesn't expose embed content, can't toggle publish status programmatically. For content-heavy products, a headless CMS might be worth the extra complexity.
Everything else has held up. The stack scales, costs are predictable, and one person operates all of it.