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One-person company: the no-code version
Seven layers for a company of one that does not write code: an app builder, a site, payments, content, support, automation and numbers. One pick each with what it costs. We build with code, so these are the picks we would hand a friend, with our reasons, not our own daily use.
For founders. One person with a product idea and no developer, who wants to be selling something this month. By whereismyai. Updated 10 October 2026, prices checked the same day.
The stack at a glance
One-person company: the no-code version: each layer, its pick, when to add it and what it costs
| Layer | Pick | Add when | Cost |
|---|
| Build: Make the product without code | Lovable | Day one. | Free: 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Pro from $25 a month. |
|---|
| The site: A landing page you can change in a minute | Framer | The week you have something to point people at. | Free on a Framer address; Basic $10 a month with a custom domain, Pro $30. |
|---|
| Get paid: Take money, and know whose tax it is | Stripe | The month before you charge anyone; a new account takes days to be checked. | No monthly fee. In the US, 2.9% + 30¢ a card payment; Stripe Tax +0.5%. Not open to new businesses everywhere: in India, for one, accounts are by invitation. |
|---|
| Content: Look like a company | Canva | Day one, for the logo; every week after. | Free; Pro $18 a month or $180 a year. |
|---|
| Support: Hear from customers and answer | Crisp | The day the site goes up. | Free for two seats. A bot later: Tidio has a free plan, Chatbase from $32 a month. |
|---|
| Automate: Connect the pieces without code | Zapier | The third time you copy something from one tool into another by hand. | Free for 100 tasks a month, two steps each; Professional from $19.99 a month billed yearly. |
|---|
| Measure: Know your numbers | PostHog | The week after launch, once there is something to measure. | Free to a million events a month. |
|---|
Build: Make the product without code
The pick: Lovable. Describe the app and get a working web app with a database and sign-in underneath, on your own domain on the paid plan. The honest limit is credits: the free plan's five a day run out in an afternoon of changes, so if the app is the business, budget for Pro from the start. Keep every prompt you send in a document; it is your source code now.
Add when: Day one.
Cost: Free: 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Pro from $25 a month.
Alternatives: Bolt (Tokens instead of credits; free plan 1M a month, Pro $25 for 10M.); Replit (Builds and hosts in one place; Core $20 a month billed yearly.); v0 (Best when what you need is a web front end; $20 a month.)
The site: A landing page you can change in a minute
The pick: Framer. The landing page is not the app. Keep it in a site builder you can edit without touching the product, so a price change or a new headline takes a minute and cannot break anything. Framer is free on a framer.website address; your own domain needs a paid site plan.
Add when: The week you have something to point people at.
Cost: Free on a Framer address; Basic $10 a month with a custom domain, Pro $30.
Alternatives: Carrd (One-page sites; paid plans from $9 a year.); Durable (Generates the whole site from a description.)
Get paid: Take money, and know whose tax it is
The pick: Stripe. A payment link from the Stripe dashboard is a checkout page with no code and no website, and it is what most of your customers have already paid through. The part to understand before the first sale: Stripe is the processor and you are the seller, so sales tax and VAT are yours to register for and file. Selling mostly at home, that is one registration, and Stripe Tax works out and collects the right amount for 0.5% a sale. Selling digital products into the EU or the UK, VAT is due from the first sale, and that is when a merchant of record (below) starts to earn its extra fee by being the seller instead of you.
Add when: The month before you charge anyone; a new account takes days to be checked.
Cost: No monthly fee. In the US, 2.9% + 30¢ a card payment; Stripe Tax +0.5%. Not open to new businesses everywhere: in India, for one, accounts are by invitation.
Alternatives: Stripe Managed Payments (Stripe as the merchant of record: +3.5% on top of the card fee, in about 35 countries.); Dodo Payments (A merchant of record open to more countries; 4% + 40¢ a sale, +1.5% on international cards, +0.5% on subscriptions.); Lemon Squeezy (Merchant of record, part of Stripe since 2024; 5% + 50¢.); Paddle (Merchant of record; 5% + 50¢.)
Content: Look like a company
The pick: Canva. Logo, social posts, a deck, a one-pager: one tool with templates for all of it, and the AI features (a first draft, a removed background, a resize for every network) do the tedious parts. Pro's brand kit keeps every piece in the same colours and type, which is most of what "looking like a company" means.
Add when: Day one, for the logo; every week after.
Cost: Free; Pro $18 a month or $180 a year.
Alternatives: Claude (The writing: copy, emails, policies to edit; $20 a month.); Ideogram (Images with legible text in them; from $8 a month.); Opus Clip (Long video into short clips with captions; free plan.)
Support: Hear from customers and answer
The pick: Crisp. A chat widget on the site and a shared inbox for it and your email, on a free plan with two seats, which is one more than a company of one needs. Add an AI bot trained on your pages when the same question arrives three times, not before: the early questions are how you learn what the product is.
Add when: The day the site goes up.
Cost: Free for two seats. A bot later: Tidio has a free plan, Chatbase from $32 a month.
Alternatives: Tidio (Live chat and a bot on a free plan.); Chatbase (A bot trained on your pages; from $32 a month billed yearly.)
Automate: Connect the pieces without code
The pick: Zapier. When a payment lands, add the customer to the mailing list and the spreadsheet; when a form is filled, send the reply; when the day ends, post the numbers to you. The free plan covers the first handful of these with two-step automations; the paid plan is for when the business runs on them.
Add when: The third time you copy something from one tool into another by hand.
Cost: Free for 100 tasks a month, two steps each; Professional from $19.99 a month billed yearly.
Alternatives: Make (Cheaper per operation, more to learn.); n8n (Free if you can run it yourself; cloud from €20 a month.); Lindy (Agents that read email and act, with a free plan.)
Measure: Know your numbers
The pick: PostHog. Which pages people reach, where they leave and what the signup does, with session recordings so you can watch where a visitor got stuck. The free tier covers a million events a month, more than a new site makes. Tax was settled in the Get paid layer; the rest of the books are your accountant's.
Add when: The week after launch, once there is something to measure.
Cost: Free to a million events a month.
Alternatives: Plausible (Simpler and cookie-free; from $9 a month.)
Changelog
- 10 October 2026: First version, written as the picks we would hand a friend who does not code. Prices checked the same day.
Sources
- Lovable pricing, Lovable
- Bolt pricing, Bolt
- Replit pricing, Replit
- Framer pricing, Framer
- Stripe pricing, Stripe
- Stripe Managed Payments, Stripe
- Stripe accounts are invite-only in India, Stripe
- Dodo Payments pricing, Dodo Payments
- Lemon Squeezy pricing, Lemon Squeezy
- Paddle pricing, Paddle
- Canva pricing, Canva
- Crisp pricing, Crisp
- Chatbase pricing, Chatbase
- Zapier pricing, Zapier
- n8n pricing, n8n
- PostHog pricing, PostHog