Infrastructure Cost Analysis

• Author(s): Ryan (@ryanchristo)
• Editor(s): NA
• Date (created): 2026-01-28
• Date (updated): NA
• Sprint: Cohort 11

Short Description

This document provides a comprehensive infrastructure cost analysis including Vercel (dashboard, facilitator, documentation), Supabase (database/auth/storage), RPC providers (Infura/Alchemy), and Raid Guild operational setup and maintenance.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Deployment Architecture
  • Deployment Models
• Vercel Platform Costs
  • Hobby Tier
  • Pro Tier
  • Enterprise Tier
• Supabase Platform Costs
  • Free Tier
  • Pro Tier
  • Team Tier
  • Enterprise Tier
• RPC Provider Costs
  • Infura
  • Alchemy
  • Quick Comparison
• Project Management Costs
  • Initial Setup
  • Ongoing Management
  • Cost Summary
• Pay-As-You-Use Breakdown
  • Vercel Overage Costs
  • Supabase Overage Costs
  • RPC Provider Usage Costs
• Cost Optimization Strategies
  • Vercel Optimization
  • Supabase Optimization
  • RPC Optimization
• Recommendations
  • Vercel Recommendations
  • Supabase Recommendations
  • RPC Provider Recommendations
  • Combined Recommendations
• References

Executive Summary

This document provides a comprehensive cost analysis for hosted infrastructure:

1. Vercel: Dashboard + Facilitator + Documentation (cost depends on deployment architecture and traffic)
2. Supabase: Database/auth/storage services (cost depends on subscription model and usage)
3. RPC Providers: Infura or Alchemy (existing Raid Guild providers; cost depends on usage)
4. Internal Operations: Initial setup + ongoing management of infrastructure (internal operational costs)

Costs are presented with example tiers and scenarios; the biggest cost drivers are the deployment model (shared vs per-client) and usage (traffic, MAUs, RPC calls, storage/bandwidth). For budgeting, combine platform/vendor bills (Vercel + Supabase + RPC) with the internal operations estimates in the Project Management section.

Note: This cost analysis does not include gas fees, which are covered in Cost Structure & Rate Limiting Analysis.

Deployment Architecture

The cost structure will vary significantly based on the deployment model chosen. Key architecture choices include:

1. Vercel deployments:

   • Dashboard: per-client or shared deployments
   • Facilitator: per-client or shared deployments
   • Documentation: per-client or shared deployments

2. Supabase subscriptions: per-client or shared subscriptions

3. RPC provider: per-client or shared provider project/API keys

Deployment Models:

1. Per-Client Deployments: Each client requires their own dashboard and facilitator service

   • Highest cost scenario (multiple deployments)
   • Best isolation and customization per client
   • Documentation: per-client or shared (depending on approach)
   • Supabase: per-client or shared (depending on approach)
   • RPC: per-client or shared provider project/API keys

2. Shared Dashboard, Per-Client Facilitator: All clients share one dashboard, but each client has their own facilitator service

   • Moderate cost scenario
   • Dashboard costs are shared, facilitator costs scale with client count
   • Documentation: per-client or shared (depending on approach)
   • Supabase: per-client or shared (depending on approach)
   • RPC: per-client or shared provider project/API keys

3. Fully Shared: All clients share both the same dashboard and facilitator service

   • Lowest cost scenario (single deployment of each)
   • Requires multi-tenancy architecture
   • Documentation: per-client or shared (depending on approach)
   • Supabase: shared (one subscription for all clients) or per-client (if isolation required)
   • RPC: per-client or shared provider project/API keys

Note: Examples assume single deployments. Multiply costs based on chosen architecture. Documentation, Supabase, and RPC provider models can be chosen independently of the Vercel deployment architecture.

Vercel Platform Costs

Vercel pricing is organized into tiers (Hobby, Pro, Enterprise). The examples below focus on Pro for paid application hosting.

Hobby Tier

Cost: $0/month

Included: 100 GB data transfer, unlimited projects, CI/CD, preview deployments, basic functions/middleware

Limitations: No team collaboration, limited analytics, no custom domains, no SSO

Suitable For: Development/testing, low-traffic projects, proof-of-concept

Pro Tier

Base Cost: $20/month per developer seat

Important Pricing Note: Vercel Pro has two cost components:

• Developer Experience Platform (DX Platform): the $20/month per paid seat fee
• Managed Infrastructure usage: usage-based billing (Functions, data transfer, and other billable resources)

Vercel Functions pricing (Fluid Compute):

• Active CPU: billed per CPU-hour while your code is executing (billing pauses during I/O)
• Provisioned Memory: billed per GB-hour for the lifetime of function instances (continues during I/O)
• Invocations: billed per request; first 1M included, then $0.60 per million on Pro
• Regional pricing applies (example US regions: $0.128 / CPU-hour and $0.0106 / GB-hour memory)

Optional Add-Ons: SAML SSO ($300/mo), HIPAA BAA ($350/mo), Observability Plus ($10/mo), Web Analytics Plus ($10/mo), Speed Insights ($10/project/mo)

Estimating monthly cost:

• Seats: (paid seats × $20)
• Functions: invocations + (Active CPU time × regional rate) + (Provisioned Memory × regional rate)
• Other managed infrastructure: varies by enabled products and usage

Note: Function compute cost depends on workload shape (CPU time, instance lifetime, and configured memory) and region.

Enterprise Tier

Cost: Custom pricing (contact Vercel sales), typically $500-$2,000+/month base

Features: All Pro features + custom limits, dedicated infrastructure, SSO, enhanced observability, SLAs, priority support

Benefits: Volume discounts, consolidated billing, better cost predictability

Example Costs (depending on traffic):

• Small (10-50 deployments): $500-$2,000/month
• Medium (50-200 deployments): $1,500-$5,000/month
• Large (200+ deployments): $3,000-$10,000+/month

Supabase Platform Costs

Each client may require a Supabase subscription for database, authentication, and storage services. Similar to the facilitator dashboard and documentation site, Supabase subscriptions can be:

• Shared: One subscription for all clients (multi-tenancy)
• Per-Client: One subscription per client (better isolation)

Free Tier

Cost: $0/month

Included:

• Up to 2 active projects per organization
• 500 MB database storage per project
• 1 GB file storage
• 50,000 monthly active users (MAUs)
• 5 GB bandwidth
• 500,000 Edge Function invocations
• Community support

Limitations: Projects paused after 1 week of inactivity, limited storage, no backups, no SSO

Suitable For: Development/testing, proof-of-concept, very low-traffic projects

Pro Tier

Base Cost: $25/month per project (includes $10 in compute credits)

Included:

• 100,000 MAUs (additional at $0.00325 per MAU)
• 8 GB database disk size per project (additional at $0.125 per GB-month on gp3)
• 100 GB Supabase Storage (object/file storage) (additional at $0.021 per GB-month)
• 250 GB bandwidth (additional at $0.09 per GB)
• 2 million Edge Function invocations (additional at $2 per million)
• Email support
• Daily backups stored for 7 days
• 7-day log retention

Compute Add-ons: Available to scale database up to 64 cores and 256 GB RAM

Example Costs (single subscription):

Multi-Subscription Scenarios (10 clients, moderate usage per subscription):

Note: Shared subscription costs scale with combined usage across all clients.

Team Tier

Base Cost: $599/month per project (includes $10 in compute credits)

Included:

• Everything in Pro Plan, plus:
• SOC2 compliance
• HIPAA compliance available as paid add-on
• Read-only and billing member roles
• Single Sign-On (SSO) for Supabase Dashboard
• Priority email support and SLAs
• Daily backups stored for 14 days
• 28-day log retention

Additional compute resources: Available as needed

Suitable For: Organizations requiring compliance, SSO, enhanced support, and SLAs

Example Costs:

• Base: $599/month per subscription
• With usage overages: $600-$1,500+/month per subscription (depending on traffic)
• Multi-subscription: Multiply by subscription count

Enterprise Tier

Cost: Custom pricing (contact Supabase sales)

Features: Designated support manager, uptime SLAs, on-premise support, 24×7×365 premium enterprise support, private Slack channel, custom security questionnaires

Benefits: Volume discounts, consolidated billing, better cost predictability, enterprise-grade support

Suitable For: Large-scale applications running at internet-scale workloads

Example Costs (depending on scale):

• Small (1-5 subscriptions): $1,000-$3,000/month
• Medium (5-20 subscriptions): $3,000-$10,000/month
• Large (20+ subscriptions): $8,000-$25,000+/month

RPC Provider Costs

RPC providers provide blockchain node access (Ethereum + L2s/testnets, etc.) without running your own full node infrastructure. Costs are usually driven by request complexity (credits / compute units) and throughput limits.

This section explores the existing providers used by the Raid Guild team: Infura  and Alchemy .

Infura

Infura uses credit-based pricing with fixed daily credit quotas per plan. Each JSON-RPC method consumes a defined number of credits (e.g., eth_call = 80 credits, eth_getLogs = 255 credits).

Plans (new customers):

• Core (Free): 3,000,000 credits/day, 500 credits/second — $0/month
• Developer: 15,000,000 credits/day, 4,000 credits/second — $50/month
• Team: 75,000,000 credits/day, 40,000 credits/second — $225/month
• Enterprise: Custom (elastic auto-scaling)

Rule-of-thumb capacity (approximate max calls/day if using only one method):

• Core (3,000,000 credits/day):
  • eth_call (80 credits): ~37,500 calls/day
  • eth_getLogs (255 credits): ~11,764 calls/day
• Developer (15,000,000 credits/day):
  • eth_call (80 credits): ~187,500 calls/day
  • eth_getLogs (255 credits): ~58,823 calls/day
• Team (75,000,000 credits/day):
  • eth_call (80 credits): ~937,500 calls/day
  • eth_getLogs (255 credits): ~294,117 calls/day

When to choose Infura:

• You want predictable monthly pricing via fixed quotas and clear rate limits
• Your workload maps cleanly to credit budgeting and you want to cap spend with a plan

Alchemy

Alchemy uses Compute Units (CUs) per API method, plus throughput measured in CU/s (CUPS). Each JSON-RPC method consumes a defined number of CUs (e.g., eth_blockNumber = 10 CU, eth_call = 26 CU, eth_getLogs = 60 CU).

Plans:

• Free: 30,000,000 CU/month — $0/month
• Pay As You Go (PAYG): minimum $5 (includes 11M CUs), then usage priced:
  • $0.45 per 1M CU (up to 300M CU/month)
  • $0.40 per 1M CU (300M+ CU/month)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Rule-of-thumb capacity (approximate max calls/month if using only one method):

• Free (30,000,000 CU/month):
  • eth_blockNumber (10 CU): ~3,000,000 calls/month
  • eth_call (26 CU): ~1,153,846 calls/month
  • eth_getLogs (60 CU): ~500,000 calls/month

Example PAYG costs:

• 100M CU/month: (100 × $0.45) ≈ $45/month
• 500M CU/month: (300 × $0.45) + (200 × $0.40) = $215/month
• 1B CU/month: (300 × $0.45) + (700 × $0.40) = $415/month

When to choose Alchemy:

• You prefer pay-for-usage economics and want to scale cost smoothly with demand
• You expect to leverage Alchemy’s enhanced APIs/tooling in addition to standard RPC

Quick Comparison

Project Management Costs

This section covers Raid Guild internal labor costs for standing up and operating the infrastructure (planning, setup, automation, monitoring, incident response, and ongoing coordination). Unlike the sections above (which compare third-party platform/vendor pricing like Vercel, Supabase, and RPC providers), these costs represent the time required to manage those platforms.

Initial Setup

Activities: Account/project setup, domain/SSL, CI/CD, environment variables, monitoring, documentation, initial deployment, Supabase project setup and configuration

Time & Cost:

• Simple (shared deployment): 6-8 hours → $300-$800
• Complex (per-client with automation): 10-14 hours → $500-$1,400

Note: Costs are based on $50-$100/hour member rates.

Ongoing Management

Current State: Raid Guild’s Infrastructure Maestro role already exists and manages Vercel for other projects. This role can be extended to include Supabase management for this project.

Options:

1. Extend Infrastructure Maestro: Add Supabase management to existing responsibilities
2. New Dedicated Role: Separate Vercel/Supabase/platform management role

Management Activities: Monitoring, env vars/secrets, deployments/rollbacks, config updates, usage optimization, coordination, documentation, Supabase database management, backup monitoring

Factors Affecting Time: Deployment architecture (shared vs per-client), number of clients, deployment frequency, incident rate

Cost Summary

• Initial: $300-$1,400 (one-time)
• Ongoing: Varies based on time required for management activities

Pay-As-You-Use Breakdown

Vercel Overage Costs

Vercel charges for managed infrastructure usage (Functions, transfer, requests, etc.).

Supabase Overage Costs

Supabase charges for usage beyond included limits (Pro Tier):

Compute add-ons available for additional database performance (scales up to 64 cores, 256 GB RAM)

RPC Provider Usage Costs

Infura and Alchemy are usage-metered managed RPC providers (used by Raid Guild today). For plan details and example cost modeling, see the RPC Provider Costs section above.

Cost Optimization Strategies

Vercel Optimization

1. Deployment Architecture: Shared deployments minimize costs vs per-client (better isolation but higher cost)
2. Caching: Reduce edge requests, data transfer, and function invocations
3. Function Optimization: Minimize execution time, optimize memory allocation, reduce I/O wait time
4. Static Generation: Use SSG where possible to reduce compute costs
5. Monitoring: Track usage with Vercel Analytics to identify optimization opportunities
6. Enterprise Tier: Volume discounts available for multiple deployments

Supabase Optimization

1. Subscription Model: Shared subscription minimizes costs vs per-client (one subscription for all clients)
2. Database Optimization: Index queries, optimize schemas, archive old data to reduce storage
3. File Storage: Use CDN for static assets, compress images, implement lazy loading
4. Bandwidth: Cache API responses, minimize data transfer, use efficient serialization
5. MAU Management: Implement proper session management, clean up inactive users
6. Monitoring: Track usage in Supabase dashboard to identify optimization opportunities
7. Enterprise Tier: Volume discounts available for multiple subscriptions

RPC Optimization

1. Cache aggressively: Cache common reads (block numbers, token metadata, config) and avoid refetching unchanged chain data
2. Reduce expensive calls: Minimize eth_getLogs/trace-style queries; prefer indexed event ingestion and targeted queries
3. Batch and debounce: Batch JSON-RPC; debounce UI polling; prefer subscriptions/webhooks over tight polling loops
4. Instrument usage: Track RPC method mix (credits/CUs) so you can optimize the highest-cost endpoints first
5. Plan for limits: Add retries/backoff and consider a secondary provider for resilience during rate limiting/outages

Recommendations

Vercel Recommendations

1. Start with Pro Tier: $20/month base is reasonable; scales with usage
2. Model & Scaling: Per-client deployments scale costs linearly; shared deployments keep costs more predictable
3. Monitor Usage: Set spending alerts (default $200 limit) to avoid surprises
4. Budget Planning:
   • Shared: Low ($20-50), Moderate ($100-300), High ($500-2,000) per month
   • Per-Client: Multiply by client count (and include docs deployments)
5. Enterprise Consideration: Evaluate for higher deployment counts or stricter support/SLA requirements

Supabase Recommendations

1. Start with Pro Tier: $25/month base per subscription; scales with usage
2. Model & Scaling: Prefer shared subscription unless isolation is required; per-client subscriptions scale costs linearly
3. Monitor Usage: Track database storage, bandwidth, and MAUs in Supabase dashboard
4. Budget Planning:
   • Shared Subscription: Low ($25-50), Moderate ($200-500), High ($1,000-2,000) per month
   • Per-Client Subscriptions: Multiply by client count (moderate usage: ~$200-500 per client/month)
5. Enterprise Consideration: Evaluate Team tier ($599/month) for compliance needs or Enterprise for 5+ subscriptions

RPC Provider Recommendations

1. Start with a single provider: Use the current Raid Guild provider (Infura or Alchemy) and validate usage patterns early
2. Model & Scaling: Use separate provider apps/keys per client if you need per-client quotas, reporting, or blast-radius reduction
3. Monitor Usage: Track credit/CU burn and rate limiting; set alerts before you hit quota/throughput limits
4. Budget Planning: Treat RPC as usage-metered; plan thresholds for when to upgrade plans or add capacity based on real usage
5. Resilience: Consider a secondary provider/failover strategy if RPC availability is critical for uptime

Combined Recommendations

1. Include All Costs: Factor in Vercel + Supabase + RPC provider costs when pricing
2. Include Management Costs: Initial setup ($300-$1,400) + ongoing ($150-$1,000/month) - factor into pricing
3. Total Budget Planning (Vercel + Supabase, shared architecture; add RPC costs separately based on usage):
   • Low: $45-100/month (Vercel $20-50 + Supabase $25-50)
   • Moderate: $300-800/month (Vercel $100-300 + Supabase $200-500)
   • High: $1,500-4,000/month (Vercel $500-2,000 + Supabase $1,000-2,000)
4. Per-Client Architecture: Multiply Vercel costs by deployment count + Supabase costs by subscription count

References

Vercel

• Vercel Pricing Page 
• Vercel Pricing Docs 
• Vercel Functions Usage and Pricing 
• Vercel Bandwidth Pricing 

Supabase

• Supabase Pricing Page 
• Supabase Documentation 
• Supabase Disk Size Billing 

RPC Providers

• Infura Pricing 
• Infura Credit Costs (per RPC method) 
• Alchemy Pricing 
• Alchemy Pricing Plans (docs) 
• Alchemy Compute Unit Costs (per RPC method)