There's a persistent myth that building an AI-powered business requires enterprise-grade tools and enterprise-grade budgets. That you need Salesforce, HubSpot, a dedicated dev team, and a six-figure tech spend before you can compete.
It's wrong. And it's costing you time.
The actual cost of running a one-person AI business in 2026 — one that handles content, client work, automation, and ops — is under $100/month. I know because that's what Like One runs on.
Here's the full breakdown.
The Core: AI Model Access — $20-40/month
This is the brain of your operation. You need access to a frontier model, and you need it to be good.
Claude Pro ($20/month) is the foundation. For most knowledge work — writing, analysis, strategy, code review, research — Claude handles it with minimal prompt engineering. If you're doing heavier lifting (long documents, complex code generation, agent workflows), Claude's API with pay-as-you-go typically runs $10-20/month for a solo operator.
Why not ChatGPT? You can use it. But Claude's longer context window and more nuanced reasoning make it better for the kind of deep work that replaces a human assistant. ChatGPT Plus is fine as a secondary tool if you need image generation or browsing.
Total for this tier: ~$30/month.
Automation Layer: Make.com — $9-16/month
Make.com (formerly Integromat) is the nervous system that connects everything. It watches for triggers, moves data between tools, and runs workflows without you touching anything.
A solopreneur typically needs 3-5 scenarios running:
- Client onboarding: New form submission → CRM entry → welcome email → Slack notification
- Content publishing: Draft marked complete → format → deploy → social cross-post
- Invoice follow-up: Unpaid invoice at 7 days → reminder email → Slack alert
- Lead nurture: New subscriber → drip sequence trigger → tag management
The free tier gives you 1,000 operations/month. The Core plan ($9/month) gives you 10,000 — more than enough for most solopreneurs. You'll only hit the Pro tier ($16/month) if you're processing high volume.
Total for this tier: ~$12/month average.
Website & Hosting: Vercel + Domain — $0-20/month
If you can deploy a static site or a simple Next.js app, Vercel's free tier handles everything. Custom domain, SSL, global CDN, automatic deployments from Git.
Your domain costs $10-20/year (negligible monthly). If you need server-side rendering or heavy traffic, Vercel's Pro plan is $20/month — but most solopreneurs won't need it in year one.
Total for this tier: ~$2/month (domain amortized).
Database & Auth: Supabase — $0-25/month
Supabase gives you a Postgres database, authentication, file storage, and edge functions. The free tier is genuinely generous — 500MB database, 50,000 monthly active users, 1GB file storage.
For a solopreneur running a course platform, membership site, or SaaS tool, the free tier covers you until you have real traction. The Pro plan ($25/month) unlocks 8GB database and daily backups when you're ready.
Total for this tier: $0 (free tier until you're making money).
Email: Resend — $0-20/month
Transactional emails (welcome, password reset, receipts) and marketing emails from one platform. Resend's free tier includes 3,000 emails/month. The Pro tier ($20/month) gives you 50,000.
If you're just starting, the free tier is more than enough. Most solopreneurs send fewer than 1,000 emails/month until they have a real list.
Total for this tier: $0 to start.
Payments: Stripe — Usage-based
Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. No monthly fee. You only pay when you make money — which is exactly how payment processing should work for a bootstrapped operation.
Total for this tier: $0 fixed cost.
The Full Stack, Totaled
| Tool | Cost | What It Replaces | |------|------|-----------------| | Claude Pro | $20 | Content writer, researcher, analyst, coder | | Claude API (optional) | $10-20 | Agent workflows, batch processing | | Make.com Core | $9-12 | Virtual assistant, ops coordinator | | Vercel | $0 | Web hosting, DevOps | | Supabase | $0 | Database admin, auth system | | Resend | $0 | Email marketing platform | | Stripe | $0 fixed | Payment processing | | Domain | ~$2 | — | | Total | $41-54/month | ~$8,000-15,000/month in salaries |
Even if you max out every tier, you're at $97/month. Under $100.
What This Stack Actually Replaces
This isn't theoretical. Here's what a traditional solopreneur pays for roughly equivalent capability:
- Virtual assistant: $500-2,000/month
- Content writer: $1,000-3,000/month
- Web developer (part-time): $2,000-4,000/month
- Email marketing platform: $50-300/month
- CRM: $50-150/month
- Automation tool: $50-200/month
Traditional total: $3,650-9,650/month.
The AI stack does 80% of what those roles do for 1% of the cost. The remaining 20% is judgment calls and relationship building — the stuff you should be doing anyway.
The One Rule That Makes This Work
Tools don't matter if you don't have systems. The stack above only works when each tool has a clear job, clear triggers, and clear outputs.
Don't buy a tool and then figure out what to do with it. Start with the workflow you need automated, then pick the cheapest tool that handles it.
The best solopreneur tech stack isn't the most powerful one. It's the one that runs while you sleep and costs less than dinner for two.
Want the complete setup guide with templates and automation recipes? The AI Automation Toolkit includes pre-built Make.com scenarios, Supabase schemas, and deployment scripts for this exact stack.