Ricardo Sanchez

Starting a business was once a monumental task, particularly for endeavors requiring significant investment, such as spacecraft, pharmaceuticals, or automotive manufacturing. However, the landscape for launching software or service companies has vastly improved in terms of accessibility. There was a time when establishing a software business necessitated significant investments in server space, hardware, and costly software licenses. Today, the availability of free, and often open-source, development tools, alongside affordable hosting solutions, has lowered the barriers to entry significantly.

To begin with, it’s now feasible to develop software or services using complimentary tools that might be open source. Hosting solutions have become straightforward and economical, making the initial steps of starting up more accessible than ever. While scaling might necessitate investing in hardware for complete control and cost management, the initial phase doesn’t require such significant outlays.

For service-oriented businesses, the prerequisites might be as simple as having social media presence and expertise in your field. Success remains challenging, but the startup process itself has become less complex. Patience and consistency are crucial for business success, as many give up too quickly or become discouraged by early obstacles.

The perception of software business success, heavily influenced by Silicon Valley narratives, can be intimidating, creating a misconception that monumental success is the only form of success. However, many businesses thrive by serving a niche market without seeking massive investments or media attention. These enterprises demonstrate that you don’t need to be the next tech giant to be successful; providing value to a specific audience can lead to sustainable success.

What was needed then and still is today is: patience, consistency, and sharing your product or service. Starting it’s easier now, having success still requires hard work and perseverance.

Moreover, the proliferation of free tools and services that used to cost significantly has democratized the process of building a development stack tailored to your project’s needs. From integrated development environments (IDEs) and code editors like Visual Studio Code and Zed to version control systems like Git and platforms like GitHub, the resources available to developers at no cost are unprecedented. This accessibility extends to frontend and backend development frameworks, database management systems, and deployment and hosting services, offering a comprehensive suite of tools that facilitate software development and entrepreneurial ventures at minimal costs.

Below are some examples of products and services that used to cost a lot of money, but now they are free or at least most of them have a free tier. These tools can be combined in countless ways to build a development stack that fits your project’s needs. Most of them are not only free to use but also open-source, offering the flexibility to modify or extend as per your requirements.

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and Code Editors

• Visual Studio Code (VS Code): A powerful, open-source editor that supports a multitude of programming languages and frameworks, with extensive plugin support.
• Eclipse: Popular for Java development, also supports various other languages through plugins.
• IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition: A free, open-source version of IntelliJ IDEA, a premier IDE for Java, Kotlin, and other languages.
• Atom: An open-source text editor that’s modern, approachable, and hackable to the core—a tool you can customize to do anything.

Version Control

• Git: The most widely used modern version control system in the world today.
• GitHub: Offers a cloud-based service to host your Git repositories and provides a web-based interface to manage them.
• GitLab: Similar to GitHub, it provides repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, and CI/CD platform.
• Bitbucket: Offers free Git and Mercurial repository hosting with a robust set of developer tools.

Frontend Development

• Bootstrap: A free and open-source CSS framework directed at responsive, mobile-first front-end web development.
• React: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces, developed by Facebook.
• Vue.js: A progressive JavaScript framework used for building UIs and single-page applications.
• Angular: A platform and framework for building single-page client applications using HTML and TypeScript, developed by Google.

Backend Development

• Node.js: An open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser.
• Django: A high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
• Flask: A micro web framework written in Python.
• Spring Boot: Makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can “just run”.

Database Management

• PostgreSQL: A powerful, open-source object-relational database system.
• MongoDB: A NoSQL database designed for ease of development and scaling.
• MySQL: The world’s most popular open source database.
• SQLite: A C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine.

Deployment and Hosting

• Heroku: A platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud.
• Netlify: An all-in-one platform for automating modern web projects, with continuous deployment from Git across all of your front end and serverless backend needs.
• Vercel: Focuses on the deployment and hosting of JavaScript applications, particularly those built with Next.js.
• Firebase: A platform developed by Google for creating mobile and web applications. It provides tools for tracking analytics, reporting and fixing app crashes, creating marketing and product experiment.

Collaboration Tools

• Slack: A messaging app for teams that makes working together easier, integrating with many development tools.
• Trello: A web-based, Kanban-style, list-making application which is great for managing project tasks.
• Figma: A web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool which is excellent for UI/UX design collaboration.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

• Jenkins: An open-source automation server that enables developers around the world to reliably build, test, and deploy their software.
• GitHub Actions: Enables you to automate, customize, and execute your software development workflows right in your repository.
• GitLab CI/CD: Part of GitLab’s integrated solution, this CI/CD tool allows for highly scalable and efficient workflows.

For additional developer resources that can be helpful not only for developers, but also for those starting a software business, checkout this list: https://github.com/ricardodsanchez/developer-stash

Have a great weekend!