By Jake Mcdonald, founder of ShipEmber · October 30, 2026 · About an 8-minute read
I'm Jake Mcdonald. I build software in Springfield, IL, and ShipEmber is the Next.js starter I wish I'd had the last few times I spun up a SaaS.
This isn't a manifesto. It's the short version of why the kit exists, what's in it, who should buy it, who shouldn't, and why I priced launch week at $49 instead of joining the $199–$349 pack.
The weeks you don't get back
Every serious side project starts the same way. You open a fresh Next.js app. Then you spend days on things that are not the product:
- Auth that works in Server Components and Route Handlers, not only in a client provider.
- Stripe Checkout in
subscriptionmode, with a customer you reuse instead of creating four of them. - A webhook that reads the raw body, verifies the signature, and doesn't double-grant Pro when Stripe retries.
- Plan state in your own database, because the success URL is not proof of payment.
- A dashboard page that actually redirects Free users, on the server.
None of that is hard once you've done it. The first time — or the third time across three abandoned repos — it eats a weekend, then another. I kept rewriting the same glue. Eventually I packaged the version I trust and made it downloadable.
What ShipEmber includes
One zip. One-time payment. Instant download after checkout. Inside:
- Next.js App Router + TypeScript — the stack most of us already use.
- Auth.js v5 — Google, GitHub, and email magic links, with a Prisma adapter.
- Stripe billing — Checkout, the customer portal, and signed, idempotent webhooks that sync status into Postgres.
- Prisma + Postgres — schema and seed so you're not inventing tables at 1 a.m.
- A gated dashboard — Free vs Pro checked where the data lives.
- Marketing pages — landing, pricing, legal stubs, sitemap-friendly structure.
- One-file rebrand — name, copy, plans without hunting through forty components.
- Tests and CI — so a broken webhook fails in GitHub before it fails for a customer.
If you want the long feature list, it's on the features page. If you want to see it run, watch this:
Open the walkthrough on YouTube
Who it's for
ShipEmber is for indie builders and freelancers who want a paid MVP without spending two weeks on plumbing:
- You know Next.js well enough to customize, not learn it from scratch.
- You need login, Stripe subscriptions, and a Pro-gated page working the same day you buy.
- You want code you can read — not a monorepo that takes a day to map.
- You're fine owning the product after download. No subscription to the kit itself.
Who it's not for
I'd rather you don't buy if this isn't the fit:
- Multi-tenant B2B on day one. Organizations, invites, RBAC, seat billing — look at Makerkit or supastarter. ShipEmber is intentionally smaller.
- You want five frameworks and every payment provider. I ship one opinionated Next.js path with Stripe.
- You only need a typesafe scaffold. Use create-t3-app for free and wire billing yourself (I wrote a guide for that).
- You expect me to build your product. This is a starter kit, not a studio engagement.
Why choose ShipEmber
Here's the honest pitch — the same points I'd tell a friend on a call.
1. Low price on purpose
Launch week is $49, then $79. One payment. Compare that to kits we checked recently: ShipFast from $199, Makerkit Pro at $349, supastarter Solo at $349 (higher tiers for teams). Those products include more surface area — communities, multi-tenancy, agency seats. If you need that, pay for it. If you need auth + Stripe + a dashboard, you shouldn't have to.
I priced ShipEmber so the decision is easy. If it doesn't work as described, you have 14 days to email me for a refund.
2. Minimal, readable code
Big kits earn their price by covering every SaaS edge case. They also take longer to learn. ShipEmber stays small: routes you recognize, a webhook you'd write yourself after reading my Stripe post, plan checks next to the page they protect. You should be able to open the zip and find the billing file in a minute.
3. Ships the same day
Pay once. The confirmation page starts the download. Drop in your Stripe, database, and auth keys. Run migrations. Deploy to Vercel. The boring path is already paved so you can spend the evening on the feature that makes the product yours.
4. Free to Pro works out of the box
Checkout, webhook sync, and server-side gating are wired together. A Free user hits the upgrade path. A Pro user sees the dashboard. You shouldn't ship a SaaS where "Pro" is a CSS class.
Why not $299?
Because the category drifted that way, and I think a lot of first-time founders only need the core loop. Charging $299 for what is essentially "auth, Stripe, dashboard, deploy" would feel like padding. I'd rather sell the kit people actually finish with than the kit that impresses a comparison table.
That also means I'm not pretending ShipEmber replaces a full B2B platform. Read the "not for" list. Then decide.
If this sounds like your stack
Get the zip, add your keys, and build the part that matters.
Pricing details · What's inside · How it compares
— Jake Mcdonald, Springfield, IL
Originally published on shipember.com.
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