Should you use Makerkit as your SaaS Boilerplate?

In this post, we'll be looking at the pros and cons of using Makerkit as your SaaS boilerplate.

Makerkit is a collection of SaaS templates that helps you build a SaaS in just a few days.

Makerkit offers various kits such as Next.js or Remix and Firebase as a backend. The SaaS kits come with a lot of features that you can use to build your SaaS: project setup, authentication, multi-tenancy, billing, subscriptions, and more.

In this post, I want to share more transparency about whether Makerkit is the right SaaS template for you or not.

Who is Makerkit for?

Makerkit is for developers and indie hackers who want to build a SaaS in a few days, instead of months.

How so? By offering most of the features that you need to build a SaaS, you can focus on building your product instead of building the boilerplate.

For example, you won't need to worry about authentication, billing, or subscriptions. While there will be some setup outside of Makerkit that can take some time (which can take a few hours), once you have all the keys and credentials, Makerkit's SaaS codebase is basically ready to be deployed.

What use case is Makerkit for?

The best use case for Makerkit is traditional SaaS products. For example, a SaaS that allows your customers to:

  1. Authenticate to your app using email and password or social logins
  2. Reset their own credentials without contacting you
  3. Create a team/organization and share assets with other members
  4. Invite other users to join their team/organization and assign them roles (owner, admin, member)
  5. Manage their team/organization members: updating their roles, removing them, etc.
  6. Create a subscription plan and manage billing using Stripe
  7. Pre-defined landing pages such as home page, FAQ, pricing
  8. Blog and documentation generated from MDX files

While the Makerkit SaaS templates can easily be customized, the above is what comes out of the box.

If you want to build a SaaS that doesn't fit the above use case, Makerkit might not be the right fit for you, and you may need something more custom/simpler.

Which technology stack should I know?

Makerkit offers two kits at the time of writing:

  1. Next.js and Firebase
  2. Remix and Firebase

If you're familiar with either of these technologies, Makerkit can be an excellent choice to build your SaaS.

Which one should you choose? Well, you don't need to worry too much, since you have access to both kits. My recommendation is to take a look at both and see which code base you prefer: I personally thing they're both excellent choices for your next SaaS.

The most important part of the stack that you should know is React. If you're not familiar with React and intend to hit the ground running, I recommend you should consider a different SaaS template. If you want to purchase the kit to learn React and you're not under a time constraint, then Makerkit is a great choice.