Stack Philosophy: Minimalist and Purposeful
I use six core tools. Not more, not less. Each one solves a specific problem. I've tested dozens of alternatives and always come back to this exact combination.
The philosophy: minimize complexity, maximize control, pay only for what you use, and be able to sleep knowing your data is in reliable hands.
Make.com: The Automation Engine
Make.com is the glue that holds everything together. It's where all the logic lives.
Cost: $29.99/month + $30-50 in overages. ~$60-80/month total.
Why: I evaluated Zapier, Integromat, and n8n. Make.com wins on complexity-to-cost ratio. Zapier would cost me $200+/month for my usage. n8n requires infrastructure I don't want to manage. Make.com is the Goldilocks solution.
What it does: All business logic. Every tool is built on a Make.com scenario.
Airtable: The Database (and Views)
Every tool needs to store data. Airtable is my database.
Cost: Free tier is enough for my needs. ($0/month)
Why: Airtable is part spreadsheet, part database. The spreadsheet UI makes it easy to inspect data and run quick queries. The API makes it easy to automate. It's the best hybrid solution.
What it does: Users, submissions, results, logs. Four Airtable bases, one per tool category.
OpenAI: The AI Brain
Five of my tools use AI. All of them call the OpenAI API.
Cost: $150-250/month depending on usage.
Why: Best quality per dollar. GPT-4 for complex tasks, GPT-3.5-turbo for simpler tasks. The API is straightforward. Rate limits are reasonable.
What it does: Content generation (Social Spark), resume analysis (Shadow Hound), code assistance, data parsing, everything AI-related.
Tip: Be efficient with tokens. Don't send entire user histories when you only need recent interactions. My average API call costs $0.02-0.10. Multiply that by hundreds of daily requests, and costs add up.
HTML/CSS/JavaScript: The Frontend
Pure HTML. No frameworks. No build tools.
Cost: $0/month (I host on Vercel free tier)
Why: Simplicity. No dependencies. No complexity. Each tool is a single HTML file with embedded CSS and JavaScript. Load time is instant. Maintenance is trivial.
What it does: User interface. Form inputs, result display, basic state management, API calls to Make.com webhooks.
I write maybe 100-200 lines of JavaScript per tool. Mostly handling form submission and displaying results. Nothing fancy.
Google Workspace: Email, Docs, and Sheets
I use Google for three things: email, document generation, and data exports.
Cost: Free Gmail + Google Drive ($0/month)
Why: Already have it for personal email. Google Workspace integrates naturally with Make.com. Can generate Google Docs and Sheets programmatically.
What it does: Sending emails from Make.com scenarios, creating shareable Google Docs (for Blog Post Generator), exporting data to Google Sheets for manual analysis.
Tools I Used and Dropped
Notion: I tried using Notion as a database. The API works, but it's slow and confusing to work with. Airtable is simpler. Dropped after two months.
Webflow: I tried building a site with Webflow. Looked beautiful but felt restrictive. Plain HTML is faster and more flexible. Dropped.
Bubble: Low-code platform for building UIs. Promising but slow. I got impatient and went back to HTML. The learning curve wasn't worth the benefit.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): Email service. Used it for email sequences. But Make.com's email module works fine, and Brevo added overhead. Dropped for simplicity.
Stripe: I considered adding payments to my tools. Decided against it. Too much friction. Would rather keep tools free.
The pattern: I try tools that promise efficiency but add complexity. I eventually go back to simple solutions that actually work.
Total Monthly Cost Breakdown
Here's exactly what I pay to run seven live tools:
- Make.com: $60-80/month
- OpenAI: $150-250/month
- Airtable: $0/month (free tier)
- Google Workspace: $0/month (personal Gmail)
- Hosting: $0/month (Vercel free tier)
- Domain: $12/month (lancecalamita.com)
Total: $222-342/month
The bulk is OpenAI (usage-based) and Make.com (fixed + overage). Both scale directly with user activity. More users = higher costs, but also more revenue potential.
If I charged $5 per tool use, I'd break even at around 50-70 uses per month across all tools. Currently getting way more than that, so the economics work.
Why This Stack Works
Simplicity. Each tool does one thing well. No redundancy. No "also supports" features I don't use.
Reliability. These are all battle-tested services used by millions. Uptime is excellent. Data is safe.
Scalability. If one tool suddenly gets 100x users, nothing breaks. The architecture scales automatically.
Flexibility. I can swap any piece. Need a different database? Swap Airtable for PostgreSQL. Need different AI? Switch to Anthropic or Gemini. The modular design means switching is painless.
Cost efficiency. Seven tools running on $300/month is absurdly cheap. A traditional SaaS company would spend that per employee per month just on software subscriptions.
This is the no-code advantage. You're not limited by what a platform provides. You're limited only by your creativity and willingness to integrate pieces.