The stack at $1k, $5k and $20k
Three named stacks with real totals, and what to add at each step rather than a list of everything that exists.
At a thousand a month you need almost no software: free ad libraries, free alerts, a free editor, and about fifty dollars a month if you want clipping and drafting. At five thousand you add creator sourcing and ad creative, which puts software near a hundred and fifty and starts a much bigger line for paying creators. At twenty thousand you are at two to four hundred a month of software across two or three compounding channels, each with an owner. Every stack below is additive: you keep what you had and add one thing.
What tools do I need at $1k a month?
Almost none, and that is the point. Everything at this stage is either free or a conversation, because the work is fifty specific outreaches a week and a daily public reply, neither of which a tool improves.
Free · alerts on your category and competitors
So you are first into the thread. Being first is most of the advantage and the free tools do this fine.
Free · the ad libraries
Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn all publish every ad running. A start date months in the past is the clearest public signal an ad is paying for itself.
Free · a spreadsheet with one attribution column
Where each customer came from, filled in by hand on the day they paid. The only number that matters until a thousand a month.
About $50 · clipping and drafting, if you are posting
Both sit in the under-fifty band. Optional at this stage. A free editor does the same job slower.
What changes at $5k a month?
This is where you start paying people, and where the software line stops being the interesting number. Software goes to roughly a hundred and fifty a month. Creator payments start at around a hundred a video and will be several times the software total.
Keep everything from $1k
Nothing gets dropped. The founder-led outreach is still what pays the bills while the new channels warm up.
$50 to $200 · creator sourcing
A marketplace to find creators whose audience is your buyer, with escrow so you are not wiring strangers money. This is the stage UGC starts, not before.
$50 to $200 · ad creative
For turning the creator content into variations you can test weekly. At this size the constraint is how much creative you can produce, not budget.
Separate line · the creators themselves
Around a hundred a video through a marketplace. Ten videos is a real test. Budget this in blocks, not monthly, and keep it out of the software number so you can see it.
What does the stack look like at $20k a month?
Two to four hundred a month of software, which is under two percent of revenue, across two or three channels that each have a named owner. This is the first stage where the top band earns its price.
Keep everything below
Stacks are additive. Anything you dropped, you dropped because it did not work, not because you outgrew it.
A few hundred · a creator programme with a real dashboard
Paid by verified views, creators posting from their own accounts so reach compounds. This is where prize-pool and managed models start making sense.
A few hundred · AEO tracking
To see how the answer engines describe your category. There are free CLI options if you bring your own keys, which is worth trying before paying.
Still free · the ad libraries
The most valuable research tool at every stage costs nothing, and most teams still do not read it.
Not yet
- A tool per channel. Two channels that work beat four that are half run, and the same is true of the software.
- Anything bought to solve a problem you have not hit yet. Buy after the manual version hurts.
Good to know
What marketing tools do I need at 10k MRR?
Whatever you had at five thousand, plus one thing for the channel that is actually working. Software should be under two hundred a month. If it is more than that and you are under twenty thousand, you are probably paying for tools that replace work you have not proved yet.
Should I buy tools or pay people?
People, once you have a message that converts, and not before. Software is the small line at every stage past the first. One creator video costs more than five months of most tools.
Do I need a paid tool to start?
No. There are 29 free tools listed here and they cover ad research, alerts, editing, clipping and AEO checking. Nothing before a thousand a month of revenue needs a paid one.
How do I know when to add something?
When the manual version has started costing you real time and you know exactly what you want the tool to do. Buying before that point means buying someone else’s idea of the workflow.
This expands the Treeline camp on the climb, which lays out the stages either side of it. Tools by job are on the route index, the free ones are here, and the other answers are in insights. Updated 30 July 2026.