Using Free Tools Will Keep You Broke

Why you need to start paying for products

Let’s get one thing clear:

If you're serious about building a business that prints money, not just another weekend project, free tools are dragging you down.

1. They’re costing you growth

2. They’re costing you leverage

3. They’re keeping you stuck in “hacker mode”

I learned this the hard way. For nearly 600 days, I refused to pay for anything.

Instead of paying Stripe Atlas to be able to charge money via Stripe, I hacked my way around PayPal Subscriptions (It was, by far, the worst dev experience ever.).

I had a cheap mindset, and I just looked for any quick and free fix I could find, instead of investing.

Looking back, it was one of the dumbest mindsets I ever held onto.

Wealth Doesn’t Come from Saving

When you’re aiming to get $10K, $50K, or even $100K month, you’re aiming to build a business.

It’s not another slot in the indie hacking, “ship it and they will come” machine.

And in order to get to that point, you have to start thinking like a business owner.

Let’s see an example of an expensive tool that’s worth it.

GetRewardful

GetRewardful is a tool that manages affiliates for your offer.

In my personal opinion, it’s one of the most overpriced products I have seen out there.

$50 a month to have an affiliation system (Lowest tier, no free).

Now, let’s say that you decide to hack a solution for this and spend time doing it yourself.

• You spend (at least) 10 hours building the solution

• You burn another 10-20 hours fixing bugs (Over time)

• You lose another 3 hours trying to make your code clean and robust

Total: 33 hours gone.

Now imagine instead: you paid $49, used the tool, and shipped in an hour.

You used those 33 saved hours to:

• DM hundreds of potential customers

• Write 3 high-converting email sequences that drive actual sales

• Launch multiple A/B tests for your landing page to increase conversions

• Read 3 full-length marketing books that teach you positioning, pricing, and copywriting

Oh, and while you’re doing all that? Your affiliate system is just sitting there, working.

No bugs. No stress. No interruptions.

Paying Cheap Costs You More

There’s a saying in hebrew that says (Loosely translated):

“He who pays little ends up paying a lot.”

Imagine you have a problem with your pipes. You can either pay a friend of a friend that will come and fix it for a fraction of the price.

Or you can call a professional service that will both fix it and give you a guarantee.

The first one will try to make it as fast as possible, using low quality material.

The latter will use the best tools and knowledge that they have, because they don’t want you to trigger the warranty.

Plus, even if in the grand scheme of things calling the friend of a friend 5 times is cheaper, consider the amount of frustration and time you spend getting those pipes fixed.

Same logic applies to high-quality tools, services, and courses.

If you chase “cheap,” you’re not just buying low quality, you’re spending your most valuable currency: Time.

Why Most (Good) Developers Are Cheap?

Now, if spending money is so crucial, why do most developers avoid it?

Simple.

Most good developers think like this:

“If I can build it, I won’t pay for it”

And

“If it’s available for free, I’ll take free”

We undervalue our time and overvalue the money we spend.

It’s not even always about the tool. It’s the mindset underneath it.

And yes, in the beginning, you can build an MVP with just free tools:

• Free database

• Free analytics

• Free AI code editor

• Free GPT

• Free Canva

Nothing wrong with that. But you need the mindset that says:

“Once I validate this idea, I will pay to scale it.”

Don’t lock yourself into the “everything must be free” mindset. It’ll cost you everything that actually matters..

Why You’ll Stay Broke If You Ignore This

Let me ask you a question. And answer it honestly.

If you’re building a paid product, but you refuse to pay for other people’s solutions... do you think you’re worth paying for?

And it’s not about how good your product is. It’s about your mindset.

When you build with a cheap, scarcity-based approach, you don’t feel comfortable charging people.

Or if you do, you won’t charge enough.

You hesitate to sell.
You feel weird about pricing.
You avoid putting offers out there.

Why?

Because you’ve trained yourself to believe that good things should be free or built.”

So how the hell are you supposed to confidently ask someone for their money?

Spoiler alert: you won’t.

How would you be okay with sending DMs to people, asking them for their money if you are so reluctant to spend it?

Let me answer it for you: You won’t.

And you’ll miss out on high-quality customers who want to spend money with you.

Because they trust you.

But if you don’t trust yourself enough to invest, they won’t either.

Trust me, I’ve been there.

Final Thought

If you want to win this game, stop thinking like a hacker. Start thinking like an operator.

Don’t save money.
Buy speed.
Buy leverage.
Buy your time and focus back.

That’s what high-performing founders do.

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