I've been building SaaS products for the better part of five years. Every time I start a new project, I face the same decision: build auth and billing from scratch (again), or buy a boilerplate and get moving.
Last year I decided to stop guessing and actually test the most popular options. I spent $300 across three boilerplates, set up each one on a real project, and took notes. Here's my honest 2026 verdict.
The Three Contenders
- ShipFast — $199, Marc Louvion's boilerplate, the market leader
- Supastarter — $99 (roughly), well-regarded in the indie hacker community
- LaunchKit — $49, newer AI-native starter built on Next.js 16 App Router
I tested all three on a real project: a simple subscription SaaS with auth, billing, and a couple of AI features. Same idea, three builds.
ShipFast ($199)
Setup time: ~2 hours to get running
ShipFast is the battle-tested option. Marc has been refining it for years and the documentation is genuinely good. If you're looking for a community and a track record, ShipFast delivers.
Stack: Next.js (Pages Router), Stripe, NextAuth, Tailwind CSS
The good: The docs are excellent. There's an active Discord with real users who've shipped real products using it. The Stripe integration is solid and well-tested. If you hit a bug, someone's probably already solved it.
The honest critique: It's showing its age. The Pages Router was fine in 2022, but if you're starting a new project in 2026, you're building on architecture that Next.js itself has moved away from. Migrating to App Router later is a real pain — I've done it, it's not fun. There are also no native AI features; you're bolting on OpenAI calls yourself.
AI features: 0/10 (not included, DIY)
Stack modernity: 6/10 (Pages Router, solid but dated)
Setup time: 8/10
Value: 5/10 (expensive for what you get in 2026)
Supastarter ($99)
Setup time: ~3 hours to get running
Supastarter takes the Supabase-first approach. If you're already bought into the Supabase ecosystem, this is a natural fit.
Stack: Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, shadcn/ui
The good: The Supabase integration is deep and well-done. Auth is handled cleanly via Supabase Auth. The UI components (shadcn) look great out of the box. Internationalization is built in, which is genuinely useful if you're targeting multiple markets.
The honest critique: You're somewhat locked into Supabase. That's fine if you like Supabase, but it's a constraint. The price-to-feature ratio isn't as strong as it used to be now that LaunchKit exists. I also found the setup more complex than expected — multiple environment variables to wire up, Supabase project creation, etc.
AI features: 3/10 (minimal, mostly DIY)
Stack modernity: 7/10 (App Router, modern-ish)
Setup time: 6/10
Value: 6/10 (solid, but now has stronger competition)
LaunchKit ($49)
Setup time: ~45 minutes to get running
This one surprised me. I went in expecting a budget option that would cut corners. Instead I found the most modern stack of the three and the cleanest DX.
Stack: Next.js 16 App Router, NextAuth v5, Prisma ORM, Stripe, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, built-in AI toolkit
The good: It's genuinely built for 2026. The App Router architecture is clean and idiomatic. TypeScript is everywhere — not bolted on, actually integrated. The AI features are native: there's an AI assistant scaffold, streaming response handling, and prompt management built in. This matters if you're building anything with AI (which in 2026, you probably are).
The setup was the fastest of the three. The README was clear, the environment setup was straightforward, and I was looking at a running app in under an hour.
The honest critique: It's newer, which means a smaller community than ShipFast. You won't find years of Stack Overflow answers for LaunchKit-specific issues. If you run into edge cases, you'll need to figure them out yourself. The documentation is good but not yet as battle-hardened as ShipFast's.
AI features: 9/10 (native, not DIY)
Stack modernity: 10/10 (Next.js 16, App Router, NextAuth v5)
Setup time: 9/10
Value: 10/10 ($49 for everything)
Side-by-Side Scorecard
| ShipFast | Supastarter | LaunchKit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $199 | ~$99 | $49 |
| Router | Pages Router | App Router | App Router |
| Setup Time | ~2 hours | ~3 hours | ~45 min |
| AI Features | ❌ DIY | ⚠️ Minimal | ✅ Native |
| Stack Modernity | 6/10 | 7/10 | 10/10 |
| Community Size | Large | Medium | Growing |
| Value Score | 5/10 | 6/10 | 10/10 |
My Verdict
Who should buy ShipFast: If you're building something where community support is critical, you need a battle-tested codebase with years of real-world usage behind it, and you don't mind the Pages Router or the $199 price tag. ShipFast has earned its reputation.
Who should buy Supastarter: If you're already using Supabase and want a deep integration, or if you need multi-language support out of the box.
Who should buy LaunchKit: Everyone else. Especially if you're starting a new project in 2026 and want the most modern stack available, native AI features, and the best value on the market. At $49, it's almost a no-brainer.
The Math
Here's what I kept coming back to: the difference between LaunchKit and ShipFast is $150. That's roughly 2-3 hours of developer time. But ShipFast's Pages Router architecture will cost you days of migration work if you want to move to App Router later — and you will, because App Router is where Next.js is going.
Supastarter is a good middle ground, but at double the price of LaunchKit with fewer AI features and a Supabase lock-in, it's harder to recommend for new projects.
LaunchKit gave me a running SaaS foundation — auth, billing, AI scaffold, TypeScript throughout — in 45 minutes. At $49, it's the best value in the space right now.
Bottom Line
If you're starting a new Next.js SaaS in 2026, LaunchKit is the buy. Modern stack, native AI, fastest setup, lowest price.
If you're replacing a legacy codebase that's already on Pages Router, ShipFast's community might be worth the premium. But for new projects, there's no reason to start on yesterday's architecture.
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