"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then you build it with Open Source and sell it for $5M."
Our goal is to help 10,000 bootstrappers lower their burn rate. If this repo helped you, please give it a star to help others find it and escape the SaaS tax.
- Operations & Productivity
- Development & Infrastructure
- E-Commerce & Search
- Design & Creative
- Marketing & Sales
- Finance & Legal
- Data & Analytics
- Automation & Internal Tools
- AI Agents & LLM Ops
- Phase 0: Research & Ideation (Finding the Gap)
- Phase 1: Pre-Build & Branding (The Professional Minimum)
- Phase 2: The Tech Stack (Speed Boilerplates)
- Phase 3: Validation & Waitlists (Pre-Revenue Growth)
- Phase 4: Beta Testing (Refining the MVP)
- Phase 5: The Launch (The Day 1 Spike)
- Phase 6: Post-Launch Growth (Sustainable Traffic)
- Phase 7: Distribution & Content (Building the Moat)
- Phase 8: Data & Operations (Preparing for the Exit)
- Phase 9: The Exit Marketplaces (The Payday)
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slack / Teams | Mattermost / Zulip |  |
Mattermost for real-time chat; Zulip for superior async threading. |
| Notion | Affine / AppFlowy |  |
All-in-one workspaces for docs, notes, and task kanbans. |
| Linear / Jira | Plane |  |
Modern issue tracking for high-performance teams. |
| Calendly | Cal.com |  |
Scheduling infrastructure that you can fully white-label. |
| Zoom / Meet | Jitsi Meet |  |
Secure, simple, and scalable video conferencing. |
| Loom | Cap |  |
Instant screen recording and video sharing for async teams. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase | Supabase / Pocketbase |  |
Full Backend-as-a-Service (Auth, DB, Storage). |
| Auth0 / Okta | Keycloak / Zitadel |  |
Enterprise-grade identity and access management. |
| Vercel / Heroku | Coolify / Dokku |  |
Self-hosted PaaS for easy application deployment. |
| Postman | Bruno / Hoppscotch |  |
Git-friendly API testing and development clients. |
| Sentry | GlitchTip |  |
Error tracking compatible with Sentry SDKs. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Medusa |  |
Headless commerce engine for custom storefronts. |
| Algolia | Meilisearch / Typesense |  |
Lightning-fast, relevant search for apps and sites. |
| Statuspage.io | Uptime Kuma |  |
Monitoring and beautiful public status pages. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figma | Penpot |  |
Design and prototyping tool using SVG as native. |
| Canva | Aktivisda |  |
Simple template-based graphic design for social media. |
| Adobe Suite | Inkscape / Krita |  |
Vector graphics (Illustrator) and Digital Painting (Photoshop). |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot CRM | Twenty |  |
Modern, developer-first CRM built on your own DB. |
| Intercom | Chatwoot |  |
Omni-channel support (Live chat, Email, WhatsApp). |
| Mailchimp | Listmonk / Mautic |  |
Newsletter management and marketing automation. |
| Typeform | Formbricks |  |
In-product surveys and experience management. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe Billing | Lago |  |
Usage-based billing and complex subscription logic. |
| DocuSign | Documenso |  |
Legally binding e-signatures you host yourself. |
| Gusto / Rippling | ERPNext |  |
HRIS, Payroll, and full employee lifecycle mgmt. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Plausible / Matomo |  |
Privacy-friendly, cookie-less web analytics. |
| Mixpanel | PostHog |  |
Product analytics, session recording, and heatmaps. |
| Airtable | NocoDB / Baserow |  |
Turns any SQL database into a smart spreadsheet. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier / Make | n8n |  |
Visual workflow automation with 400+ integrations. |
| Retool | Appsmith / ToolJet |  |
Drag-and-drop builders for internal admin panels. |
| Paid SaaS | Open Source Alternative | Traction | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Agents | Dify |  |
LLM application development and orchestration. |
| Cursor / Copilot | Cline |  |
Autonomous AI coding agents for your IDE. |
- Exploding Topics: Spot trends early.
- Trends.vc: Market deep dives.
- SaaSThink: AI niche validation.
- GummySearch: Mine Reddit for pain points.
- BuiltWith: Spy on competitor tech stacks.
- The Mom Test: Customer interview framework.
- Logo.com / Looka: Instant AI branding.
- Lapa.ninja: Landing page inspiration.
- Stripe Atlas: Incorporation and US banking.
- Shadcn/UI: Modern React UI library.
- ShipFast: (Next.js) Premier React starter kit.
- AnotherWrapper: Top boilerplate for AI wrappers.
- Larafast: (PHP/Laravel) High-speed Laravel kit.
- Tally.so: Best free form builder.
- Carrd: Fastest $0 landing page builder.
- GetWaitlist: Specialized viral waitlist tools.
- BetaList: Early adopter community.
- TestYourApp: Community feedback.
- Betabound: Professional beta testers.
- Product Hunt: The "Super Bowl" of SaaS.
- Hacker News: Reach the technical crowd.
- Microlaunch: High-traffic micro-tool launch site.
- AlternativeTo: Capture traffic from paid competitors.
- TheresAnAIForThat: Crucial for AI tool SEO.
- SubmitJuice: Automate directory submissions.
- SparkToro: Find exactly where your audience visits online.
- Postiz: (OSS) Social media scheduling and automation.
- Senja: Collect and share text/video testimonials.
- Typefully: Write high-engagement threads for X/Twitter.
- Substack: Build an owned email audience from day one.
- Baremetrics / ChartMogul: Automated revenue tracking for buyers.
- ProfitWell: Free revenue tracking and churn recovery.
- SaaSGrid: Metrics dashboards for potential buyers.
- Acquire.com: Best for SaaS doing >$1k MRR.
- Microns.io: Best for micro-projects.
- Sellarator: Verified listings for side projects.
- Empire Flippers: Managed brokerage for large exits.
- Flippa: Marketplace for content and traffic sites.
To stay lean, follow the Managed-First, Self-Host Later rule:
- Managed OSS: Use the "Cloud" version of tools like Supabase or PostHog first. They have massive free tiers.
- The "Single VPS" Strategy: When hitting limits, use Coolify. You can host 10+ of the tools above on a single $15/mo Hetzner or DigitalOcean VPS.
- Security: Use Cloudflare (Free Tier) for DNS, SSL certificates, and DDoS protection.
This list is a living document for the bootstrapper community.
- Contributing: Found a missing tool or resource? Open a PR!
- Sponsorship: If this roadmap helped you build your startup, please share it on Twitter/X or star the repo.
Maintained with ❤️ by Pier Paolo Ippolito | Optimized for Bootstrappers 🚀