The Solopreneur Stack Teardown: What I Cut, What I Kept, and Why

A line-by-line editorial teardown of a real solopreneur stack, the flaws in the tools I recommend, and the verdict on overspending.

By Rachel Dowd, Senior Editor

Published February 2026 · Updated April 2026 · · ● reading now

Disclosure: Some links in this article are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

A reader sent me his full stack last month. He is doing $14,000 in monthly recurring revenue selling a productivity course and a small coaching program. He wanted a second opinion on his tools. He was paying $612 per month for eleven SaaS subscriptions and he was embarrassed about it before he sent the list.

He should have been. Half of what he was paying for was duplication. Another quarter was tier upgrades he did not need. The rest was mostly fine, with one tool that I would have cut for a reason he had not considered.

I have seen this play out badly enough times that I keep a running teardown template. What follows is that teardown, applied to a composite stack that matches what I see most often from operators in the $5K to $30K MRR range. The numbers are real. The flaws in each tool are real. The verdict at the end is the one I give every operator who asks.

Most solopreneur stacks at $5K to $30K MRR are carrying $200 to $400 per month in tools that exist only because the operator was afraid to cancel them, and the fix is an audit, not a new platform.

The Stack On The Table

Here is the composite stack I am going to tear down. It is built from the three most recent reader audits I have done, stripped of identifying details. The revenue, the tools, and the monthly costs match what I see repeatedly.

$535 per month. $6,420 per year. Thirteen tools. A single operator working alone.

The number that should concern you is not $535. It is that twenty-four percent of that spend does no work. It is insurance against a future state that the operator has not actually planned for, dressed up as infrastructure. Buffer's own transparency reports show small businesses average six to ten SaaS subscriptions, and the same pattern holds at this revenue band: the middle tools are the ones people forget to question.

Email: The Duplication Nobody Wants To Admit

The first thing I flagged in this stack was ConvertKit plus Substack. Two email platforms, two lists, two places to check stats. The operator was running his main welcome sequence from ConvertKit and publishing his weekly newsletter on Substack because he liked the discovery surface.

This is the single most common duplication I see. Kajabi's State of the Creator Economy report found creators run an average of 4.6 tools, and email sits at the top of the overlap list because people fall in love with the second tool's interface before they have figured out whether they need it.

My editorial verdict: collapse it into one platform. The specific question is which one.

If the newsletter is the product: beehiiv is where I send most operators at this revenue level. It handles sequences, broadcasts, paid subscriptions, and a referral engine inside one dashboard. The beehiiv Scale plan runs $42 per month at 5,000 subscribers.

The flaw I will tell you about first: beehiiv's automation logic is thinner than ConvertKit's. If you run branching sequences with tag-based triggers across multiple products, you will hit the ceiling. For a single-product creator, that ceiling is not a problem. For an operator running four SKUs with different customer journeys, it is.

If email sequences are the product: GetResponse gives you the automation depth without the ConvertKit price tag. The Marketer plan is $59 per month at 10,000 contacts. The GetResponse Marketer plan includes webinars natively, which kills a second line item.

The flaw: GetResponse's template library looks dated next to beehiiv or ConvertKit. If aesthetic matters to your brand, you will end up building from scratch.

The cut: Kill Substack. Keep one email tool. For this operator, I moved him to beehiiv at $42 per month and cancelled ConvertKit. Savings: $37 per month, plus the 10% Substack revenue share on paid tiers if he scales the newsletter.

Funnels And Courses: The $216 Fantasy

ClickFunnels at $97 plus Teachable at $119 was $216 per month for two tools doing versions of the same job. Sales pages, checkout, course delivery. The operator was using ClickFunnels for the $47 lead magnet funnel and Teachable for the $399 course.

This is a fantasy built on the assumption that you need the category leader in every slot. You do not. At $14K MRR, you need a single platform that handles both the funnel and the delivery without you having to stitch checkout to course access with a Zapier connection that breaks every time one of them updates their API.

My recommendation: Systeme.io. It handles funnels, checkout, email, courses, and affiliate program management on a single backend. The Systeme.io Webinar plan runs $47 per month with unlimited contacts and unlimited courses.

The flaw I am telling you about before I recommend it: Systeme.io's page editor is functional but not beautiful. The design fidelity is behind ClickFunnels and Kajabi. If you are selling a premium-positioned program where the sales page itself is a conversion asset, you will feel this. If you are selling on the strength of the offer, you will not.

The alternative if design matters: Kartra. Better templates, better page builder, native video hosting, course delivery, and a legitimate CRM. The Kartra Starter plan is $119 per month, which is the same as Teachable alone.

Kartra's flaw: the learning curve is steeper than anything else in this category. Expect two weekends to build your first full funnel properly. If you already have assets in Teachable or ClickFunnels, the migration is not trivial.

If you want to keep ClickFunnels: I would ask you why first. The ClickFunnels Startup plan is $97 per month, and its flaw is that it does not deliver courses natively at that tier. You still need Teachable or Kajabi downstream, and you are paying for two platforms to do one integrated job.

Automation: The Tier Trap

Zapier Professional at $49 per month is the tool in this stack I have the most complicated feelings about.

It is not wrong to pay for Zapier. It is wrong to pay for the Professional tier if you are running fewer than fifteen active Zaps and none of them need multi-step logic, paths, or filters. The Starter plan at $19 per month covers five zaps and 750 tasks, which is what this operator was actually using.

Zapier's own State of Business Automation research found that the median small business runs between three and eight active automations. Eight automations does not require the $49 tier.

The honest question: do you need Zapier at all?

Make does the same job cheaper. The Make Core plan is $9 per month for 10,000 operations and unlimited scenarios. For most solopreneur automation needs, $9 beats $49.

Make's flaw: the visual editor is more complex than Zapier's. Zapier reads like a recipe. Make reads like a flowchart. If you think in flowcharts, Make is better and cheaper. If you think in sentences, you will find Make harder to reason about even after you know it.

The cut: Downgrade Zapier to Starter at $19, or switch to Make Core at $9. I recommended Make for this operator because he had already built his scenarios mentally and he was cost-sensitive. Savings: $40 per month on Make, or $30 per month on downgraded Zapier.

The CRM Question Nobody Asks

HubSpot Starter at $50 was the line item that required the hardest conversation. The operator had been using HubSpot for eight months. He had 340 contacts in it. He was using it as a glorified notes database because HubSpot's Starter tier does not include workflows, lead scoring, or the automation features that justify paying for a CRM.

Here is the question I ask every operator who has HubSpot Starter: when was the last time you opened the deals pipeline and moved something forward because HubSpot reminded you to?

If the answer is never, the CRM is not working.

Option A, keep HubSpot: commit to the actual workflow. Set up a single pipeline with five stages, move every new lead through it manually for two weeks, and decide if the visibility is worth $50. If you are not running a sales process where prospects have multiple touchpoints before buying, you do not need this.

Option B, go free: use Notion. A simple database with deal stages, last contact date, and next action beats an empty HubSpot instance. The Notion Plus plan is $12 per month, which this operator is already paying. The cost of adding a CRM view is zero.

Notion's flaw: it is not a CRM. It is a database pretending to be one. The moment you need email sync, call logging, or automation that fires on deal stage changes, you have outgrown it. For solopreneurs under 200 active deals per year, that moment never comes.

Option C, go full-stack: if you are running a coaching or service business where the CRM is the center of your operation, GoHighLevel consolidates CRM, booking, email, SMS, and funnels into one platform at GoHighLevel's Starter plan pricing of $97 per month. This replaces HubSpot, Calendly, and probably ClickFunnels in a single line item.

GoHighLevel's flaw: the interface is dense and not beginner-friendly. It was built for agencies and it shows. Expect a week of setup and a willingness to tolerate clunky UX in exchange for consolidation. If you are running one product and a small audience, this is overkill.

The cut for this operator: Option B. Migrate 340 contacts to a Notion database. Cancel HubSpot. Savings: $50 per month.

The Small Bleeds That Add Up

The last four tools each looked harmless. Stacked together they were $94 per month doing uneven work.

Buffer at $15. He had not posted in nineteen days. Verdict: cancel. If he decides to post again, the free tier covers three channels. Savings: $15.

Calendly Teams at $20. He was the only user. Teams is for multi-user setups. The Standard plan at $10 per month handled everything he actually needed. Verdict: downgrade. Savings: $10.

Loom Business at $15. He was sending an average of four videos per month. Loom Starter is free for up to 25 videos per month. Verdict: downgrade to free. Savings: $15.

WebinarJam at $39. He had run two webinars in the previous twelve months. Verdict: cancel, use Zoom's $15 tier when he actually needs one. Savings: $24.

Typeform at $25. Used for a single lead magnet quiz that received 40 responses per month. Verdict: downgrade to the $21 Basic or switch to Tally for free. Savings: $4 minimum.

The Counter-Argument

I have to be fair here. The case for a bloated stack exists, and it is not stupid.

The argument goes: your time is worth more than $535 per month. Switching platforms is expensive. Migrating 3,000 email subscribers from ConvertKit to beehiiv takes a weekend you do not have. Rebuilding three funnels in Systeme.io takes longer. If the tools you have are working, the cost of switching exceeds the savings.

This argument is correct in exactly one scenario: when you are in a growth sprint and every hour of your attention is producing more revenue than the savings would. If you are launching a product next week and your energy should be on the offer and the copy, do not audit your stack. Audit it next month.

The argument is wrong in the scenario most operators are actually in. If you are at steady-state revenue and you have the bandwidth to read this article, you have the bandwidth to spend a Saturday on a migration. The $339 per month you save is real. It compounds into $4,068 per year. That is a product launch. That is a month of runway. That is a two-week vacation.

The other counter-argument worth naming: some tools get better with scale. HubSpot at the Starter tier is a waste. HubSpot at the Professional tier with workflows, lead scoring, and custom reporting is a different tool entirely. The advice here is about your stack today, not the stack you will need at $100K MRR.

What This Means For You

Open your bank statement tonight. Run the audit on your own stack. Here is what I tell every operator who asks:

• List every recurring SaaS charge. Not the ones you remember. The ones on your statement. You will find at least one you forgot about.
• Check your last login date on each tool. If it is more than 30 days ago and no automation depends on it, cancel.
• Identify the duplicates. Two email tools, two form builders, two video tools. Pick one. Kill the other.
• Question every tier you are on. If you cannot name three features on your current tier that you used in the last 30 days, downgrade.
• Do not buy a new tool to fix a stack problem. The answer is almost always consolidation into something you already have.

The operator in this teardown ended at $231 per month, down from $535. Same business. Same revenue. $304 per month back in his pocket. That is $3,648 per year he is not paying rent on software he does not use.

Closing

The hard part of running a solopreneur business is not finding the right tools. It is having the discipline to cut the ones that stopped earning their place. Most operators I work with know which tools are dead weight before they ask me. They want permission to cancel them.

This is the permission. Cancel the duplicates. Downgrade the tiers you do not use. Consolidate into fewer platforms that do more. Your margins will thank you and your attention will widen.

When you are ready to see what a lean, automated stack can look like, browse our full library of tool reviews and comparisons at our AI tools directory. Start with the reviews of Systeme.io, beehiiv, and Make, which are the three tools that appear most in the stacks I keep recommending.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a solopreneur at $10K MRR spend on tools?

A reasonable target is $100 to $200 per month at $10K MRR, which keeps tool spend between 1% and 2% of revenue. Operators spending $400 or more at that revenue level are usually carrying duplication or tier upgrades they do not use, not investing in growth infrastructure.

Is it worth switching email platforms to save $40 per month?

If your list is under 3,000 subscribers and you have the weekend, yes. Migration takes four to six hours and the annual savings are $480. If your list is over 10,000 and you have complex automation running, the switching cost rises and the math gets closer. Run the audit, then decide.

What is the single most common waste of money in solopreneur stacks?

Paying for two tools that do the same job. Email plus newsletter. Funnel builder plus course platform. Project manager plus to-do list. Pick one per category, cancel the other. This fix alone usually frees up $100 to $200 per month.

Do I need a CRM as a solopreneur?

Only if you have a sales process with multiple touchpoints before a customer buys. If you sell digital products to cold traffic at checkout, you do not need a CRM. A Notion database with deal stages works until you have more than 200 active deals per year. HubSpot Starter at $50 is usually a waste at the solopreneur level because it lacks the workflow automation that justifies the price.

Should I cancel tools I might use later?

Yes. Later rarely comes. A canceled subscription can be restarted in five minutes when you actually need it. An active subscription you forgot about costs money every month for a feature you never use. The default should be canceling, not keeping.