I Built a Free Background Remover as a Side Project – Here's What I Learned

Wally Ulysses — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:31:24 +0000

The Frustration That Started It All

I kept needing to remove backgrounds from product images. Every tool I tried either slapped a watermark on the result, charged credits for basic use, or had a clunky UI that felt stuck in 2015.

So I built my own: image-backgroundremover.site

Here's the full breakdown — tech stack, decisions, mistakes, and lessons.

What It Does

🖼️ Remove image backgrounds instantly (powered by remove.bg API)
🆓 1 free try without signing up (IP-limited)
🎁 3 more free credits after creating an account
💳 Pay-as-you-go credits or monthly subscriptions
🔐 Google OAuth login

No watermarks on paid results. No hidden limits.

Tech Stack

Layer	Choice	Why
Framework	Next.js 16	Fast, full-stack, easy deploy
Styling	Tailwind CSS	Rapid UI, no fighting CSS
Database	Cloudflare D1	Serverless SQL, free tier generous
Auth	Google OAuth	Users trust it, easy to implement
Payments	PayPal	Global coverage, easy API
API	remove.bg	Best accuracy I found

The whole thing runs on Cloudflare Workers — near-zero infra cost at low traffic.

Pricing

I spent a surprising amount of time on this. The goal: profitable but not greedy.

Credit Packs:

$4.99 → 10 credits
$14.99 → 50 credits
$39.99 → 140 credits

Monthly Subscriptions:

$9.99/mo → 30 credits/month
$24.99/mo → 85 credits/month
$49.99/mo → 175 credits/month

remove.bg costs me $0.20/image, so margins land around 45–65% depending on the plan.

What I Learned

1. Ship fast, polish later

I gave myself 5 days to launch. It forced prioritization. The UI isn't perfect, but it works, and real user feedback is worth more than another week of tweaking in isolation.

2. Freemium is a moat

The 1 free try without signup removes all friction. People can see the quality before committing anything. Conversion is better than I expected.

3. Cloudflare D1 is underrated

For a small SaaS, D1 is perfect. SQL syntax, generous free tier, no cold starts. I'd use it again.

4. PayPal webhooks are painful

Setting up PayPal's webhook verification took way longer than expected. The docs are... not great. But once it worked, it's been reliable.

What's Next

Add support for bulk image processing
Improve the landing page SEO
Explore other background-related tools (maybe background replacement?)

Try It

👉 image-backgroundremover.site

No signup required for your first try. If you have feedback — especially on UX or pricing — I'd genuinely love to hear it in the comments.

Building in public, one side project at a time.

DEV Community: Wally Ulysses

I Built a Free Background Remover as a Side Project – Here's What I Learned

1. Ship fast, polish later

2. Freemium is a moat

3. Cloudflare D1 is underrated

4. PayPal webhooks are painful