Our best SaaS tools (and how we actually use them)

Next.js is our default framework. Server Components, Server Actions, the App Router: everything is there to build apps that are fast on both client and server. React 19 brings the Server Functions and preloading we were missing. TypeScript is no longer a choice, it's a prerequisite. We don't start a project without it.

tRPC gives us end-to-end type safety between frontend and backend. No more API contracts to maintain, no more serialisation bugs. Drizzle ORM replaces Prisma: it's faster, lighter, and its SQL-first approach fits how we think. PostgreSQL remains unbeatable for reliability and advanced features (JSONB, full-text search, row-level security).

We manage everything in a Turborepo monorepo: web app, mobile app, landing page, shared packages (server, core, UI, config). Turborepo's incremental caching cuts our build times by 3x. Vercel for deployment: zero config, automatic preview branches, and native Next.js integration that saves us hours every week.

This is our most unexpected investment. We use Claude for code review, test generation, refactoring, and even client spec analysis. That's roughly $5,000/month in tokens, and it's our best ROI. A senior dev costs $8,000 to $12,000/month. Claude doesn't replace anyone, but it amplifies every developer on the team. We also integrate it into our products via the Vercel AI SDK.

Figma remains essential for complex flows and interaction specs. But we never start from scratch. We use Shadcn UI as our component base, which is essentially a collection of Radix UI components styled with Tailwind. The huge advantage: components live in our code, not in a node_module. We customise them at will. This avoids the never-finished design system syndrome.

For marketing pages and product landing pages, we use Framer. It's a no-code builder that generates clean, fast code. The growth team can iterate on acquisition pages without pulling in a dev. We use it for ReactIn pages, Gramlab pages, and some client pages. The result: pages scoring 95+ on Lighthouse with no extra effort.

ReactIn is a product we built ourselves to automate LinkedIn prospecting intelligently. Multi-step campaigns, lead enrichment, automatic scoring. We use it every day for Figue and for our clients. It's our number one B2B acquisition channel, and it's also proof that a product studio building its own tools understands client challenges better. Discover our complete GTM approach at /gtm.

We ditched Google Analytics 2 years ago. Plausible is lightweight, privacy-respecting, and surfaces the metrics that matter without drowning in vanity metrics. DataFast (another studio product) gives us real-time business dashboards: MRR, churn, LTV, all connected directly to Stripe. No need for Mixpanel or Amplitude when you know exactly what you want to measure.

Make (formerly Integromat) connects everything that doesn't talk natively. New ReactIn lead? Slack notification + automatic enrichment + CRM entry. New Stripe payment? Notification in the client channel + dashboard update. We have over 40 active Make scenarios. The cost: roughly $80/month to replace what would otherwise need a full-time ops person.

We've tried Jira, Asana, ClickUp, Notion Projects. Linear is the only one that doesn't slow us down. The interface is fast (genuinely fast, not 'fast for a PM tool'), keyboard shortcuts are excellent, and cycles/sprints are well thought out. We manage all client and internal projects in Linear. The cost is negligible compared to the time saved.

Notion for documentation and knowledge bases. Cal.com (open source) for booking, directly integrated on our site at /call. better-auth for authentication across all our apps: it's an open-source TypeScript library that replaces Auth.js/NextAuth with a much cleaner API. We use it in Figue Studio, ReactIn, and all our client projects.

Stripe handles our subscriptions, client invoices, and SaaS product payments. We use Stripe Billing for subscriptions, Stripe Invoicing for project invoices, and webhooks to sync everything with our database. The Stripe + Drizzle + tRPC combo gives us an end-to-end type-safe billing system. We documented our bootstrapping vs fundraising approach at /blog/bootstrap-vs-levee-de-fonds.