I pay for hosting and domains. Everything else in my stack is free. Not because I am cheap, but because paying in USD from Algeria is expensive \u2014 the local currency is weak, and every dollar spent on a SaaS subscription represents significant buying power that I cannot easily recover through project pricing.<\/p>\n
A 10 USD monthly subscription might seem reasonable in the US or Europe. At current exchange rates that is about 1,400 DA. A few subscriptions like that and you are spending more on tools than on essentials. That math does not work for a solo developer in the Algerian market where projects range from 30k to 60k DA. The tool costs eat into margins too fast and make it harder to compete on price when clients compare your quote to someone else’s.<\/p>\n
So I built my stack around free tools that genuinely work. Not “good enough for free” \u2014 actually good enough to build professional client work that I am proud to deliver. Here is what I actually use and what I actually pay for it.<\/p>\n
Hosting is non-negotiable. I use reliable shared hosting for most client projects and scale up when the project demands more resources \u2014 larger stores with more traffic, more complex backends with custom functionality. The cost varies by client, but I factor hosting into the project price or charge it as a recurring monthly fee so the client knows what to expect. Domains are the same \u2014 a yearly cost that I either include in the build quote or pass through directly to the client. These two expenses are the only recurring payments I make that directly enable my work. Everything else in my workflow I have either found a free alternative for or built myself from scratch.<\/p>\n
VS Code is free. Git is free. GitHub is free for public repositories, and I use private repos for client work without paying anything. Laragon for local WordPress development is free and faster than any paid alternative I have tried \u2014 it sets up Apache, MySQL, and PHP in one click and cleans up just as easily when the project is done. Node.js, npm, Composer, WP-CLI \u2014 all free. The idea that you need paid tools to be a productive developer is a marketing narrative that benefits tool vendors, not developers. The best version control system, the best code editor, and the best local development environment all cost exactly zero dollars and have thriving communities supporting them.<\/p>\n
For design and mockups, I use the free tier of Figma. It covers everything I need for wireframes, page layouts, and client presentations. If I need stock photography, I use Unsplash or generate images locally using AI tools that run on my machine with no subscription. I have never needed a premium design tool to deliver a professional-looking site to a paying client.<\/p>\n
Instead of paying for ChatGPT Plus or GitHub Copilot, I run local language models through LM Studio and Ollama. The models are free to download, they run entirely on my hardware, and they work offline with no internet connection required. No subscription fee, no data leaving my machine, no usage caps or rate limits to worry about. Is the code generation as good as GPT-4? Not always, especially for complex architectural decisions. But it is good enough for the work I do daily \u2014 writing PHP functions, generating SQL queries, debugging error messages, drafting documentation \u2014 and the cost difference is the entire monthly subscription fee that I simply do not pay.<\/p>\n
For AI-assisted coding directly in VS Code, I use the Continue.dev extension with a local model backend. It provides autocomplete suggestions and a chat interface without ever sending code to a third-party server. Free, private, and good enough for daily use as a solo developer working on client projects.<\/p>\n
Instead of buying premium plugin bundles that cost 100 to 200 USD per year per site, I build custom plugins for the functionality I use repeatedly. A video gallery for WooCommerce product pages that integrates with Swiper.js. A quick checkout plugin for sponsored products with just a phone number field and a wilaya selector. Custom Gutenberg blocks for e-commerce sites \u2014 product grids, category displays, custom hero sections designed to match the visual polish of Shopify.<\/p>\n
Each plugin takes time to build \u2014 typically one to three days of focused development. But once built, I own it permanently. No recurring license fees. No dependency on a third-party developer who might abandon the project. No risk of a critical security update breaking the site because the plugin author stopped maintaining it. The upfront cost is higher, but the lifetime cost is near zero, and the code is tailored exactly to the Algerian market’s needs rather than the generic global market that most commercial plugins target.<\/p>\n
The bootstrapped developer’s advantage is not having expensive tools. It is knowing which paid tools are genuinely worth the money and which can be replaced with free alternatives or custom builds. For the Algerian market, where every dollar counts and the currency exchange is stacked against us, learning to work with free tools is not a compromise \u2014 it is a competitive advantage. My overhead is lower. My margins are healthier. I am not dependent on a recurring subscription to do my job. The tools I use are either free, self-built, or hosted on my own hardware.<\/p>\n
I still pay for good hosting and good domains \u2014 those are non-negotiable. But I will not pay for a code editor, a design tool, or an AI assistant when perfectly good free alternatives exist. The money I save stays in my pocket, and the independence I gain stays in my workflow. That independence is worth more than any premium subscription.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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