CASE STUDY
A solo breathwork practitioner was paying $180/month across three platforms that didn't talk to each other. We replaced all of them with a single system running on free-tier infrastructure.
$0/mo
running costs
$180/mo
previous SaaS spend
6
automated email types
1 session
to build
THE PROBLEM
Amy Lewis runs Lucid Living — online somatic breathwork sessions for people across New Zealand. She's a practitioner, not a technologist. She needed a website, a booking system, a payment processor, and a way to send emails. Like most solo practitioners, she assembled a stack from whatever each platform recommended.
The result: Squarespace for the website ($33/month), Acuity Scheduling for bookings ($26/month), Mailchimp for email ($45/month for the subscriber tier), plus Stripe for payments and Zoom for video. Total monthly SaaS spend: roughly $180 before she'd seen a single client.
Worse than the cost was the disconnection. Acuity didn't reliably send booking confirmations. Mailchimp had no awareness of who had booked what. The website couldn't show real availability. Amy was manually copying information between systems, chasing no-shows who never got a reminder, and spending time on admin that should have been spent on her practice.
For a wellness practitioner running online sessions, $180/month in fixed costs is a meaningful percentage of revenue. And the tools she was paying for were creating work, not reducing it. She needed everything in one place, automated, and affordable.
WHAT WAS BUILT
A complete practice management platform — website, bookings, payments, email, and video — all running on free-tier services with zero monthly costs.
A booking flow built specifically for wellness practitioners. Step one: choose a session. Step two: health screening questionnaire (customisable per practitioner — breathwork has medical contraindications that need to be captured before someone books). Step three: payment via Stripe. No separate scheduling tool. No manual intake forms.
Booking confirmation. 24-hour reminder. 1-hour reminder with Zoom link. Waitlist notification when a spot opens. Spot-available alert for cancelled slots. Contact form responses. All sent through Resend on the free tier — transactional, reliable, no monthly fee. No more missed confirmations or chasing no-shows.
Payments processed through Stripe — per-transaction fees only, no monthly subscription. Discount codes built in for promotions, gift vouchers, and loyalty pricing. Payment, booking, and email all connected — when someone pays, they're immediately confirmed and entered into the reminder flow.
When a session is created, a Zoom meeting is automatically provisioned via the Zoom API. The meeting link goes into the booking confirmation and reminder emails. No manual Zoom room creation. No copy-pasting links. Calendar download (.ics) files included in every confirmation.
When a session fills up, clients can join a waitlist. If a spot opens (cancellation or extra capacity), the system automatically notifies waitlisted clients. First to pay gets the spot. No manual tracking, no spreadsheets, no "I'll let you know if something opens up."
A resource section for recorded sessions, guides, and supplementary material. Amy can gate content behind booking history or offer it as part of a package. Built to expand as the practice grows — from one-off sessions to courses, series, and membership-style access.
TECH STACK
Every service chosen for its free tier. The only cost is Stripe's per-transaction fee — which Amy was already paying. Monthly SaaS spend went from $180 to $0.
| Before | After | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace ($33/mo) | Next.js on Vercel | Free |
| Acuity ($26/mo) | Custom booking flow | Free |
| Mailchimp ($45/mo) | Resend | Free |
| Manual Zoom setup | Zoom API auto-provision | Free |
| No database | Supabase | Free |
| Stripe ($0 + fees) | Stripe ($0 + fees) | Per txn |
Total monthly savings: $180/month ($2,160/year)
RESULTS
$0/month running costs — down from $180/month across three platforms. That's $2,160/year back in Amy's pocket.
Every booking confirmed automatically. No more missed confirmations or clients showing up unsure if they're registered.
24-hour and 1-hour reminders with Zoom links reduce no-shows without Amy having to chase anyone.
Health screening built into the booking flow. Amy sees responses before the session starts — critical for breathwork where contraindications matter.
Waitlist management runs itself. Spots fill automatically when cancellations happen.
The entire system is owned, not rented. No platform can raise prices, change terms, or shut down a feature Amy depends on.
TIMELINE
The entire platform — website, booking flow, health screening, payment integration, six email types, Zoom provisioning, waitlist management, and content library — was built in one intensive build session using Claude Code.
This wasn't a six-month development project. It was a focused build with AI as the implementation partner. Amy described what she needed. The system was scoped, built, tested, and deployed. DNS was switched. The old platforms were cancelled.
The speed is the point. Solo practitioners can't afford to wait months for custom software. They need something that works this week, costs nothing to run, and doesn't require a developer on retainer. That's what AI-assisted building makes possible.
GET THIS FOR YOUR PRACTICE
The same system built for Lucid Living is available as a template. Website, booking with health screening, Stripe payments, automated emails, Zoom provisioning, waitlist — all pre-built on free-tier infrastructure. Deploy your own practice platform in hours, not months.
Learn about Wellness OSLet's figure out what you actually need — and build it so it costs nothing to run. One discovery call, no obligation.
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