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How I Built and Deployed an Anonymous Sanctuary Web App with $0 Cost

#nextjs #sideprojects #webdev

Every developer loves side projects, but recurring infrastructure costs can quickly turn a fun experiment into a financial burden.

When building Ask A Monk—a quiet, algorithm-free digital sanctuary—my goal was simple: create a modern, high-performance Web App with $0 monthly hosting and backend costs, while maintaining strict privacy and sub-second performance.

Here is the exact $0 tech stack, free-tier setup, and architecture decisions I used to bring this project to life.

  1. The $0 Tech Stack Breakdown To achieve zero operational costs without sacrificing scalability, I combined several generous free-tier services:
Component Provider / Technology Free Tier Limits / Usage
Frontend Framework Next.js (App Router) Open-source, React Server Components
Hosting & Edge CDN Vercel 100GB Bandwidth, unlimited Serverless executions
Database & Auth Supabase (PostgreSQL) 500MB Database, 50,000 monthly active users
Styling Tailwind CSS Open-source, static purge during build
DNS & Security Cloudflare Free SSL, DDoS protection, edge caching
  1. How to Stay Within Free Tier Limits Optimized Database Usage (Supabase) Database storage can fill up quickly if not managed carefully. To keep the PostgreSQL instance lightweight:

Strict Character Limits: Enforce input boundaries (e.g., max 6,000 characters) directly at the database level using PostgreSQL constraints.

No Image / File Storage: Stick strictly to text payloads. By eliminating file uploads, storage footprint remains under a few megabytes even with thousands of entries.

-- Enforce text payload limits to preserve free storage
CREATE TABLE public.thoughts (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    created_at TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE DEFAULT timezone('utc'::text, now()) NOT NULL,
    content TEXT NOT NULL CHECK (char_length(content) <= 6000)
);
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Bandwidth & Serverless Optimization (Vercel)
To prevent hitting Vercel’s execution or bandwidth caps:

Leverage Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR): Serve cached static pages to visitors instead of triggering serverless functions on every single page view.

Zero Heavy Libraries: Avoid loading bloated analytics, tracking scripts, or massive UI frameworks. Keep the total page payload under 50KB Gzipped.

  1. The Result: Ask A Monk By combining Next.js, Supabase, and Vercel, Ask A Monk runs completely free of charge while achieving exceptional performance:

Monthly Server Cost: $0.00

Lighthouse Performance Score: 100 / 100

Average Page Load Speed: < 300ms

Instead of chasing user tracking or ad revenue to cover server bills, Ask A Monk exists purely as a quiet, distraction-free space for human reflection.

Conclusion
You don't need a massive budget or complex cloud infrastructure to launch a meaningful web project. By choosing light frameworks and optimizing your database schemas, you can build and sustain side projects indefinitely for $0.

Live Project: Experience the sub-second, minimal web application at askamonk.online.

Discussion: What is your favorite $0 tech stack for side projects? Share your recommendations in the comments!

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