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Building Two Web Apps with Hono: From Restaurant Menus to SaaS Invoice Tool

hono buildinpublic saas

Just wrapped up a coding session exploring Hono - and I’m blown away by what this framework can do. Built two complete applications and learned a ton along the way. Here’s the journey:

Project 1: MenuMaster 🍽️

What I built: A restaurant menu API with CRUD operations

Started simple - wanted to test out Hono’s API capabilities:

  • Restaurant management
  • Menu management per restaurant
  • Meal management per menu

The surprise: Hono isn’t just for APIs! Discovered it does server-side rendering too. What started as a backend-only project quickly evolved into a full web app with:

  • HTML pages
  • Navigation menus
  • Basic styling

Time investment: A few hours Result: Working prototype with seed data

The development experience was smooth. Hono’s simplicity really shines when you just want to get something working fast.

Project 2: SoonerPay 💸

What I built: A freelancer invoice SaaS with automated reminders

This is where things got serious. Full-stack SaaS application with:

Tech Stack:

  • Hono (framework)
  • Better Auth (authentication)
  • PostgreSQL (database)
  • Drizzle (ORM)
  • Resend (email service)
  • DaisyUI (styling)

Core Features:

  • Customer management
  • Invoice creation & sending
  • Email read tracking
  • Payment status updates
  • User profiles with bank details
  • Automated reminder system

The Build Process:

Setting up Better Auth was surprisingly painless - just needed PostgreSQL tables, no external services required. Drizzle handled migrations like a charm.

Resend integration was literally just adding an API key. The plugin system just works.

DaisyUI for quick styling (though I’m eyeing Radix UI for future iterations).

Time to MVP: ~4 hours Result: Fully functional SaaS application

Key Takeaways 🧠

  1. Hono is underrated - It’s not just another Express alternative. The full-stack capabilities are impressive.

  2. Modern tooling rocks - Better Auth + Drizzle + Resend = incredible DX. No vendor lock-in, just solid tools working together.

  3. Speed matters - From idea to working SaaS in 4 hours. That’s the power of choosing the right stack.

  4. SSR is back - Server-side rendering with Hono feels natural and performant.

What’s Next? 🔮

Already thinking about turning SoonerPay into a real product. The foundation is solid, and there’s definitely a market for “nagging” invoice tools for freelancers.

Might switch to Radix UI for better component primitives, but honestly, DaisyUI got me 90% there with minimal effort.