Production experience:

• Cloudflare Workers: Cheapest, fastest, great DX
• Vercel Edge: Best Next.js integration
• AWS Lambda: Most features, steep learning curve

Pick: CF Workers for simple, Vercel for Next.js

Running SaaS for 2 years:

Stripe: Industry standard, most integrations, but complex

Paddle: Good for SaaS, handles taxes globally

LemonSqueezy: Newer, simpler, great for indie hackers

My pick: LemonSqueezy for small SaaS, Stripe for enterprise

Full-time backend dev:

Postman: Feature-rich but bloated, good for teams

Insomnia: Sleek, open source, great GraphQL support

Hoppscotch: Free, open source, lightweight

My pick: Insomnia for individuals, Postman for enterprise

Production experience with all three:

Supabase: Open source, PostgreSQL, best for devs who know SQL

Firebase: Google ecosystem, easiest auth, but expensive at scale

Appwrite: Newer, Docker self-host option, improving fast

My pick: Supabase for startups, Firebase for quick prototypes

MacBook Air M1/M2 is the student standard

For CS students under 1000:

• MacBook Air M1: Best value, handles coding plus VMs well.
• MacBook Air M2: Slightly better, but M1 is fine.
• Windows: Dell XPS or Lenovo ThinkPad if you prefer.

Just get M1 Air. 16GB RAM if possible.