Building a SaaS from scratch is expensive and time-consuming. The average developer spends 200+ hours setting up authentication, payments, database architecture, and all the boilerplate code before writing a single line of business logic.
That's where Next.js SaaS starter kits come in. These pre-built templates handle the tedious foundation work so you can focus on building features that make money. But with dozens of options available in 2026, which one should you choose?
I've spent 40+ hours testing the top Next.js SaaS boilerplates. In this guide, I'll compare the best options based on features, pricing, documentation quality, and real-world usability.
Before diving into comparisons, let's address the fundamental question: why pay for a starter kit at all?
Setting up production-ready authentication takes 15-20 hours. Stripe payment integration? Another 10-15 hours. Add database setup, email configuration, user dashboards, admin panels, and responsive UI components — you're easily looking at 200+ hours of work.
A quality starter kit compresses that 200 hours into an afternoon. You clone the repo, configure a few environment variables, and you have a fully functional SaaS foundation.
First-time SaaS builders make predictable mistakes: insecure authentication flows, improper webhook handling, memory leaks in database connections, broken email deliverability, and poor mobile responsiveness.
Starter kits are built by developers who've already made (and fixed) these mistakes. You benefit from their hard-won experience without paying the tuition of failed deployments and security vulnerabilities.
The fastest way to validate a SaaS idea is to get users interacting with your core feature. Every hour spent wiring up auth forms is an hour not spent on your actual product differentiation.
Starter kits eliminate the commodity work so you can focus exclusively on what makes your SaaS special.
I tested seven popular options. Here's how they stack up:
Price: $59 Standard / $89 Pro Purchase: LaunchFast Standard | LaunchFast Pro
LaunchFast is the most complete Next.js SaaS starter kit I've tested. It's built on Next.js 15 with App Router, TypeScript, and modern React Server Components.
What's Included:
Pros:
Cons:
Best For: Serious SaaS builders who want a complete solution and are willing to invest in quality. If you're building a business (not a side project), LaunchFast saves you 200+ hours and eliminates risk.
Real-World Test: I used LaunchFast to build a project management SaaS prototype. From clone to deployed with working Stripe payments: 4 hours. The Prisma schema was particularly well-structured — I only needed to add three custom tables for my specific features.
Price: $169 Stars: Popular but expensive
Shipfast was one of the first Next.js SaaS starters to gain traction. It's feature-complete but feels dated compared to 2026 standards.
What's Included:
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Shipfast pioneered the category but hasn't kept pace with modern Next.js best practices. The Pages Router architecture is a dealbreaker in 2026 when App Router is clearly the future.
Price: $199 Focus: AI-specific features
Next Starter AI targets developers building AI-powered SaaS apps.
What's Included:
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Only worth it if you're specifically building an AI SaaS. For general-purpose SaaS, the AI features aren't valuable enough to justify the premium price.
Price: $129 Focus: Design-heavy with beautiful components
SaaS UI emphasizes visual design over technical completeness.
What's Included:
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Great if you're a designer who wants beautiful components and plans to handle backend yourself. Not comprehensive enough for most SaaS builders.
Price: $99-$249 (tiered pricing) Focus: Framework-agnostic SaaS starter
Makerkit offers versions for Next.js, Remix, and SvelteKit.
What's Included:
Pros:
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Verdict: Solid choice if you value framework flexibility or are already committed to Supabase. For pure Next.js projects, LaunchFast is more optimized.
Price: Free (open source) License: MIT
Gravity is a free, open-source Next.js SaaS starter.
What's Included:
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Only makes sense if you have time but no budget. The "free" cost is offset by 50-100 hours of development work to reach feature parity with paid options. For serious projects, paid starters are better investments.
Price: $199 Focus: Visual builder interface
Divjoy uses a visual interface to customize your starter kit before downloading.
What's Included:
Pros:
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Verdict: The visual builder is clever but not practical for serious projects. You'll spend more time wrestling with generated code quirks than you save with the interface.
| Feature | LaunchFast | Shipfast | Next Starter AI | SaaS UI | Makerkit | Gravity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $59-$89 | $169 | $199 | $129 | $99-$249 | Free |
| Next.js App Router | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| TypeScript | 100% | 70% | 90% | 80% | 85% | 60% |
| Authentication | NextAuth (full) | NextAuth | NextAuth | Basic | Supabase Auth | Clerk |
| Stripe Subscriptions | ✅ Full | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ Basic | ✅ | ⚠️ Basic |
| Admin Dashboard | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| User Dashboard | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ Basic | ✅ | ❌ |
| Multi-tenancy | ✅ Teams | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Orgs | ❌ |
| Email Templates | ✅ React Email | ✅ Mailgun | ✅ | ⚠️ Basic | ✅ | ❌ |
| UI Components | 50+ shadcn/ui | 30+ custom | 40+ | 70+ | 35+ | 10 basic |
| Documentation | Excellent | Discord-based | Good | Good | Excellent | Minimal |
| Support | Email <24h | Discord | Discord | None | ||
| Updates | Monthly | Quarterly | Monthly | Monthly | Monthly | None |
Get LaunchFast Standard ($59) for individual SaaS projects. Get LaunchFast Pro ($89) if you need multi-tenancy and advanced features.
After 40+ hours of testing, LaunchFast offers the best value for serious SaaS builders.
Here's why it wins:
1. Complete Feature Set: Nothing critical is missing. Authentication, payments, databases, email, admin tools, user dashboards — it's all there and production-ready.
2. Modern Architecture: Built on Next.js 15 App Router with Server Components. This isn't a Pages Router project hastily converted. It's architected from the ground up for modern Next.js.
3. Exceptional Documentation: The 100+ page guide covers everything from initial setup to deployment to customization. Video walkthroughs show you exactly how each system works.
4. Clean, Professional Code: TypeScript throughout, clear folder structure, proper error handling, comprehensive comments. Code quality matters when you're building on top of it for months.
5. Active Maintenance: Monthly updates with new features and security patches. You're buying into an actively maintained product, not abandoned code.
6. Responsive Support: The developer responds to questions within 24 hours. When you hit a snag (and you will), fast support saves hours of debugging.
7. Best Price-to-Value Ratio: At $59 for the Standard version, you get more features than $169 competitors. The time savings alone are worth 10x the price.
I used LaunchFast to build a project management SaaS prototype to test its real-world viability. Here's what the process looked like:
Hour 0-1: Cloned repo, installed dependencies, configured environment variables (database, Stripe keys, email service).
Hour 1-2: Customized branding (logo, colors, landing page copy), deployed to Vercel.
Hour 2-3: Created custom Prisma tables for my specific features (projects, tasks, comments).
Hour 3-4: Built core feature UI using the included shadcn/ui components.
Hour 4: Working SaaS with functional Stripe payments, user authentication, and my custom features deployed and accessible.
That's a 4-hour timeline from zero to deployed SaaS. Without a starter kit, this would have taken 40+ hours minimum — and that's if I didn't hit any authentication or payment integration snags (which I always do).
Consider the alternative: 200 hours of development at even a modest $50/hour is $10,000 in time value. The starter kit pays for itself if it saves you even 2 hours.
Plus, you're not just buying code — you're buying working solutions to complex problems (webhook handling, subscription management, secure auth flows) that you'd likely mess up on the first try anyway.
No. These are MIT-licensed codebases. You own the code and can modify anything. LaunchFast's architecture is well-organized and unopinionated enough that customization is straightforward.
Yes. LaunchFast (and most starters) offer unlimited project licenses. Buy once, use for every SaaS you build.
LaunchFast includes email support with <24 hour response times. The documentation is comprehensive enough that most questions are already answered, but when you hit edge cases, support is responsive.
Both. Beginners benefit from seeing how production SaaS architecture works. Experienced devs benefit from skipping the boring boilerplate.
You should be comfortable with Next.js, React, and TypeScript basics. If you're completely new to web development, start with Next.js tutorials first, then graduate to a starter kit.
Before we wrap up, let's address the elephant in the room: should you build from scratch instead?
For 95% of SaaS builders, a starter kit is the right choice. The 5% who should build from scratch already know who they are.
After extensive testing, LaunchFast is the best Next.js SaaS starter kit for most builders in 2026.
It offers:
Get LaunchFast Standard ($59) if you're building a SaaS and want to launch in days instead of months.
Get LaunchFast Pro ($89) if you need multi-tenancy, team features, and advanced architecture.
The investment pays for itself in saved time within the first day of use. Stop wiring up authentication forms and start building features that make money.
Build your SaaS in a weekend, not six months. The fastest path to revenue is shipping fast.