# Anton Shubin — Senior Full-Stack Engineer & Tech Lead

> I'm a senior full-stack engineer and tech lead. I build and run SaaS products end to end, and you own the code, the servers and the keys from day one.

## Quick Facts

- Role: Senior Full-Stack Engineer & Tech Lead
- Company: NeatSoft PTE LTD, Singapore (UEN 202300222R) — Anton is co-founder and CEO
- Expertise: SaaS architecture, product delivery, open-source and self-hostable infrastructure, dedicated bare-metal on Hetzner, managed cloud (AWS, GCP, Supabase), platform engineering, observability, backup and disaster recovery, identity and access management, cloud cost optimization, AI integration, MCP server engineering
- Stack: Deno/Node.js, Preact/React, PostgreSQL, Valkey/Redis, Docker/Podman, Traefik, MCP — built on web standards (Fetch, Web Crypto, Streams, ES modules), portable across runtimes
- AI APIs: OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek
- Upwork: Expert-Vetted (Top 1%), 100% Job Success, $300K+ earned, 80 jobs
- Pricing: fixed price when the scope is fixed, hourly when open-ended; every price is listed under Services below
- Location: Da Nang, Vietnam (Singapore-based entity)

## Services

Start with a free 30-minute intro call, or send a written brief (https://antonshubin.com/book#brief): I write back with 3 concrete architectural improvements, free, within one working day.

- [Strategy session](https://antonshubin.com/catalog/strategy-call) — $150, 60 minutes. A 60-minute working call about your project or idea, with notes afterwards.
- [Code & security audit](https://antonshubin.com/catalog/codebase-health-audit) — From $1,500, 3 days. I check your app's code and security and tell you what to fix first, including apps built with Lovable, Supabase, Cursor or Claude Code.
- [Build: MVP](https://antonshubin.com/catalog/zero-to-production-saas-mvp) — From $8,000, from 3 weeks. I build your product from idea to a live app on servers you own. Backends, AI features and MCP servers are built the same way.
- [Ongoing](https://antonshubin.com/catalog/cto-advisory-retainer) — $150/hour or from $3,000/month, ongoing. Ongoing technical leadership and post-launch support, hourly or on a monthly retainer.

Fixed price when the scope is fixed, hourly when the work is open-ended. A change to scope gets a quote before I start on it.

## Promises

- You own everything from day one — code, accounts, servers and keys are in your name.
- Five-day refund — if in the first five days you feel this is not working, tell me and I refund what you paid.
- A small first milestone — we start with one or two weeks of work. If either of us wants to stop at the end of it, we stop — you keep everything built so far.
- Weekly working software — you see working software every week, with a short written update. Calls when they help, not on a schedule for its own sake.
- Free bug fixes for 30 days — bugs in what I delivered are fixed free for 30 days.

## Key Pages

- [Home](https://antonshubin.com/) — Who I am, the Upwork figures, prices, client work, reviews and how to book
- [About](https://antonshubin.com/about) — Who I am, since 2010: the career story, what I run myself and how to pay
- [SaaS Architecture Guide](https://antonshubin.com/saas-architecture-guide) — A short reading order from idea to production: current posts, client projects with their outcomes, infrastructure and AI, each with one line on why to read it
- [Services and prices](https://antonshubin.com/catalog) — the four services with their prices and what each includes
- [How I work](https://antonshubin.com/how-i-work) — The five promises in the order a project meets them, prices, who does the work, how I use AI and the questions clients ask
- [Why not just AI?](https://antonshubin.com/why-not-just-ai) — I use AI coding agents every day. What they do well, what I add on top, and when an AI subscription alone is enough for your product.
- [How I run production](https://antonshubin.com/infrastructure) — The live services I run, a map of how they connect in four lanes, and how handover, backups, monitoring and deploys are handled
- [Contact](https://antonshubin.com/book) — Book a free 30-minute call on the page, send a written brief (https://antonshubin.com/book#brief), or email hi@antonshubin.com, or Telegram @spy4x
- [Writing](https://antonshubin.com/blog) — Posts on decisions for founders, AI and MCP, self-hosting, and Scars (my own mistakes and what I changed after them)
- [Work](https://antonshubin.com/work) — 12 client projects, 2014–now, with reviews
- [Tools](https://antonshubin.com/tools) — Open-source tools I build and use, led by demo clips, each with its status and its own page
- [Privacy](https://antonshubin.com/privacy) — What the brief form, the newsletter and analytics collect

## Tools

- [mig](https://antonshubin.com/tools/mig) — Tiny self-hosted meeting scheduler. Status: In use. Powers my own booking link at meet.antonshubin.com. Install: `docker pull antonshubin/mig:v2.2.0` (Docker Hub).
- [Zond](https://antonshubin.com/tools/zond) — Internal health probe bridge for services behind SSO proxies. Status: In use.
- [oko](https://antonshubin.com/tools/oko) — One page for every self-hosted service, with its status and 30-day uptime from gatus. Status: In use. I built it for my own servers and run it at dash.antonshubin.com.
- [caldav-mcp](https://antonshubin.com/tools/caldav-mcp) — MCP server that lets AI assistants read and write CalDAV events and tasks. Status: In use.
- [rostok](https://antonshubin.com/tools/rostok) — One-command scaffolder for a self-hosted homelab. Status: In use. Deploys my own servers: four instances in different regions, each running a different set of services. Install: `deno install -g -A -n rostok jsr:@rostok/cli@1.20.4` (JSR).
- [ts-libs](https://antonshubin.com/tools/ts-libs) — Tested TypeScript building blocks for web-standards back ends. Status: Ready. Seed, my SaaS starter, imports nine of these packages; mig, my meeting scheduler, and this site import six each. MIT. Install: `deno add jsr:@spy4x/server@1.92.0` (JSR).
- [preact-components](https://antonshubin.com/tools/preact-components) — Server-rendered Preact and Tailwind components. The design system, the component styling and the original markup are by Eirene. Status: Beta. Every component runs in the live UI guide, with its code beside it. MIT. Install: `deno add jsr:@spy4x/preact-ui@10.7.0` (JSR).
- [dotfiles](https://antonshubin.com/tools/dotfiles) — My AI-agent setup and Linux workstation, as code. Status: In use. This is how I run AI agents on real work, on my own machine. It is that machine's live config: a merged change is not done until it is applied there.
- [Air Quality Sensor](https://antonshubin.com/tools/air-quality-sensor) — DIY ESP32-based air quality monitoring system. Status: Archived.
- [Financy](https://antonshubin.com/tools/financy) — Self-hosted finance tracker for a person or a family. Status: WIP. Being revived — work in progress, not ready for everyday use.
- [Seed](https://antonshubin.com/tools/seed) — SaaS starter. Status: WIP. The base of every SaaS MVP I build for clients.
- [caldav-tasks-web](https://antonshubin.com/tools/caldav-tasks-web) — Web UI for CalDAV VTODO tasks. Status: WIP. Tested against Radicale 3.5.4 and in Chromium. Stalwart 0.16 is in daily use, not in CI; other servers are untested. Install: `docker pull antonshubin/caldav-tasks-web:v1.10.0` (Docker Hub).
- [Toread.Today](https://antonshubin.com/tools/toread-today) — A cloud tool to organise things to read or watch later. Status: Archived.

## Writing

### For founders
- [preact-components: a Preact component library without shadcn or Radix](https://antonshubin.com/blog/preact-component-library-without-shadcn) Tool: [preact-components](https://antonshubin.com/tools/preact-components).
- [Cost-Disciplined SaaS Infrastructure: Managed Cloud, Dedicated, or Hybrid?](https://antonshubin.com/blog/cost-optimization-laboratory)

### AI and MCP
- [I tested Trail-code on my Claude Code agents. They ignored the map.](https://antonshubin.com/blog/trail-code-claude-code-test) Tool: [Seed](https://antonshubin.com/tools/seed).
- [Claude Code vs MiniMax M3: 30 days against 3 months, in merged pull requests](https://antonshubin.com/blog/claude-code-vs-minimax-m3-30-days)
- [Opus 5.5 vs Sonnet 5: the pricier model wrote my code for about half the cost](https://antonshubin.com/blog/opus-5-5-vs-sonnet-5-agent-costs)
- [Building MCP Servers with Deno: A Practical Guide](https://antonshubin.com/blog/building-mcp-servers-with-deno) Tool: [caldav-mcp](https://antonshubin.com/tools/caldav-mcp).
- [How ChatGPT Can Help You Design System Architecture for Your Applications](https://antonshubin.com/blog/how-chatgpt-can-help-you-design-system-architecture)

### Self-hosting
- [mig: a lightweight meeting scheduler because Calendly alternatives are overkill](https://antonshubin.com/blog/mig-tiny-self-hosted-scheduler) Tool: [mig](https://antonshubin.com/tools/mig).
- [rostok: scaffold a self-hosted homelab from a curated service catalog](https://antonshubin.com/blog/rostok-self-hosted-scaffolder) Tool: [rostok](https://antonshubin.com/tools/rostok).
- [zond: a 10 MB probe bridge so Gatus can see through your SSO proxy](https://antonshubin.com/blog/zond-sso-probe-bridge) Tool: [Zond](https://antonshubin.com/tools/zond).
- [The missing piece in a self-hosted CalDAV stack: a web UI for Tasks.org](https://antonshubin.com/blog/self-hosted-caldav-web-ui-tasks-org) Tool: [caldav-tasks-web](https://antonshubin.com/tools/caldav-tasks-web).

### Scars
- [My AI agent merged a stranger's pull request, and I didn't notice for three weeks](https://antonshubin.com/blog/ai-agent-merged-a-strangers-pull-request)
- [Seed: the SaaS starter I distilled from 80+ projects, and how I over-engineered v1](https://antonshubin.com/blog/seed-saas-starter) Tool: [Seed](https://antonshubin.com/tools/seed).

### Archive (kept as written)
- [Setting Up Your Own CI/CD Server with Drone CI](https://antonshubin.com/blog/setting-up-your-own-ci-cd-server-with-drone-ci)
- [Dev tricks, Part 1: The Importance of Code Formatting with Prettier](https://antonshubin.com/blog/the-importance-of-code-formatting-with-prettier)
- [How to Keep Sane When Developing a SaaS Startup Solo? Part 1: Mindset and Mental Health](https://antonshubin.com/blog/how-to-keep-sane-while-developing-saas-alone-part-1-mental-health)
- [My journey from an office job to freelance to my startups](https://antonshubin.com/blog/from-office-job-to-freelance-to-my-startups)
- [Why you have to ship your idea today and with shittiest code possible](https://antonshubin.com/blog/ship-it-today)

## Client Work Highlights

- [SmartLite](https://antonshubin.com/work/smartlite) — Built for Yumetronics, 2024–now. Built solo in 3 months; about 200 lamp poles in production since 2024.
- [FoodRazor: paper invoices, orders to suppliers and price tracking](https://antonshubin.com/work/foodrazor) — Digitize paper invoices, automating orders to suppliers, and tracking price fluctuations. Built for Michael Distel, 2018–2019. Scaled across 10 countries and hundreds of restaurants; acquired in 2023.
- [Corecircle: fitness social network with exercise tracking](https://antonshubin.com/work/corecircle) — Fitness-focused social network with exercise tracking features and ML for recommendation system. Built for Nastassia Ponomarenko, 2021. Scaled to 200K+ users; acquired in 2024.

All client work: https://antonshubin.com/work

## Who this suits

A good fit:
- Greenfield SaaS on a modern, lightweight stack, built solo or with senior developers from my own pool.
- A team that already exists and wants a senior tech lead alongside it.
- Full-stack, DevOps and architecture from one person.

Not a fit yet: mobile apps. I don't build them yet, and I'm looking at Capacitor.

Track record: 80 jobs on Upwork, 100% Job Success, Expert-Vetted, Top 1%.