The Pay-Per-Usage AI Stack That Replaced My $1,100/Month Software
A member in AI Avengers asked me last week: how do you run this whole operation? You have 3,000 contacts, daily email campaigns, SMS follow-ups, voice AI demos, and calendar booking. What does all that cost you?
I told her: pay per usage. She thought I was joking.
I was not joking. The same stack that used to cost $1,100 per month on GoHighLevel now runs pay-per-usage. The difference is not capability - it is who owns the infrastructure. When I owned it, the price dropped by 97%.
Why Most Tech Stacks Cost Too Much
Platform businesses like GHL bundle everything together and charge you a premium for convenience. You pay for the CRM, the email, the SMS, the funnels, the calendar, and the reporting - even if you only need two of those things. The bundling is the business model.
When you unbundle - take each function and find the best individual tool for it - you pay only for what you use. And most of what you use has a generous free tier or usage-based pricing that starts near zero.
The Complete Stack Breakdown
Here is every tool I use, what it replaces, and what it costs per month:
CRM: Jarvis (built on DuckDB). Replaces: GHL CRM, Salesforce Essentials, HubSpot Starter. Cost: Free. What it does: stores all contacts, tracks pipeline stages, logs every campaign interaction. Runs locally on my machine. I query it with SQL and I own all the data.
Email: Resend. Replaces: GHL email, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign. Cost: Free (up to 3,000 emails/day). What it does: delivers transactional and campaign emails via API. I write scripts in Node.js. No visual builder. Deliverability is excellent because I control the sending domain.
SMS: Twilio. Replaces: GHL SMS, Podium, SimpleTexting. Cost: $15/month (usage-based). What it does: sends and receives SMS messages programmatically. I pay per message at Twilio's rates, not GHL's markup. Same capability, 60-70% less cost.
Calendar: Cal.com. Replaces: GHL calendar, Calendly Pro, Acuity. Cost: Free. What it does: handles all booking, reminders, and rescheduling. Integrates with Google Calendar. The open-source version is free and covers everything I need.
Voice AI: Retell. Replaces: GHL Voice AI add-on, Bland AI, VAPI. Cost: Usage-based (approximately $0.05-0.15/minute). What it does: handles inbound calls, qualifies leads, books appointments. I pay only when calls happen - not a flat monthly fee.
Database: DuckDB. Replaces: GHL database, Airtable, Notion databases. Cost: Free. What it does: runs fast analytical queries on all business data. Stores contacts, campaign logs, reply tracking, pipeline data. Sits locally on my machine.
AI Agent: Claude Code. Replaces: GHL workflow automations, Zapier, Make.com. Cost: $15/month. What it does: writes and runs code, manages campaigns, scans for replies, classifies leads, drafts responses. This is the brain of the whole stack.
Total Monthly Cost: Pay per usage (~$25-40 typical)
Twilio SMS: pay per message (~$15 typical). Claude Code: pay per token (~$10-15 typical). Mailgun: pay per email (free tier covers most). DuckDB CRM: $0. Total: pay per usage versus the $1,100/month flat fee I was paying GHL.
Annual savings: $12,840. That money now funds product development, team operations, and marketing. It is not savings in the abstract. It is capital I redirected into the business.
Who This Stack is Right For
This stack is right for you if you are running one business (not managing client sub-accounts), you are comfortable in a terminal or willing to learn, and you want to own your data and your infrastructure.
This stack is not right for you if you need a visual dashboard for non-technical team members, you are white-labelling software for 20+ clients, or you need enterprise support with SLAs. In those cases, pay for GHL or a similar platform. The bundled convenience is genuinely worth it.
How to Start
Start with email. Set up Resend, connect your domain, write one campaign script. That single step replaces the most expensive function in your current stack and costs you nothing. Once that runs cleanly for a week, add SMS via Twilio. Build piece by piece rather than trying to swap everything at once.
The full sovereign stack setup is documented inside AI Avengers Lab. If you want to build this with a community that has already done it: aiavengers.team/lab. Join AI Avengers Lab at $89/month — aiavengers.team/lab.
Related reading from this series
This post is part of the Replace SaaS with Claude playbook. The full series covers every step with concrete workflows, pricing, and lessons from running my own business on Claude.
- Replace SaaS with Claude - the full playbook
- 5 AI Tools Running My Business Pay Per Usage | AI Avengers
- Cal.com vs Calendly for Business Owners | AI Avengers
- ConvertKit vs Resend vs GHL Email in 2026 | AI Avengers
- DuckDB vs Traditional CRM for Business Owners | AI Avengers
- GoHighLevel vs Custom AI Stack: 2026 Comparison | AI Avengers
- Migrate From GoHighLevel: Step-by-Step Guide | AI Avengers
- n8n Free Automation Setup for Business Owners | AI Avengers
- GoHighLevel Hidden Fees: What You Actually Pay | AI Avengers
- Replace GHL Automations With n8n (Free) | AI Avengers
- Replace GHL in 30 Minutes - Free Sovereign Stack Guide
- Replace Zapier With Free AI Automation Tools | AI Avengers
- How I Replaced GoHighLevel and Saved $12,840/Year
- Resend vs Mailchimp: Free Business Email | AI Avengers
- Save $400-1,000/Month by Canceling SaaS Subscriptions
- We paid GHL $13,200 in 2025. I just cancelled.
- What Is a Sovereign AI Stack and Should You Build One?
- Twilio vs GHL SMS: Businesses Are Switching | AI Avengers
- Why I Killed My Open-Source AI Projects | AI Avengers
For more playbooks, visit the AI Avengers home page or join the AI Avengers Skool community to put these into practice with weekly office hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a non-technical person set up this stack?
Yes, but it requires some willingness to learn basic terminal commands and simple scripting. You do not need to be a developer. Members in AI Avengers Lab with no coding background have set this up by following step-by-step guides. Expect to spend one focused weekend getting the core pieces running.
Is DuckDB reliable enough for a real business CRM?
DuckDB is extremely reliable for read-heavy analytical workloads, which is exactly what a CRM is. It runs locally so there is no network dependency. The main limitation is it is not designed for real-time multi-user writes, which does not matter for a single operator running their own business.
What happens if I outgrow the Resend free tier?
Resend's paid tier starts at $20/month for higher volume. Even at paid pricing, you are looking at $35/month total for the entire stack versus $1,100/month for GoHighLevel. The free tier covers 3,000 emails per day which is a 90,000-email monthly send - more than enough for most businesses.
How does this compare to just using ConvertKit or Mailchimp?
ConvertKit starts at $29/month and goes to $79-299/month at 5,000+ subscribers. Mailchimp is similar. Those tools only handle email. The sovereign stack handles email, SMS, CRM, calendar, voice AI, and AI automation for $30/month total. For a full business stack, there is no comparison.
Creator of AI Avengers Lab. Building sovereign AI stacks for business owners and professionals- no npm, no SaaS middleware, just Claude Code and direct API connections.