budget_dev.mdc

---
description: Budget-friendly development strategies
globs: 
alwaysApply: true
---

# Budget-Friendly Development Strategies

> For rule creation guidelines, see [Rule Creation Framework](.cursor/rules/rul3s.mdc)

When suggesting solutions, tools, or implementations:

1. Prioritize free and open-source solutions over paid alternatives
2. Suggest serverless or low-cost hosting options (Vercel, Netlify, Firebase free tier)
3. Recommend tools with generous free tiers for beginners
4. Provide alternatives to paid APIs with free or open-source options
5. Focus on minimizing cloud resource usage and costs
6. Suggest progressive enhancement approaches that start simple and scale as needed
7. Recommend JAMstack and static site approaches when appropriate to reduce hosting costs
8. Provide clear explanations of potential future costs if a solution scales
9. Suggest local development and testing approaches before deploying to paid services
10. Recommend containerization for efficient resource usage