What the free Next.js boilerplate includes
Everything below is in the public repository today. It is enough to ship a single-user app with real authentication, or to read the code and decide whether the MakerKit architecture suits you before you pay for anything.
Supabase authentication
Email and password, magic links, and OAuth through any Supabase provider (Google is preconfigured). Password reset, email verification, protected routes, and optional captcha.
Multi-factor authentication
TOTP factors that users enroll and remove from their settings, with an MFA challenge step on sign-in. Handled by Supabase Auth, not a custom implementation.
Account settings
Display name, avatar upload to Supabase Storage, email change, password change, MFA factors, and self-service account deletion.
Marketing and legal pages
A landing page, FAQ, and Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy pages, plus a generated sitemap and robots.txt.
Postgres schema with RLS
An accounts table and an avatar storage bucket, both protected by Row Level Security policies, shipped as a Supabase migration you can build on.
i18n on client and server
Translations work in Server Components and Client Components, so a second language is a translation file, not a refactor.
Playwright E2E tests
Tests for sign-up, sign-in, password reset, and account settings, with a local mailbox helper for email flows.
Current toolchain
Next.js 16.3, React 19, TypeScript 7, Tailwind CSS 4, Shadcn UI on Base UI, Zod, React Query, Oxlint, and Oxfmt in a Turborepo monorepo.
License: MIT, with no strings
MakerKit Lite is released under the MIT license. You can use it in commercial products, modify it, and publish your fork. The only requirement is keeping the license notice.
The paid kits work differently, and it is better you know now. They use a commercial license that allows unlimited projects of your own but does not allow publishing the code as open source or reselling it as a template. If your project must stay open source, build on Lite and do not plan to upgrade.
Free Lite kit vs the paid Next.js SaaS kit
The line is multi-tenancy and money. Lite stops where a SaaS starts selling to teams: billing, organizations, roles, and the admin tools you need to support paying customers.
| Feature | Lite (free) | Next.js Supabase kit |
|---|---|---|
| Email, magic link, and OAuth sign-in | ||
| TOTP multi-factor authentication | ||
| Account settings and account deletion | ||
| Marketing and legal pages | ||
| i18n (client and server) | ||
| Playwright tests for auth and account flows | ||
| Turborepo monorepo, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4 | ||
| Billing: Stripe or Lemon Squeezy, per-seat and metered | ||
| Team accounts, invitations, roles and permissions | ||
| Super admin panel with impersonation | ||
| Blog, docs, and changelog via Keystatic or WordPress | ||
| Mailers and email templates | ||
| Analytics and monitoring integrations | ||
| MakerKit MCP server and AI agent rules | ||
| Plugins installed with the MakerKit CLI | ||
| Discord support and lifetime updates |
Should you start free or paid?
Start with Lite if
- Your app has one user per account and no paid plans yet.
- You want to read MakerKit code before buying it.
- Your project has to be open source.
- You are happy to build billing yourself.
Start with the paid kit if
- You sell to companies, so you need teams and roles.
- You charge per seat, per usage, or by subscription.
- You build with Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex and want agents to follow tested patterns instead of inventing tenant isolation.
- You want support and updates instead of a fork to maintain.
How the upgrade path works
Lite and the paid Next.js SaaS starter kit share a layout: apps/web for the app, packages/features for auth and accounts, and the same @kit/ui, @kit/supabase, and @kit/next packages. Code you write against those packages keeps working.
It is a port, not a git merge. The paid kit is a separate private repository with a larger schema: team accounts, memberships, roles, permissions, and billing tables. Copy your routes and components across, then rewrite your migrations so your tables reference accounts through account_id and the kit's RLS helpers. The effort scales with the size of your schema, not with the size of your UI.
Starting on the paid kit skips this port entirely, and upstream updates keep auth and billing current for you.
Free Next.js SaaS boilerplate FAQ
Is there a free Next.js SaaS boilerplate from MakerKit?
Yes. MakerKit Lite is a free, open source Next.js SaaS boilerplate on GitHub (makerkit/nextjs-saas-starter-kit-lite). It ships Supabase authentication with magic links, OAuth and TOTP multi-factor auth, account settings, marketing and legal pages, client and server i18n, and Playwright tests for the auth and account flows, on Next.js 16.3, React 19 and Tailwind CSS 4.
What license does MakerKit Lite use?
MIT. You can use it for personal and commercial projects, modify it, and publish your fork, as long as you keep the MIT license notice. The paid MakerKit kits use a different, commercial license that does not allow open-sourcing the code.
What does the free boilerplate leave out?
Billing and subscriptions, team accounts with roles and invitations, the super admin panel, the blog and documentation CMS, mailer packages and email templates, analytics and monitoring integrations, the MakerKit MCP server and agent rules, and support. Lite covers single-user apps; everything multi-tenant is in the paid kit.
Can I upgrade from Lite to the paid kit later?
Yes, but it is a port, not a merge. The paid Next.js Supabase kit lives in a separate private repository. It uses the same Turborepo layout, the same @kit/* package names and the same conventions, so your routes, components and Server Actions move over with little rework. Your Supabase migrations need to be adapted to the paid kit schema, which adds team accounts, roles and billing tables.
Is MakerKit Lite maintained?
Yes. Its 1.0.0 release moved it to Next.js 16.3, TypeScript 7, Oxlint and Oxfmt, the same toolchain as the paid kits. The README notes that its documentation is still being updated, so expect to read the code more than the docs.
How do I get started with the free boilerplate?
You need Node.js, pnpm and Docker running for the local Supabase stack. Clone the repository, run pnpm install, start Supabase with pnpm run supabase:web:start, then start the Next.js app. The repository README lists each command.
When you need teams and billing
The paid kit is a one-time purchase with lifetime updates and unlimited projects. It adds multi-tenancy, subscription billing, a super admin panel, and the MCP server your AI agent uses to work inside the codebase. Starting a product you'll charge for? Start on the paid kit: same structure, with teams, billing, and admin already built, so there is nothing to port later.
- Lifetime access to your stack of choice
- Build unlimited applications
- Continuous updates
- Access to the Discord community
- The best support in the SaaS Starter kits market, period.
- Community and Chat support
- Community-based feature requests and Request for Comments. You have a say in what Makerkit should build next.
- One-time payment, no subscriptions
- Includes access to our free Figma UI kit
Pro A B2B SaaS Starter Kit for individual developers.
| Teams A B2B SaaS Starter Kit for teams of developers or companies.
|