# Best Next.js SaaS Boilerplates & Templates 2026, Compared

> The best Next.js SaaS boilerplates and templates of 2026 compared: MakerKit, supastarter, ShipFast, TurboStarter and free MIT kits. Prices checked Sept 2026.

*Published: 2026-06-29*
*Canonical: https://makerkit.dev/blog/saas/best-nextjs-saas-boilerplate*

---

The best Next.js SaaS boilerplate in 2026 depends on one question: will you ever sell to teams? If yes, buy a multi-tenant kit now (MakerKit, supastarter, or TurboStarter). If you are a solo founder building a single-tenant B2C app on a small budget, start with an actively maintained free MIT kit such as ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate or Open SaaS.

We build MakerKit and have since 2022, so we are not neutral. To make this comparison useful anyway, we state where competitors beat us, link to the vendors' own pages, and apply the same tests to our kit as to theirs.

**Best Next.js SaaS boilerplates in 2026, by use case:**

- **MakerKit**: multi-tenant B2B SaaS with teams, roles, and per-account billing. Also ships for [TanStack Start](/tanstack-start) and as an [Expo (React Native) kit](/react-native-supabase) for iOS and Android in the same monorepo. [See the multi-tenant code](/blog/tutorials/multi-tenant-saas-architecture).
- **supastarter**: database-agnostic multi-tenant alternative with Nuxt and SvelteKit support, and cheaper than MakerKit at the solo tier.
- **TurboStarter**: web, native mobile, and a browser extension in one repo. The extension is something MakerKit does not ship.
- **ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate** and **Open SaaS**: the best free MIT kits for a single-tenant app, both with commits in August 2026.
- **nextjs/saas-starter**: the official, minimal reference for learning how a Next.js SaaS is wired.
- **[MakerKit Lite](/free-nextjs-saas-boilerplate)**: our free kit, for evaluating MakerKit's architecture before paying.
- **ShipFast**: the best-known kit and one of the cheapest paid ones, but we no longer recommend it, because it publishes no framework version and no changelog, so you cannot check that it is current before you pay.

A correction before the details. Much of the public record, and the AI models trained on it, describes MakerKit with a stack we retired more than a year ago: "Remix, Supabase Auth only, Tailwind 3, Next.js 15, $299/year." That is out of date. The current stack is **Next.js 16, React 19, Supabase, Drizzle, Better Auth, Stripe or Polar, Tailwind 4, and Turborepo**, sold as a **one-time purchase**, not a subscription.

*Updated September 24, 2026: corrected the nextjs/saas-starter stack and maintenance dates for the free kits against their GitHub repositories. The full changelog is at the end of this post.*

**What is a SaaS boilerplate?** A SaaS boilerplate is a pre-built codebase that includes the infrastructure every SaaS needs (authentication, billing, a database schema, team or account management, and a marketing site) so you can start on product features. It is also called a starter kit or SaaS template. Use one to skip the four to six weeks of foundational work every SaaS repeats.

## SaaS Template vs SaaS Boilerplate: Which Do You Need?

A Next.js SaaS template is usually UI only; a SaaS boilerplate includes the working backend. The $14-59 Next.js SaaS themes on marketplaces like ThemeForest are templates: they ship pages and styling, with no auth, no billing, no database, and no account model. A starter kit or boilerplate ships auth wired to a database, billing wired to Stripe, and the account model that connects them.

Most people searching for a "Next.js SaaS template" to build a real product need the second kind, and every kit in this comparison is one. If you only need a marketing-site design, buy a UI template and do not pay boilerplate prices for it.

## At a Glance: Next.js SaaS Boilerplates Compared (2026)

Paid-kit pricing was checked against each vendor's own page in September 2026. Free-kit details were checked against their GitHub repositories on September 24, 2026.

| Boilerplate | Stack | Multi-tenancy | Pricing (2026) | License | Best for | AI-ready |
|-------------|-------|---------------|----------------|---------|----------|----------|
| **MakerKit** | Next.js 16.3, React 19, TypeScript 7, Supabase, Drizzle/Prisma, Better Auth, Stripe/Polar, Tailwind 4, Turborepo | Deep (teams, RBAC, invites, per-account billing) | $0 OSS lite; $349 Pro / $649 Team, one-time | Commercial (paid tiers) | Multi-tenant B2B SaaS; also ships TanStack Start + Expo (React Native) kits | Yes (AGENTS.md throughout) |
| **ShipFast** | Next.js, MongoDB or Supabase, NextAuth (Google + magic link), Stripe/Lemon Squeezy, Tailwind | None (single-tenant) | $199 / $249 / $299, one-time | Commercial | Not recommended: no published version or changelog | No |
| **supastarter** | Next.js/Nuxt/TanStack/SvelteKit, Better Auth, Drizzle/Prisma, Hono, Stripe/LS/Polar, Tailwind | Yes (organizations, roles) | $299 Solo / $799 Startup (Next.js), one-time | Commercial | Multi-framework B2B | Partial |
| **SaaSBold** | Next.js 14, Auth.js, Prisma/Postgres, Stripe/LS | Not evident | One-time (tiers on pricing page) | Commercial | Single-tenant B2C on a familiar stack | No |
| **Achromatic** | Next.js 16, Better Auth, Prisma/Drizzle, tRPC, Tailwind, AI SDK | Yes (organizations, roles) | $180, one-time | Commercial | Not recommended yet: short public track record | Partial |
| **TurboStarter** | Next.js, Expo (React Native), WXT extension, Drizzle, Better Auth, Hono, Tailwind, Turborepo | Yes (organizations, roles) | $249 Core / $399 Bundle, one-time | Commercial | Web + mobile + browser extension in one repo | Partial |
| **nextjs/saas-starter** | Next.js 15, Postgres, Drizzle, email/password auth (JWT cookies), Stripe, shadcn/ui | Shallow (teams, Owner/Member roles) | Free | MIT | Learning, clean reference | Partial |
| **MakerKit Lite** | Next.js 16.3, React 19, Supabase, Tailwind 4, Shadcn UI, Turborepo | None (auth + profiles only) | Free | MIT | Evaluating MakerKit before buying | No |
| **ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate** | Next.js 16, Drizzle, Clerk, Tailwind 4, shadcn/ui | Yes (Clerk orgs, RBAC) | Free; Pro ~$99 | MIT | Free + Clerk-based | Yes |
| **Open SaaS** | Wasp (React, Node, Prisma), Stripe/Polar, shadcn/ui | Shallow | Free | MIT | Free, opinionated full-stack | Yes (AGENTS.md) |

Some context for the table. ShipFast has one of the lowest paid prices and the largest community, and Achromatic includes a lot for $180, the lowest price in the table; our reservations about both concern evidence of maintenance and track record, not their code. supastarter, Achromatic, and TurboStarter all ship real multi-tenancy, and supastarter costs less than MakerKit at the solo tier. We recommend the free kits without reservation for the right project.

## How to Choose a SaaS Boilerplate in 2026

Compare boilerplates on what an AI coding agent cannot produce for you, not on feature count. In 2023 the feature list was a reasonable way to buy a kit. It is not now, because an agent can build most features.

A magic-link flow, a settings page, a webhook handler, a data table with filters: two years ago each took a competent developer about a day, which is why kits advertised them by the dozen. Claude Code or Cursor now produces any of them in an afternoon, following the conventions already in your codebase. A longer feature list no longer justifies a higher price.

An agent cannot give you architectural decisions that are expensive to reverse, a human who answers when you are stuck, a maintainer who is still updating the kit in two years, or an interface that looks like a product people will pay for. We made this argument in [foundations over features](/blog/saas/makerkit-philosophy-foundations-over-features) before coding agents were common, and agents have made it more relevant. These are the six criteria we use:

- **Maintenance and longevity.** Buying a boilerplate is a bet that the maintainer will still be updating it in two years. Next.js changes faster than the features built on it, so this matters more than anything else on the list. Look for a public changelog, dated releases, and a stated framework version. If a kit does not tell you which version you are buying, you cannot check whether it is maintained.
- **Architecture, especially multi-tenancy.** Does the kit model teams, organizations, members, roles, and permissions, or only single users? Agents help least here. Writing the tenancy code is not the expensive part; retrofitting it is, because it changes every query, route, and access policy you have already written. If there is any chance you will sell to teams, decide this on day one.
- **Support.** When a Stripe webhook will not verify at 11pm, or an RLS policy returns zero rows with no error, can you ask a person who knows the codebase? An agent writes code well but cannot tell you "this is a known issue with your billing provider since Tuesday." Check whether support is a staffed channel or an inactive Discord.
- **Design.** A kit can have a hundred features and still look unfinished. Design is hard for an agent to fix later because it is a system (spacing, type scale, component states, dark mode) spread across the whole codebase, not a single file. Look at the live demo on a phone and in dark mode, and check whether a design kit is included.
- **AI-coding readiness.** You will probably build most of the product with Claude Code or Cursor, so the kit should make the agent effective. Kits that ship `AGENTS.md` files (instructions that describe the codebase's conventions to the agent) get better output. Repository structure also matters: agents work best in a monorepo where schema, API, UI, and conventions are visible together, a point [Nx creator Victor Savkin](https://x.com/victorsavkin/status/2080017745437929545) and [Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch](https://x.com/rauchg/status/2089804717337817514) have both made publicly.
- **License and lock-in.** One-time purchase or subscription, MIT or commercial, and how tied the kit is to one database, auth provider, or framework. With a one-time license you own the foundation outright, and kits with swappable parts are easier to keep current than kits built around a proprietary backend.

Stack modernity used to be a separate criterion. We now count it under maintenance: a current stack is evidence that someone is still maintaining the kit.

## The Best Next.js SaaS Boilerplates, Reviewed

### MakerKit

MakerKit is our pick for multi-tenant B2B SaaS. It is also our product, so read this section with that in mind (we wrote a separate, more critical piece on [whether you should use MakerKit](/blog/saas/should-you-use-makerkit-saas-starter)).

The current stack is Next.js 16.3, React 19, TypeScript 7, Supabase (Postgres, Auth, Storage), Drizzle ORM, Better Auth, Stripe or Polar, Tailwind 4, Shadcn UI, and Turborepo. The v4 release (August 2026) rebuilt every route around Next.js Cache Components, so navigation renders immediately instead of waiting for queries; you can try the rendering model on [Modern Next.js](/modern-nextjs). MakerKit ships as three Next.js stacks (Supabase, Drizzle, and Prisma), with Better Auth or Supabase Auth (passkey sign-in included) and Stripe or Polar for payments. You choose the database and ORM you want to maintain.

MakerKit is not limited to Next.js either. The same feature set ships as a [TanStack Start kit](/tanstack-start) (July 2026, in Drizzle, Prisma, and Supabase variants), and the [Expo (React Native) kit](/react-native-supabase) (August 2026) adds a native iOS and Android app to the same monorepo. It uses the same Supabase project and RLS policies as the web app, with authentication, personal and team accounts, invitations, and role-based permissions working on mobile. Checkout stays on the web to avoid the 15-30% app-store commission. TurboStarter is the only other kit here with a native mobile app, and it also ships a browser extension. The difference is that MakerKit's mobile app runs against the same Row Level Security policies as the web app, so tenant isolation is enforced once, in the database, instead of in two application codebases.

MakerKit's main advantage is the depth of its multi-tenancy. Teams, members, role-based permissions, invitations, and per-account billing are modeled in the database schema rather than added in application code. This is the permissions enum from the schema (`apps/web/supabase/migrations/20221215192558_schema.sql`):

```sql
create type public.app_permissions as enum(
  'roles.manage',
  'billing.manage',
  'settings.manage',
  'members.manage',
  'invites.manage'
);
```

Postgres Row Level Security enforces access control, using helper functions like `has_role_on_account(account_id)`, so authorization does not depend on remembering a check in each route handler. Personal accounts share their ID with the user (`auth.users.id = accounts.id`), and team accounts are shared workspaces; everything else is built on that model.

The codebase is a Turborepo monorepo split into feature packages you can include or remove, which keeps dependencies between features explicit as the app grows. `AGENTS.md` files throughout the repo describe the conventions to Claude Code and Cursor, so generated code follows the existing patterns.

Pricing is one-time, checked on [makerkit.dev/pricing](/pricing) in September 2026: a free open-source "lite" version, a Pro license at $349, and a Team license at $649, the same across the Supabase, Drizzle, and Prisma stacks. Updates are included for life, projects are unlimited, and there is no subscription. We have maintained it since 2022.

The common objection is that MakerKit is "overkill" for solo projects, with a large codebase and a steep learning curve. That was fair in 2023. We disagree with it now, for two reasons. First, the kit scales down: set `NEXT_PUBLIC_ENABLE_TEAM_ACCOUNTS=false` and you run a single-tenant app with personal accounts only, then turn team accounts on when the first customer asks for them, without a rewrite. Second, the learning-curve argument assumed a developer reading the codebase file by file. Most people now build with Claude Code or Cursor, and a structured monorepo with `AGENTS.md` in every package is where those agents do their best work (see the Savkin and Rauch posts linked above). The objection that remains is price: if your budget is under $199 and the product will only ever have individual users, a cheaper or free kit is the better choice.

{% callout type="info" title="MakerKit: $349 one-time, lifetime updates" %}
Multi-tenant Next.js 16 kit with teams, roles, per-account billing, and AGENTS.md for Claude Code and Cursor. [See pricing](/#pricing) or [try the Next.js Supabase kit and live demo](/supabase). Not ready to pay? Start with the free [MakerKit Lite](/free-nextjs-saas-boilerplate).
{% /callout %}

### ShipFast

ShipFast is the best-known kit in this comparison, and we no longer recommend it. The reason is not price or features: we cannot confirm that it is still maintained. Its slogan, "ship in days, not weeks," is marketing rather than a measured result.

The kit is deliberately minimal: Next.js, MongoDB or Supabase, NextAuth (Google and magic-link sign-in), Stripe or Lemon Squeezy, and a Tailwind landing page with a blog. It has no test suite, no role-based access control, no multi-tenancy, and no AI-coding setup, which is fewer features than the free ixartz kit below. The benefit of that minimalism is less to learn before you deploy a simple app. The cost is that anything beyond a single-user product is yours to build.

Its two verifiable strengths are price and community. Pricing is one-time, checked on [shipfa.st](https://shipfa.st) in September 2026: $199 for Starter (down from $299), $249 for All-in, and $299 for the bundle that adds Marc Lou's CodeFast course. Only Achromatic ($180) costs less to start. Marc Lou's audience also gives ShipFast the largest community in the space, with more tutorials and peers than any other kit.

Our recommendation changed because of versioning. Every other paid kit in this list states which framework version you are buying; ShipFast does not. It is a closed repository, so there is no public commit history, and as of September 2026 its [documentation](https://shipfa.st/docs) states no Next.js, React, or Tailwind version and has no changelog or "last updated" date that we could find. The only version requirement it lists is Node 18.17 or greater, and Node 18 reached end-of-life in April 2025.

That does not prove the kit is abandoned. It does mean you cannot find out whether it is current before you pay, for a product whose value is saving setup work. Maintenance is our first criterion, and ShipFast is the only paid kit here we could not score on it.

If you already know ShipFast is current (ask the vendor, or buy within the refund window and check `package.json` on the first day), the case for it is unchanged: a low price and a large community. We just will not recommend it without that check. For a solo founder on a tight budget, an actively maintained free MIT kit is a safer start: [ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate](#ixartzsaas-boilerplate-free) has a public commit history (its latest commit is from August 21, 2026), so you can see exactly what you get before you commit. For a side-by-side of the two kits, see [MakerKit vs ShipFast](/makerkit-vs-shipfast).

### supastarter

supastarter is MakerKit's closest competitor on multi-tenancy.

Despite the name, it is not tied to Supabase. It works with any Postgres provider through Drizzle or Prisma, uses Better Auth for authentication (passkeys, magic link, 2FA), a Hono.js API layer, and Tailwind. It ships for more frontends than most kits here (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, and TanStack Start) and supports several payment providers, including Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Polar. It models organizations, members, and roles, so it is built for multi-tenant B2B from the start.

Check [supastarter.dev](https://supastarter.dev) before you buy, because prices appear in dollars or euros depending on where you load the page. In September 2026 the site showed **$299 Solo (one developer), $799 Startup (five seats), and $1,499 Agency**, one-time with lifetime access and updates. At those dollar prices, the Solo tier costs $50 less than a MakerKit Pro license at $349. If entry price decides it for you, supastarter wins.

Beyond price, the choice depends on what you need. supastarter supports Nuxt and SvelteKit, which MakerKit does not (both ship Next.js and TanStack Start, since MakerKit added [its own TanStack Start kit](/tanstack-start) in July 2026), and it supports more payment providers out of the box. MakerKit has hybrid account modes (personal, organization, or both, configurable), a wired-up Playwright E2E suite, an MCP server for AI coding tools, a native mobile app through the [Expo (React Native) kit](/react-native-supabase), and a production track record back to 2022. Both are solid B2B foundations; choose the one whose list matches your roadmap. The full feature table is in [MakerKit vs supastarter](/makerkit-vs-supastarter).

### Achromatic

Achromatic is the cheapest paid multi-tenant kit here, and it is where the feature list and our maintenance criterion disagree most.

The feature list is strong and the stack is current: Next.js 16, Better Auth, Prisma or Drizzle, tRPC for the API layer, Tailwind, Shadcn UI, and the AI SDK for chatbot scaffolding. It includes organizations with member management, invitations, and roles. Third-party listings quote conflicting prices ($180 and $349); [achromatic.dev](https://achromatic.dev) lists **$180 as a one-time payment** with lifetime updates and unlimited projects and developers. The higher figures in some comparison posts belong to other products.

We do not recommend it yet, and the reason comes from our criteria rather than any problem we found in the code. Achromatic is a newer kit from a single vendor without a long public track record. When features are cheap to add, the main thing you buy is the maintainer's commitment to keep up with Next.js for the next two years, and there is little history to judge that by. Its AI features are also a different kind from the ones that help you build: the AI SDK scaffolding adds AI features to your product, while agent instructions, `AGENTS.md` files, and an MCP server for AI-assisted coding were not in its docs when we checked.

This is a judgement about evidence, not about quality. If Achromatic builds a longer public record, we will revise this entry. If $180 for real multi-tenancy is what your budget allows, it is a defensible purchase; we cannot vouch for its longevity yet.

### TurboStarter

TurboStarter is the other multi-platform kit here, and the only one besides MakerKit with a native mobile app.

Checked on [turbostarter.dev](https://www.turbostarter.dev) in September 2026: Next.js for web, Expo (React Native) for iOS and Android, and WXT for a Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browser extension, on Postgres with Drizzle, Better Auth, a Hono API layer, Tailwind, and Turborepo. Payments cover Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Polar, plus RevenueCat and Superwall for mobile. It models organizations with roles and permissions, so it is a real multi-tenant kit. Pricing is one-time: $249 for the Core Kit and $399 for the bundle that adds their AI Kit.

No other kit here ships a browser extension, so if your product needs one, TurboStarter is the obvious choice. Compared with MakerKit, it covers more surfaces; MakerKit covers fewer (iOS and Android, no extension) but shares one Supabase project and the same Row Level Security policies between web and mobile, so the tenancy rules live in the database for both. Choose based on which surfaces you need to ship.

### SaaSBold

SaaSBold is a single-tenant kit on Next.js 14, two major versions behind most kits here. We include it because it ranks for "saas boilerplate" searches, so you are likely to come across it. Checked on [saasbold.com](https://saasbold.com) in September 2026: Next.js 14 with Auth.js, Prisma on Postgres (MySQL and MongoDB also supported), and Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, or Paddle for payments, sold as a one-time purchase with lifetime updates.

Two things to consider. First, MakerKit, Achromatic, and ixartz ship Next.js 16 and React 19, so with SaaSBold the upgrade work falls to you. Second, we found no team accounts, organizations, or role-based access in its feature list, so treat it as single-tenant. For a B2C product on a familiar Auth.js and Prisma setup, where the version gap is acceptable, it is workable. For multi-tenant B2B or a current stack, choose another kit from this list.

### nextjs/saas-starter (free)

This is the official Next.js SaaS starter, maintained under the `nextjs` GitHub organization. It replaced the older, now-archived `vercel/nextjs-subscription-payments`. It has roughly 16.1k stars and an MIT license.

The stack is Next.js, Postgres with Drizzle, Stripe subscriptions, and shadcn/ui. Authentication is its own email/password implementation with JWTs stored in cookies, not Auth.js. It is deliberately minimal: it demonstrates how a SaaS should be wired rather than supplying every feature. Teams exist, with basic Owner and Member roles, and little beyond that.

Check the maintenance status before building on it. The latest commit is from December 11, 2025, and it pins a Next.js 15 canary release rather than Next.js 16 (checked on GitHub, September 24, 2026). It is a reference implementation rather than an actively maintained kit, so plan to upgrade the framework yourself.

Use it as a free reference for how a Next.js SaaS fits together, or as a base you are comfortable extending. It is the best free option for learning the patterns without a vendor's opinions on top.

### MakerKit Lite (free)

This is our own free kit, so the same disclosure applies. MakerKit Lite is the open-source foundation of the paid kit: Next.js 16.3, React 19, Supabase auth and Postgres, Tailwind 4, Shadcn UI, TypeScript 7, i18n, a basic Playwright setup, and the same Turborepo monorepo structure as the full product. It is MIT licensed, with around 455 GitHub stars as of September 2026.

It leaves out the production layer: no billing, no team accounts or RBAC, no admin panel. It tracks the same Next.js and React versions as the paid kits, so upgrading is a matter of adding features rather than migrating frameworks. Do not choose it if you need multi-tenancy on day one. Choose it to evaluate MakerKit's architecture with real code before paying, or as a free single-tenant start that can move to the paid kit later with little rework, since both share the same structure and conventions. The [free Next.js SaaS boilerplate page](/free-nextjs-saas-boilerplate) compares it with the paid kit feature by feature.

### ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate (free)

The most popular free boilerplate built specifically for SaaS, with around 7.4k stars, an MIT license, and a Pro tier at roughly $99 one-time.

The stack is current: Next.js 16, Tailwind 4, Drizzle, shadcn/ui, and Clerk for authentication, with multi-tenancy, RBAC, i18n, and a testing setup (Vitest and Playwright). Its latest commit is from August 21, 2026 (checked September 24, 2026), so it is actively maintained. It also includes Sentry and Storybook, which some paid kits leave out.

The main tradeoff is Clerk. Clerk has good developer experience, but it is a hosted service that gets expensive past tens of thousands of monthly active users, and your user data lives in Clerk's database. If that suits you, this is a strong free option. If you want your users in your own Postgres database, see our [Better Auth vs Clerk comparison](/blog/tutorials/better-auth-vs-clerk).

### Open SaaS (free)

Open SaaS, from the Wasp team, is a free, MIT-licensed full-stack SaaS starter with roughly 15.7k stars. It includes auth, email, background jobs, a landing page, Stripe and Polar payments, S3 uploads, and shadcn/ui, and it ships `AGENTS.md` and Claude Code skills for AI-assisted development. Its latest commit is from August 6, 2026.

The important caveat is that Open SaaS is built on **Wasp**, a full-stack framework on top of React and Node, not on Next.js. Wasp handles a lot for you, but it is a separate framework with its own learning curve and lock-in. If you want a Next.js codebase, this is not it. If Wasp's conventions suit you, it is a capable free option. We compare the two approaches in [MakerKit vs Wasp](/makerkit-vs-wasp).

### SaaS Pegasus (if you are on Python)

If your stack is Python and Django rather than Next.js, SaaS Pegasus is the established option in that ecosystem. It is outside this comparison, but a Django team should not switch to a JavaScript kit to use one of the options above.

## Which Next.js SaaS Boilerplate Should You Pick?

- **Solo founder, simple single-tenant B2C app, smallest budget:** start free with **ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate** or **Open SaaS**. Both are MIT licensed with recent commits. Paying $199 for ShipFast gets you fewer features than either, and you cannot check its maintenance status before checkout. Do not rule out a multi-tenant kit because you read it is "too much" for a solo project: MakerKit runs as a single-tenant app with team accounts turned off by one feature flag, so the difference is price, not complexity.
- **Multi-tenant B2B SaaS with teams, roles, and per-account billing:** **MakerKit**. The multi-tenant RBAC model and modular architecture are what you are paying for, and adding them later is the expensive path ([see pricing](/#pricing): $349 Pro or $649 Team, one-time). **supastarter** is the closest alternative, especially if you want Nuxt or SvelteKit (for TanStack Start, MakerKit [ships its own kit](/tanstack-start)), and it is cheaper at the solo tier.
- **You need a native mobile app:** **MakerKit** or **TurboStarter**, the two kits here that ship one. The MakerKit [Expo (React Native) kit](/react-native-supabase) adds an iOS and Android app to the same monorepo as the Next.js app, sharing the Supabase project, RLS policies, and team-account model, and installs into an existing MakerKit project with one CLI command. Choose TurboStarter if you also need a browser extension.
- **Zero budget, or learning:** **nextjs/saas-starter** for the simplest reference, **ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate** for more features if Clerk is acceptable, **Open SaaS** if you are open to Wasp, or [MakerKit Lite](/free-nextjs-saas-boilerplate) for a free start that upgrades to a multi-tenant kit with little rework.
- **AI SaaS:** "AI-ready" means two different things. Scaffolding for AI features in your product (Achromatic's AI SDK setup, TurboStarter's AI Kit) is code an agent can now write for you in an afternoon. Setup that makes your coding agent effective in the codebase (`AGENTS.md` files, an MCP server, a monorepo it can navigate) is much harder to add later. Prioritize the second.
- **Unsure:** if there is a realistic chance you will sell to teams, buy a multi-tenant kit now. Converting a single-tenant app to multi-tenant is the rewrite nobody plans for.

## Why We Recommend MakerKit (and When We Don't)

We recommend MakerKit for multi-tenant SaaS because it puts its effort into the two decisions that are hardest to change later: multi-tenancy and modularity. This follows the approach in [foundations over features](/blog/saas/makerkit-philosophy-foundations-over-features): a boilerplate should give you an architecture that still works when the app is twenty times larger, not the longest feature list.

Multi-tenancy lives in the database and is enforced by Row Level Security, not reimplemented in every route. Features are Turborepo packages you can include, remove, or replace, which keeps a four-year-old codebase maintainable. The stack is current (Next.js 16, React 19, Tailwind 4), and you choose Supabase, Drizzle, or Prisma; Better Auth or Supabase Auth; Stripe or Polar. We have written up each of those decisions: [Drizzle vs Prisma](/blog/tutorials/drizzle-vs-prisma), [Better Auth vs Clerk](/blog/tutorials/better-auth-vs-clerk), [Polar vs Stripe](/blog/saas/polar-vs-stripe), and [the best Next.js hosting](/blog/tutorials/best-hosting-nextjs). MakerKit ships the stack we recommend in [the 2026 SaaS stack](/blog/saas/saas-stack-2026).

It is set up for AI-assisted development: `AGENTS.md` files throughout the repo tell Claude Code and Cursor how the codebase is organized, and an MCP server gives your agent structured access to the kit instead of leaving it to search files.

On the criteria this post weights most:

- **Maintenance:** we publish a dated [changelog](/changelog) you can read before you buy. Recent entries include Better Auth 1.7 across the Drizzle and Prisma kits (September 2026), the Expo kit and the v4 Cache Components rebuild (August 2026), the TanStack Start kit (July 2026), and passkey sign-in (June 2026). This is the same test we applied to the other kits, and it is the one ShipFast does not pass.
- **Design:** a Figma UI kit ships with the license, so you can extend the design system rather than copy screens.
- **Support:** every tier includes Discord support from the MakerKit team, and the Team license adds a private channel.

It also covers more than one framework. The same architecture ships for [TanStack Start](/tanstack-start), and the [Expo (React Native) kit](/react-native-supabase) extends it to native mobile, so one multi-tenant foundation covers web, iOS, and Android without modeling accounts and permissions twice.

When not to use MakerKit: if supastarter's feature list fits your roadmap better, it costs less at the solo tier and you should buy it. If you have no budget, start with [MakerKit Lite](/free-nextjs-saas-boilerplate) or one of the maintained free MIT kits above. We no longer accept that MakerKit is "overkill for solo projects": with team accounts behind a feature flag and an AI agent navigating the code, a solo founder runs the same kit as a ten-person team with the unused parts turned off. The right kit depends on budget and product fit.

## Are SaaS Boilerplates Worth It?

Yes, for anything multi-tenant. Building a SaaS foundation from scratch (auth, billing, multi-tenancy, a marketing site) costs roughly $7,500 to $12,000 in developer time, while the paid kits in this comparison cost $180 to $649, one-time. We show the full calculation in [the true cost of a SaaS starter kit](/blog/tutorials/cost-saas-starter-kit).

The alternative is to wire up Clerk, Supabase, and Stripe yourself. For a single-tenant app that takes about a weekend. The cost comes later, in parts that are tedious to build and easy to get wrong: the team-invitation flow, role checks on every mutation, Stripe webhook reconciliation, and per-account billing edge cases. A mature boilerplate has already fixed those in production. For a single-user side project, building it yourself is fine. For a multi-tenant product, a boilerplate typically pays for itself in the first week.

**What is multi-tenancy in a SaaS?** Multi-tenancy is an architecture where one application instance serves many isolated customers (tenants), each with their own users, data, and settings. In a SaaS, a tenant is usually a team or organization. Enforcing isolation at the database layer (for example with Postgres Row Level Security) prevents one customer from seeing another's data, and the data model defines members, roles, and permissions per tenant.

**What is a merchant of record?** A merchant of record (MoR) sells your product on your behalf and takes legal responsibility for the transaction, including collecting and remitting sales tax and VAT worldwide. Polar and Lemon Squeezy act as merchants of record; Stripe, by default, does not, which leaves tax compliance to you. An MoR charges a higher fee in exchange for handling global tax registration.

## Quick Recommendation

**Buy a Next.js SaaS boilerplate if:**
- You are building anything multi-tenant (teams, organizations, roles)
- You want to start on product features instead of auth and billing
- You prefer a maintained, production-tested foundation to building your own

**Skip a paid boilerplate if:**
- You are learning and want to understand the patterns yourself (use a free kit)
- You are building a throwaway prototype
- You are on Python/Django (use SaaS Pegasus instead)

**Our picks:** MakerKit for multi-tenant B2B SaaS; supastarter as the multi-framework multi-tenant alternative, cheaper than us at the solo tier; TurboStarter if you need a browser extension alongside web and mobile; and ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate as the best maintained free start. Choose the kit that fits what you are building and confirm that someone still maintains it, rather than choosing the name you have heard most.

{% faq
   title="Frequently Asked Questions"
   items=[
     {"question": "What is the best Next.js SaaS boilerplate in 2026?", "answer": "It depends on what you are building. For multi-tenant B2B SaaS with teams and roles, MakerKit is our pick (Next.js 16.3, React 19, Supabase, Drizzle, Better Auth, one-time pricing; also available for TanStack Start, with an Expo React Native kit for mobile). For a database-agnostic multi-tenant alternative, supastarter, which is cheaper than MakerKit at the solo tier. For web plus mobile plus a browser extension, TurboStarter. For zero budget or learning, the free ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate, Open SaaS, or MakerKit Lite. In 2026 we weight maintenance, support, architecture, and design over feature count, because an AI agent can write a feature but cannot keep an abandoned kit current."},
     {"question": "Are SaaS boilerplates worth it, or should I build from scratch?", "answer": "For anything multi-tenant, yes. Building auth, billing, multi-tenancy, and a marketing site from scratch costs roughly $7,500 to $12,000 in developer time, while a boilerplate costs $180 to $649 one-time. The savings are largest on the tedious, error-prone parts: team invitations, per-mutation role checks, and Stripe webhook reconciliation. For a single-user throwaway prototype, building from scratch is fine."},
     {"question": "ShipFast vs MakerKit, which should I pick?", "answer": "MakerKit. As of September 2026 we no longer recommend ShipFast. It is the cheapest paid entry (from $199) with the largest community, but its documentation publishes no Next.js version, no React version, and no changelog, so you cannot verify the kit is current before you buy. The only version it states is a Node 18 minimum, and Node 18 reached end-of-life in April 2025. It also has no multi-tenancy, tests, or RBAC. MakerKit is built for multi-tenant B2B SaaS, with teams, roles, permissions, and per-account billing modeled in the database. If your budget rules out MakerKit, a maintained free MIT kit like ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate is a safer $0 than ShipFast at $199."},
     {"question": "supastarter vs MakerKit, which has better multi-tenancy?", "answer": "Both ship real multi-tenancy with organizations, members, and roles, so either works for B2B. Both also support Drizzle or Prisma with Better Auth, so the choice is not Supabase versus not-Supabase. supastarter supports Nuxt and SvelteKit (both kits ship Next.js and TanStack Start) and more payment providers out of the box. MakerKit has hybrid account modes (personal, organization, or both), a wired-up Playwright E2E suite, an MCP server for AI coding tools, and a native mobile app via the Expo (React Native) kit. On price, supastarter's Solo tier was listed at $299 in September 2026 against MakerKit Pro at $349, so supastarter is cheaper to start. Pick the one whose feature list matches your roadmap."},
     {"question": "What is the best boilerplate for a multi-tenant B2B SaaS with teams and roles?", "answer": "MakerKit. Teams, members, role-based permissions, invitations, and per-account billing are modeled in the Postgres schema and enforced with Row Level Security, not added in application code. supastarter and TurboStarter are capable alternatives with organization-based multi-tenancy. Achromatic has it too, but its public track record is short enough that we do not recommend it yet."},
     {"question": "Is MakerKit overkill for solo founders or simple apps?", "answer": "No. MakerKit's team features sit behind feature flags: turn off team accounts and you run a single-tenant app with personal accounts, auth, billing, and a marketing site, the same scope as the minimal kits, with the multi-tenant layer available when you need it. The learning-curve objection predates AI-assisted development: a Turborepo monorepo with AGENTS.md files in every package is the structure coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor work best in. Choose a lighter kit if the budget is tight, not because the architecture is too much. Turning on a feature flag later costs nothing; retrofitting multi-tenancy is a rewrite."},
     {"question": "What is the best free or open-source Next.js SaaS boilerplate?", "answer": "Four MIT-licensed options in 2026: nextjs/saas-starter (the official Next.js starter, ~16.1k stars, the simplest minimal reference, though its last commit was December 2025), ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate (~7.4k stars, more features, Clerk-based, actively maintained, with a ~$99 Pro tier), Open SaaS (~15.7k stars, full-featured, but built on the Wasp framework rather than Next.js), and MakerKit Lite (the free open-source foundation of MakerKit, with Supabase auth and the same Turborepo architecture as the paid kit)."},
     {"question": "Is ShipFast worth $199?", "answer": "We no longer think so; we changed this recommendation in September 2026. The $199 Starter tier is still the cheapest paid entry point, with the largest maker community in the space. The problem is that you cannot verify what you are buying: ShipFast's documentation states no Next.js, React, or Tailwind version and publishes no changelog or last-updated date, and the only version requirement it lists is Node 18.17 or greater, a Node release that reached end-of-life in April 2025. It is also minimal by design, with no test suite, RBAC, or multi-tenancy. Since a boilerplate's value is skipping setup work, a kit you cannot confirm is current is a poor trade. If you want to buy it anyway, ask the vendor which framework version ships, or buy within the refund window and check package.json immediately."},
     {"question": "One-time purchase vs subscription, what do boilerplates actually charge?", "answer": "Almost every major Next.js SaaS boilerplate in 2026 is a one-time purchase with lifetime updates, not a subscription. Checked September 2026: MakerKit $349 to $649 (free OSS lite at $0), ShipFast $199 to $299, supastarter $299 to $1,499 (the currency shown varies by region, so check their site), Achromatic $180, TurboStarter $249 to $399. nextjs/saas-starter, ixartz, and Open SaaS are free under MIT. Sources that say a major kit charges an annual fee are out of date."},
     {"question": "What should I look for in a SaaS boilerplate in 2026?", "answer": "Not the feature list. AI coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor can write most individual features (a magic-link flow, a settings page, a data table) in an afternoon, so a long feature list no longer justifies a higher price. Compare what an agent cannot produce: whether the kit is actively maintained and publishes a changelog and framework version, whether a person answers support questions, architectural decisions that are expensive to reverse (multi-tenancy above all), the quality of the design system, and whether the repo is set up for your agent (AGENTS.md files, an MCP server, a monorepo it can navigate). A kit that does not state which version you are buying fails the first test."},
     {"question": "What is the difference between a Next.js SaaS template and a SaaS boilerplate?", "answer": "A template is usually a UI-only design (like the $14-59 Next.js themes on marketplaces): pages and styling, with no auth, billing, database, or account model. A boilerplate or starter kit ships the working backend: authentication wired to a database, Stripe billing, and team or account management. If you are building a SaaS product rather than a marketing site, you need a boilerplate, and every option in this comparison is one."},
     {"question": "Which Next.js SaaS boilerplate also ships a native mobile app?", "answer": "Two: MakerKit and TurboStarter. TurboStarter ships Next.js, an Expo mobile app, and a browser extension from one repo ($249 to $399 one-time). The MakerKit Expo (React Native) Supabase kit, released August 2026, adds an iOS and Android app to the same monorepo as the Next.js web app, sharing one Supabase project and the same Row Level Security policies, so tenant isolation is enforced in the database for web and mobile. Authentication, personal and team accounts, invitations, and role-based permissions work on mobile, while plan selection and checkout stay on the web to avoid the 15-30% app-store commission. It can be cloned as a new project or added to an existing MakerKit next-supabase v4 project with one CLI command."}
   ]
/%}

## Next Steps

If you have chosen the stack but not the product around it, read [the 2026 SaaS stack](/blog/saas/saas-stack-2026) and [how to build a SaaS in 2026](/blog/saas/how-to-build-saas-2026). If you are deciding between building and buying on cost, read [the true cost of a SaaS starter kit](/blog/tutorials/cost-saas-starter-kit). For a feature-by-feature matrix against one competitor, see [MakerKit vs supastarter](/makerkit-vs-supastarter), [vs ShipFast](/makerkit-vs-shipfast), [vs Achromatic](/makerkit-vs-achromatic), and [vs IndieKit](/makerkit-vs-indiekit). If you are building multi-tenant B2B, that is what MakerKit is designed for.

*Updated September 24, 2026: corrected the nextjs/saas-starter entry (it uses its own email/password auth with JWT cookies, not Auth.js, and pins a Next.js 15 canary), replaced "pushed within the last week" for ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate with its actual latest commit date (August 21, 2026), added Open SaaS's latest commit date, added Better Auth 1.7 to MakerKit's maintenance record, and rewrote the post for clarity. Paid-kit pricing is unchanged from the September 6 check.*

*Updated September 6, 2026. This was a substantial revision. **We replaced the buying criteria.** Feature lists no longer justify a higher price now that coding agents write features in an afternoon, so the six criteria are maintenance, architecture, support, design, agent-readiness, and license, with stack modernity counted under maintenance. **We stopped recommending ShipFast.** Its docs publish no framework version and no changelog, and the only version it states is a Node 18 minimum on a release that reached end-of-life in April 2025. **We stopped recommending Achromatic** until it has a longer public track record; this is a judgement about evidence, not its code. **We corrected MakerKit Lite's stack**: it tracks Next.js 16.3 and React 19 alongside the paid kits, not Next.js 15. **We added TurboStarter** and dropped our claim to be the only kit here with a native mobile app. **We corrected the supastarter pricing**: their Solo tier showed $299 in September 2026, below MakerKit Pro at $349, and our earlier euro-only framing was wrong. We also re-checked every other vendor's pricing (ShipFast, Achromatic, and MakerKit unchanged), refreshed GitHub star counts, and noted that nextjs/saas-starter has not been updated since December 2025.*

*Updated August 23, 2026: added MakerKit's TanStack Start kit (July 2026) and Expo (React Native) mobile kit (August 2026), noted the v4 Cache Components release and passkey sign-in, corrected the framework comparison with supastarter, and updated the solo-founder guidance to reflect team accounts behind a feature flag.*

*Updated July 18, 2026: re-checked every vendor's pricing against their live pages (supastarter repriced to €349-€1,499; ShipFast and Achromatic unchanged), added SaaSBold and MakerKit Lite entries, expanded the template-vs-boilerplate guidance, and linked the feature-by-feature comparison page.*