I usually ship Next.js as Docker standalone on ECS Fargate — ALB, VPC, always-on tasks. For an MVP like qr-plakat.de I went OpenNext 4.x + AWS CDK instead. Cheaper to run, faster to iterate. If the product works, I might switch to Fargate.
Three things made this feel better than the Fargate path. Deploys are one GitHub Actions job from lint to CloudFront invalidation. Infra is CDK I already know — explicit stacks, no extra deploy product. And I can ship from Telegram → OpenClaw → Cursor while watching Netflix or training outside: a PR lands, Actions deploys, I check prod from the phone.
The product: qr-plakat.de
qr-plakat.de is a DACH SaaS for posters with QR codes. You design in a wizard, overlay one to eight codes, and export 300 dpi PDF or JPG. Each poster gets hosted scan URLs like qr-plakat.de/p/{slug} that you can change without reprinting. Everything runs in eu-central-1.
The first real poster is the Brasil shop-window plakat — eight products, eight QR codes, print-ready from the editor.
Subscriptions are mocked. I am the only user, so there is no Stripe checkout. If someone wants a higher tier, they request it in the support chat and I set the plan by hand. Real billing comes when I convince the first business to use the product.
Why OpenNext + CDK for an MVP
OpenNext + CDK is the best choice for MVPs — low cost, fast iteration. If the product works, I might switch to ECS Fargate.
Fargate wants a baseline of tasks, a VPC, and an ALB even when almost nobody is hitting the site. OpenNext maps the Next.js app to pay-per-request Lambda, with CloudFront and S3 in front. I still get App Router, RSC, and Server Actions. I do not run next start in a container.
I stayed on CDK — explicit stacks, same IaC I already use elsewhere. DynamoDB, S3, and Cognito mean no VPC for the data plane.
The ECS Fargate path I used on listings-mcp is the later-stage option: always-on, long jobs, when traffic and product-market fit justify it.
Stack
| Layer | Tools |
|---|---|
| Frontend |  Next.js 16 App Router ·  React 19 ·  shadcn/ui ·  Tailwind 4 |
| Hosting |  @opennextjs/aws →  Lambda ARM64 (2048 MB, 60s) ·  CloudFront ·  S3 |
| IaC |  AWS CDK stacks: Data → Auth → Web → Observability (+ CI/CD OIDC) · cdk-opennext NextjsSite |
| Auth |  Cognito ×2 (creators / admins) |
| Data |  ElectroDB on DynamoDB single-table |
| DNS |  Route 53 qr-plakat.de |
GitHub Actions — the part I love
One job. No artifact hop between build and deploy. The runner lints, typechecks, and tests, then runs next build, open-next build, and cdk synth. After that it assumes an IAM role with OIDC, runs cdk deploy --all, and invalidates CloudFront /*.
PRs to main ship prod. That is intentional. Dependabot runs CI only.
That loop is why Telegram shipping works. The agent opens a PR, Actions deploys, I hit the live site from the phone.
Agentic loop
I already wrote about OpenClaw and what shipped after three months. On this project the loop is the same, just pointed at qr-plakat.
I send a voice note or a short text on Telegram while watching Netflix or training outside. OpenClaw on the VPS hands the work to Cursor in the real repo. Cursor does a git pull, reads AGENTS.md and docs/, implements the change, and opens a PR. Product decisions stay in docs/ and ADRs — not buried in chat.
MCPs I actually used
Cursor talked to a small set of MCPs on this repo. shadcn for component discovery and install. aws-knowledge-mcp for AWS docs while writing CDK. playwright for browser checks. firecrawl when I needed to scrape or research a page. sistrix for DACH SEO. pdf-reader for print and export PDFs.
Skills that helped
The useful skills were the ones I already had: aws-cdk-development and aws-serverless for infra, vercel-react-best-practices, shadcn-ui, and tailwind-patterns for the app, ci-cd-pipeline-builder for Actions, seo-audit and seo-meta for the landing pages, plus playwright-cli, diagnosing-bugs, and code-review.
There is no OpenNext-specific skill. CDK and serverless skills were enough.
Would I do it again
For an MVP: OpenNext + CDK + one Actions job + Telegram agents. Cheap to run, fast to ship. If qr-plakat takes off, I might move the Next.js app to ECS Fargate. Until then, stay serverless.
Live: qr-plakat.de.
office@martinmueller.dev · calendly.com/martinmueller_dev · LinkedIn
Further reading
Course: Next.js MVP on OpenNext + CDK
This post is the walkthrough. The course is the build — the same path as qr-plakat.de.
You ship a Next.js SaaS on OpenNext 4.x + CDK: Lambda and CloudFront, no Fargate. CDK stacks for Data, Auth, Web, and CI/CD. DynamoDB single-table with ElectroDB. Cognito with your own login UI. One GitHub Actions job from lint to CloudFront invalidation, Route 53, eu-central-1.
Next.js MVP: OpenNext + CDK — three-day team training, on-site or remote, price on request.
