A recommended default path for the solo builder

Here's a route that has worked for countless one-person projects. Each step is taken only when you actually need it.

1. Prototype: static + a managed backend service. Put your frontend on static hosting (Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or Netlify). For data and auth, lean on a managed backend like Supabase or Firebase so you skip running a database yourself. Cost: effectively zero.

2. Early production: add edge or serverless functions. When you need server-side logic — secret API calls, webhooks, custom auth — add functions on the same platform. Still scales to zero, still cheap, still one deploy.

3. Real product: move the backend to a container platform. When the app outgrows functions (long-running processes, a framework that wants a persistent server, background jobs), containerize it and deploy to Railway, Render, or Fly.io. Have AI write the Dockerfile and platform config.

4. Scale or specialize: only then consider VMs or a cloud provider like AWS. This is where complexity (and your bill) jumps. Most solo builders never need this step, and that's a sign of doing things right — not a limitation.

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) sits in front of this path and changes the speed dramatically depending on whether it already has a copy. A cache HIT answers instantly from the edge; a cache MISS has to travel all the way back to your server first:

  CACHE HIT  (fast — most requests)
  ┌─────────┐      ┌───────────┐
  │ BROWSER │ ───▶ │ EDGE CACHE│ ──┐  copy already here
  └─────────┘ ◀─── │  (has it) │ ◀─┘  reply in milliseconds
                   └───────────┘

  CACHE MISS  (slow — first request)
  ┌─────────┐      ┌───────────┐      ┌──────────┐
  │ BROWSER │ ───▶ │ EDGE CACHE│ ───▶ │  SERVER  │  fetch + store
  └─────────┘ ◀─── │ (empty)   │ ◀─── │ (origin) │  next time = HIT
                   └───────────┘      └──────────┘

The mistake to avoid is starting at step 4 because it's what "real engineers" supposedly use. The opposite is true: starting simple is the senior move. You can always graduate to more control, but you can't easily get back the months you'd lose wrestling infrastructure you didn't need.