You're building software solo. Here's how to spend your AI budget so you ship faster, support customers, and handle the busywork — without hiring.
What the setup unlocks: All four budget plans ($50–$500/mo) · copy-paste prompts · connector & MCP links · a setup checklist · cheaper swaps · an optional $29/mo subscription keeps it current
7-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.
Claude
Pro
OpenCode
Free / BYOK (open source)
OpenRouter
Pay-as-you-go
GitHub Copilot
Free
Free on this page: the full $50 starter stack, and every section of the sample plan. The $99 one-time setup unlocks all four budgets and the full setup sequence for YOUR plan, adapted to your answers, with a person checking the AI drafts. The optional $29/month afterwards keeps it current — updates land in dated batches.
Ship solo on a shoestring — free + cheap, coding-heavy.
$30/mo
5 tools
Unlocked by the one-time setupFind my plan
Leaves about $70/mo of your budget for usage costs and growth.
Source: Clutch AI pricing guide (checked Sep 23, 2026)
Preview — the $50 starter plan is shown in full · We re-check these prices in batches and show the date of the last check, but vendors change them whenever they like — always confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.
We don't just name one tool. For each pick we show money-saving alternatives that do the same job — and the $50 starter budget is your lean stack if you want the cheapest credible setup.
Same job, different budget. Swap any pick for one of these if it fits you better.
Instead of Claude:
Instead of OpenRouter:
Instead of GitHub Copilot:
Instead of Cursor:
Instead of Intercom Fin:
Compare the yearly cost of a hire against the AI tool stack that does the repetitive work.
This stack includes usage-based pricing, so the exact monthly cost depends on volume — see the live prices below.
This compares cost only, and deliberately understates hiring (it excludes recruiting, onboarding, equipment, software, and management overhead). An AI stack does specific tasks with your oversight — it doesn't replace judgment, relationships, or accountability. The plan is a one-time cost added to year one.
Salary source: U.S. BLS OES, May 2023 (SOC 15-1254) · U.S. BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
See if this is your planIn plain words — no tool names, no jargon. AI drafts; you approve.
One task a day, none over twenty minutes.
Plan a feature before you build it · paste into ChatGPT or Claude
Here is one of them in full.
I'm a solo founder building [APP, in one line]. I want to add [FEATURE]. Before I write code: list the 3-5 smallest steps to ship it, the edge cases I'll likely forget, and one simpler alternative I should consider. Keep it tight and practical.
The other 6 are in the unlocked plan, each with a note on when to use it.
Ready-to-run agent recipes with guardrails, plus the MCP servers that plug your AI into the apps you already use.
One of them, in full:
The remaining 5 are in the unlocked plan, with the guardrails set for your business.
Step-by-step, in plain English. Included with the plan:
The one-time setup unlocks the full step-by-step setup sequence and every ready-made automation, customized to your answers.
Unlock this plan — $99Full how-to for each automation is included in the plan.
You're already comfortable with a terminal, and a coding agent sends a lot of your codebase to whichever model you point it at. Running an open-weight model on your own machine costs nothing per month, works without internet, and never sends your code anywhere.
Free local runner
OllamaCheck ollama.com/library for current model sizes and pick one that fits your RAM/VRAM — bigger models need more memory but reason better.
Setup — no cost, no account
The one-time setup gets you the full plan — setup steps, automation guides, prompts, connectors — adapted to your answers, with a person checking the AI drafts. That is the whole purchase — nothing continues after it. About a month later you can add an optional monthly subscription that keeps the plan describing the market that exists: prices, better tools, and new options as they appear. Stop it whenever you like and you keep everything you bought, frozen at its last snapshot.
7-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.
Every plan includes consultation for the specific questions your business throws up — a step that doesn't match your setup, a tool you already pay for, a price that moved. A consultant at Dapols answers within 24–48 working hours. It isn't instant, and it isn't a bot you argue with.
Consultation with a person, up to 4 times a month
If your scope is bigger than one plan — several workflows, unusual systems, or an integration that needs a person — that's a custom engagement, quoted and invoiced directly, not through our checkout.
