After building 3 trading bots, here's the zero-cost tech stack I'd recommend.
Essential APIs (All Free)
| API | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Helius RPC | Solana access (100K credits/day free) |
| Jupiter V6 | Swap routing |
| Jito | MEV protection (tips only) |
| DexScreener | Token discovery |
| Pyth Hermes | Price oracles |
| Telegram Bot API | User interface |
Hosting: Oracle Cloud Free Tier
ARM instance: 1 OCPU, 6 GB RAM. Free forever. More than enough for a Node.js or Python bot.
Language Choice
- Node.js for Telegram bots — non-blocking I/O, 2 dependencies total
- Python for algo trading — better math/backtest libraries
Architecture
- Single-file for <5K lines
- JSON files for persistence <10K users
- Long-polling > webhooks for Telegram
- Snapshot-diff > WebSocket for wallet monitoring
My Bots (All $0 Infra)
- @solscanitbot — 4,500 line Telegram bot. Source — 2 SOL
- Grid Bot — Python, +11.7% backtested. 0.5 SOL
- DeFi Toolkit — 10 scripts. 0.3 SOL
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