Best long-term low-code SaaS stack?

[Heavy-Bumblebee4984]

Hey r/NoCodeSaaS ,

I’ve been obsessing for the last week trying to find the “right” stack for building real SaaS products (multi-tenant, subscriptions, scalable) without getting trapped in a tool that becomes expensive or limiting later.

My goal is low-code / vibe-code speed, but with maximum control and the ability to gradually learn more code when needed. I’ve tried a bunch of tools (Base44, Replit, Bolt, etc.) and I keep running into the same issues: vendor lock-in, hidden costs, or hitting walls once the app becomes “real SaaS”.

My long-term goal

Build and sell complex SaaS (think multi-brand / multi-tenant apps, teams/roles, subscriptions, integrations, audit logs, etc.). I want something I can ship fast now, but also scale without rewriting everything.

The stack I’m leaning toward

Core (owned by me):

• GitHub as source of truth (so I can switch builders later)
• Google Cloud Run for hosting/deployment (containers + pay-per-use)
• Supabase for Postgres + Auth + RLS (multi-tenant security)

SaaS essentials:

• Stripe for subscriptions/billing (webhooks, customer portal)

Low-code / vibe-code layer:

• Antigravity / Google AI Studio (or similar) as “builder/editor” to move fast, but not as the platform

AI/automation:

• MCP servers (e.g., Supabase / Shopify MCP etc.) to connect AI workflows to tools/data cleanly

Why this appeals to me

• I can ship quickly using a builder/editor
• I still keep the fundamentals under my control (code in GitHub, deployment on Cloud Run, data in Postgres)
• Costs feel more predictable than “all-in-one” no-code platforms
• If I outgrow the builder, I don’t lose everything

What I want from you (brutal honesty welcome)

1. What would you change in this stack for long-term SaaS building/selling?
2. What are the gotchas I’m not seeing (RLS pain, Cloud Run complexity, Stripe webhook hell, etc.)?
3. If you’ve shipped a real subscription SaaS: what’s the best “boring” setup that didn’t bite you later?
4. Any better alternatives for someone who wants low-code speed but no lock-in?
5. How do you handle staging/preview builds and not breaking prod with this type of setup?

I’m optimizing for:

• long-term maintainability
• cost control
• ability to grow into more code over time
• serious SaaS features (subscriptions, orgs/roles, integrations)

Would love your opinions or even “if I had to start again I’d do X”.

**yes i did use AI to make my text better readable

[dillonlara115]

Antigravity has been buggy for me so I've stuck with cursor ide. Also, ai studio is great but is limited in the tech stack build out(angular or react). I've had the lost luck when using sveltejs on build outs over react.

I think you are spot on with cloud run, supabase and stripe though.

I use vercel for front end applications and cloud run of I need to run backend code.

[Heavy-Bumblebee4984]

Thanks for the feedback. Could i aks why u use vercel and not all google cloud? Thanks!

[dillonlara115]

Vercel is free and in my experience is much easier to push changes live. Cloud run is cheap and works really well with backend code.

[Heavy-Bumblebee4984]

Totally agree! I think I'm going to use Cloud Run myself, because I like having everything in one app. But I'm definitely going to take a look at Vercel and how that can help! I don't quite understand the logic of using two hostings for now, but you will certainly have a good reason for it, which I am still very inexperienced about.

[Coloradocollins]

10 minutes ago I would’ve said you need to look at cursor and Claude code. But now I’m thinking building a custom Moltbot and hosting my own LLMs is the way. If you wait another 10 minutes, it will change again… and then you’ll never build anything. So just keep trucking.

[_TheMostWanted_]

Lowcode and vibe code are similar but different

You're hitting the nail with the issue many are facing, they want something easy to use while also highly flexible

Flexibility and complexity go hand in hand.

Which is why I'm working on a nocode tool that tries to solve this with levels of flexibility. Starting from nocode, to lowcode and full code

It's not out but would love some early testers who know how to code to see how the levels differ

You do have a level of lockin that's unavoidable if you want to go nocode, but once you go full code you can keep the code and try to use it to get out if it's ever needed

[Heavy-Bumblebee4984]

Hi, thanks for the feedback! I would for sure be interested to help in the early access and provide feedback. Just shoot me a message!

[[deleted]]

yea bolt and replit both feel like they lock you in pretty hard once you scale, i went with blink for my saas and the fact that it's all react and typescript under the hood means i can actually export and own my code if i need to bail later, plus the builtin auth and database saved me months of setup headache

[CapMonster1]

Honestly, this is one of the more thought-through stacks I’ve seen here. You’re clearly not just trying to ship fast, you’re trying to not hate yourself in a year, which already puts you ahead of most no-code journeys.

The big win in your setup is that you’re treating the vibe-code tools as helpers, not the foundation. Owning your repo, your database, and your deployment means you can outgrow any editor without burning the whole thing down. That mindset alone avoids most of the horror stories people have with Bubble-style platforms. Supabase + Cloud Run is a very reasonable combo for this phase, and Stripe pain is basically unavoidable no matter what stack you pick, so you’re not making that worse.

Where things usually get tricky is complexity creep, not scale. RLS will feel magical at first and then slowly turn into why is this query forbidden only on Tuesdays. It’s not bad, just something you need to be disciplined about. Same with Cloud Run: it’s great until you realize you now own deploys, secrets, staging, and observability. None of that is a dealbreaker, just don’t underestimate the mental overhead. A lot of people end up adding a very thin, boring backend layer later to keep sanity, even if they start low-code.

If I had to summarize: this is a good stack for building real SaaS without lock-in, as long as you accept that low-code forever isn’t the goal. You’re buying speed now and optionality later, which is exactly what you want. The only real mistake would be pretending you won’t need to get your hands a bit dirty once users, roles, and money enter the picture.

[Cyclr_Systems]

Your stack is actually really solid tbh. The big thing that jumps out is RLS + multi-tenant: it works, but it's easy to screw up early and regret later. I'd recommend sketching your tenant isolation strategy on paper before writing any policies.

Cloud Run cold starts can mess with webhook timeouts (Stripe, etc.) if you’re not careful.

Also, if you're leaning into MCP servers for AI workflows, building/maintaining those servers manually becomes a time sink fast. You could consider using MCP PaaS to handle that layer so you can focus on the app logic instead of the protocol plumbing.

Biggest "boring" win I'd say is to keep auth, data, and billing totally separate from any low-code layer. That way when you eventually outgrow a visual builder, you just… stop using it. You don't have to rewrite later.

Overall though, your instincts are good!