If you've started more than two Next.js projects, you must notice that the first week looks the same every single time. You configure TypeScript, set up ESLint, wire Tailwind, choose the folder structure, add auth, add a database, build the same login flow you did six months ago.
This article will explain what a Next.js boilerplate is, which boilerplates to avoid, how to pick the right one, and which GitHub repositories to fork next time you want a boilerplate. I'll share my picks for the best free and paid Next.js SaaS starter kits.
What Is a Next.js Boilerplate and Why Use It?
A Next.js boilerplate is a ready-to-code pre-configured project template with all the needed libraries and configuration files ready for your product. You simply copy it into your computer, replace all the environment variables in it with your own, and start coding without the need for a configuration.
In the print newspaper business, a plate made of steel was used to reproduce text on the pages. That's why boilerplates refer to a text copied identically from publication to publication. A boilerplate in programming is repetitive code reused across projects. Instead of creating the code itself from scratch, developers create a boilerplate that can be reused in all their future projects.
Why developers use them
Setup takes too long. Developers working with create-next-app spend between one and two days to set up TypeScript strict mode, ESLint rules, Prettier, Husky, folder structure, path aliases, environment validation, and more. But this work isn't even related to developing your product.
Auth is more difficult than you think. Email and password login flow, OAuth providers support, password reset, email verification, session handling, and authentication of routes will take you almost a week to implement. Boilerplates allow you to do this work on day one.
Billing can take a toll on developers' sanity. Even with a good Stripe API, it's still not clear how to process webhooks, handle subscription changes, payment failures, cancellations, and keep the billing data in your database consistent with subscriptions.
Team consistency. With boilerplates, everyone starts working on the same base project, making code reviews and bug fixing faster and more predictable.
What a Next.js boilerplate is not
A boilerplate is not your product code. It's only meant as a starting point with your product's infrastructure and setup ready for the coding process.
It is also not a black box you copy and deploy right away. The best practice is to inspect and read the boilerplate source code, figure out what it contains, and remove what's not needed before continuing with your project.
How to Choose the Best Next.js Boilerplate for SaaS
With numerous options out there, picking the right one is not an easy task. There are several key factors to consider when evaluating a Next.js boilerplate.
Check the last commit date first
A boilerplate not maintained in a year or more won't serve its purpose. By then, Next.js got at least one update and changed something in its core. Tailwind CSS v4 ships in a different way than version three did. Authentication library got updates and changed some methods. In other words, a boilerplate that has not received any updates means that you'll have to upgrade its libraries and configurations on day one, which is against the idea of using boilerplates.
Before spending hours implementing a boilerplate, check the GitHub repository commit history. At the very least, look for recent activity – commits made in the last month.
Verify what "auth" actually means
There are plenty of Next.js boilerplates claiming to provide authentication. Some imply that they integrate some external libraries, such as Clerk and Supabase, which means that all you need is just signing in with Google or your email address with password recovery enabled. Some mean that it is possible to log in with email and password.
In order to develop a truly secure login flow, you need email and password support, at least one OAuth provider support, password recovery, email verification, and session handling. Make sure you know how much you will have to build yourself before relying on that boilerplate.
Multi-tenancy: built-in or optional?
Multi-tenancy plays an important role when it comes to building a SaaS application. Depending on whether you sell your software to individuals or organizations, you should pick the right architecture for your product. If you plan to offer your services to organizations and teams, then you need your data model to support multitenancy. A boilerplate that treats "multi-tenancy" as a separate feature to implement implies that you have to refactor it at some point.
Stripe webhooks: does it handle edge cases?
Most Next.js boilerplates use Stripe as a payment gateway. However, the way they handle webhooks is often lacking. The simplest case of successful subscription creation is not the hardest one. Stripe provides detailed documentation on how to manage various subscription states in your database using webhooks. Do they do this in your boilerplate?
Stack compatibility
Sometimes, you may see some amazing boilerplate with cool features that you would love to use in your project, only to discover that it was implemented using libraries and technologies you aren't comfortable with. The best Next.js boilerplate for your SaaS project is the one your team can actually maintain.
Documentation quality
If a boilerplate has no documentation, you shouldn't consider using it at all. Any documentation should cover at least the following topics:
How to clone the code?
How to install everything needed to make the boilerplate work?
List of all required environment variables, and explanation of what they are for
How to run the project locally?
How to run tests?
How to deploy the product?
What Is the Best Next.js Boilerplate with Auth?
Auth is usually the number one feature requested for boilerplates. Here is how major players compete.
Auth.js (formerly NextAuth) based boilerplates
Auth.js is the most widely used open-source authentication library for Next.js apps. It is completely free and supports multiple OAuth providers, email and password login, and magic links. Auth.js-based boilerplates allow for controlling all of your authentication details.
Next.js SaaS Starter developed by Vercel is built upon Auth.js v5. If you want to understand every little detail in your authorization flow, this boilerplate is for you.
Ixartz SaaS Boilerplate uses Clerk. Clerk is a hosted solution for authentication, which includes multiple OAuth providers, email and password authentication, MFA, bot detection, session management, and user management UI. If you don't need to worry about the server side of authentication, then Clerk may be your choice.
Clerk-based boilerplates
Clerk is a hosted authentication provider that handles most of your authentication process automatically. You just sign in with Google or use your email to get authenticated, and the whole flow is taken care of by Clerk.
Ixartz Next.js Boilerplate and Ixartz SaaS Boilerplate both use Clerk, so you don't have to deal with the server-side of authentication.
Supabase auth based boilerplates
Supabase is the easiest way to get both database and user authentication for your project. A boilerplate that combines them in a single product could be interesting if you plan to build a product on Supabase only.
There are many templates with Supabase auth in the Vercel template gallery.
What to check in an auth boilerplate before using it
Make sure your Next.js boilerplate has the following functionality implemented:
Does it handle password reset end-to-end, including the email?
Does it verify email addresses on signup?
Does it protect routes with middleware, not just client-side redirects?
Does it store session tokens securely (httpOnly cookies, not localStorage)?
Does it handle OAuth account linking when a user tries to sign in with a provider they already used?
Top Next.js Boilerplate GitHub Repos
These are the most notable Next.js boilerplate repos on GitHub in 2026, organized by use case.
Best all-around free boilerplate
ixartz/Next-js-Boilerplate
The most starred and up-to-date Next.js boilerplate GitHub repository. Up-to-date regularly, built with developer experience put above anything else.
Stack: Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4, Drizzle ORM, Clerk, ESLint, Prettier, Husky, Vitest, Testing Library, Playwright, Storybook, Commitlint, Sentry, PostCSS
What makes it stand out: it does not stop at setting up a project scaffold. The boilerplate also includes project monitoring (Sentry), logging (using LogTape and Better Stack), Storybook for component-based development, and code coverage with Codecov. Not every free boilerplate provides this many features.
Best for: Individual developers and small teams willing to start a modern Next.js project from scratch.
GitHub: github.com/ixartz/Next-js-Boilerplate
T3 Stack (create-t3-app)
The most starred Next.js boilerplate in GitHub with more than 30,000 stars. Created by Theo Browne. Combines Next.js with tRPC library for full-stack type-safe development.
Stack: Next.js App Router, tRPC, TypeScript, Prisma or Drizzle, Auth.js, Tailwind CSS
What makes it stand out: it allows you to build completely type-safe Next.js applications. Change the schema of your database table and receive errors in the frontend if you forgot about a reference somewhere. No surprises at runtime and API misalignment.
The command line interface of this boilerplate allows generating a complete project configuration based on your chosen technologies (ORM, authentication library, styling).
Best for: Teams that focus on type safety in the code. Lots of documentation and fast bug-fixing due to active community support.
GitHub: github.com/t3-oss/create-t3-app
Best free SaaS-specific boilerplates
ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate
team support, roles and permissions management, internationalization, landing page, user dashboard, form handling, SEO optimization, error reporting with Sentry, testing, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), and user impersonation.
Stack: Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Shadcn UI, Clerk, Drizzle ORM, Stripe
Best for: Small teams building a SaaS product, who need the most complete boilerplate out there.
GitHub: github.com/ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate
Vercel Next.js SaaS Starter
Official Next.js SaaS boilerplate from Vercel. Minimalistic and documented. Supports multi-tenancy, authentication using Auth.js, payments via Stripe, and user dashboard.
Stack: Next.js 15, Auth.js, Drizzle ORM, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Tailwind CSS
Best for: Small engineering teams focused on understanding their project infrastructure completely.
Where: vercel.com/templates/next.js/next-js-saas-starter
boxyhq/saas-starter-kit
integration, and audit logging. Ideal if your customers require compliance audits and SSO for authentication.
Stack: Next.js, Prisma, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS
Best for: B2B SaaS products targeting enterprises.
GitHub: github.com/boxyhq/saas-starter-kit
Best enterprise boilerplate
Blazity/next-enterprise
An enterprise-grade Next.js 15 boilerplate with Tailwind CSS v4, strict TypeScript, test automation with Vitest and Playwright, Storybook support, GitHub Actions for CI/CD, and Terraform modules for AWS-based infrastructure.
What sets this boilerplate apart: infrastructure as code is considered the main goal of this boilerplate. It contains Terraform configuration for deploying project to AWS and OpenTelemetry instrumentation. In addition, there is Renovate Bot and semantic release automation provided.
Best for: Engineering teams of companies where maintainability, observability, and CI/CD automation play an important role.
GitHub: github.com/Blazity/next-enterprise
Best for e-commerce
Medusa Next.js Starter (DTC Starter)
Next.js-based boilerplate that builds e-commerce storefront based on Medusa framework. Product pages, collections, cart system, checkout flow with Stripe payment, user account management, and order handling. The boilerplate is updated for the latest version of Next.js (15.x) with App Router and Server Components support.
Stack: Next.js 15, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Medusa backend
Best for: E-commerce project focused on having full control over the Next.js storefront.
Install: npx create-medusa-app@latest --with-nextjs-starter
Best open-source SaaS with content features
Taxonomy (shadcn-inspired)
Open-source Next.js boilerplate for developers building SaaS products that need marketing pages and blog with SEO optimization. Built with Auth.js for user authentication, Prisma ORM for managing data, Stripe for billing, Radix UI, and Shadcn components.
Best for: SaaS products that need built-in blogging functionality such as documentation or knowledge bases.
GitHub: github.com/shadcn-ui/taxonomy
Which Next.js Boilerplate for SaaS Do You Recommend?
Choosing the right boilerplate depends heavily on your stage, team composition, and product needs. Here is the best fit depending on your situation.
Early-stage solo startup: ixartz SaaS Boilerplate (free) or Kostra (paid). Both provide full support for user authentication, billing, and multi-tenant architecture from the first day of development. The ixartz one is free, but you need to understand Clerk pricing when scaling.
Small startup building B2B Saas: Kostra. It has everything a modern SaaS project needs – multi-tenancy support, updated documentation, and architecture capable of scaling. Despite being a paid boilerplate, the time you save by skipping the auth and billing part is worth it.
Enterprise-level team: Blazity/next-enterprise (free) and boxyhq/saas-starter-kit (free). The former contains all the enterprise features that you may need such as infrastructure as code (Terraform), OpenTelemetry observability and semantic release versioning. The latter contains SSO via SAML, SCIM integration, and audit logging.
Team with Python background: Apptension SaaS Boilerplate. Free and open-source SaaS boilerplate with React front-end and Django back-end with AWS-based architecture.
Learning or prototyping: Vercel's Next.js SaaS Starter or T3 Stack. Both are minimalist and well-documented.
What Is the Best Next.js Boilerplate for SaaS (Free or Paid)?
Free tier
ixartz SaaS Boilerplate is the strongest free option. It covers multi-tenancy, RBAC, Clerk auth, Stripe billing, i18n, Shadcn UI, Vitest, and Playwright. Actively maintained. Large community. Hard to beat for a free SaaS starting point.
Vercel's SaaS Starter is the best minimal free option. If you want to understand everything in your codebase, start here.
Paid tier
Kostra is the recommended paid option for teams building production SaaS products. Authentication, billing, multi-tenant architecture, and clean cod
e that scales, with documentation that stays current. Built for teams that want a foundation they can genuinely own and extend, not just clone and hope for the best.
ShipFast is the fastest path to a deployed SaaS for solo founders. Strong on speed. Less flexible on stack choices.
MakerKit is a strong choice for teams wanting Supabase-based multi-tenancy with serious RBAC support. Active since 2022 with frequent updates.
How to Customise a Next.js SaaS Boilerplate for Your Project
Clone the boilerplate is the very beginning of the journey, making it a real project comes next. Let's look at the right way to proceed.
Step 1: Read before you change anything
Read through the entire codebase of your boilerplate before doing anything else. Learn the structure of folders. Trace the user signing-up process. Track the payment flow through Stripe checkout and update it in the database. Know how it all works before extending it.
Step 2: Remove what you don't need
Each boilerplate offers much more than one might need to implement. Some of the examples are i18n if you're shipping only in one language, storybook in case your team doesn't provide documentation, data models and seed data, etc.
Remove any unnecessary parts before building. Unnecessary code will only accumulate and turn into confusion later.
Step 3: Update the database schema for your domain
A base schema comes with users, accounts, sessions, and organization models. But you need to add additional tables for your product's specific entities. Just add necessary models in the schema file and apply the migration.
If your project uses Prisma then run the following command:
npx prisma migrate dev --name add-your-model
If you're building something on the Drizzle:
npx drizzle-kit generate
npx drizzle-kit migrate
Step 4: Replace placeholder content
All the SaaS boilerplate comes with placeholders for content. A general landing page, example prices, demo copy, etc. Make sure to replace all of it before presenting it to your potential clients. Don't forget about linking prices with your real Stripe products.
Step 5: Configure your email templates
Transactional emails for a welcome message, password reset, invitation, and receipt come shipped in almost all of the boilerplate packages as templates. Customize them to represent your product before sending out any transactional emails.
Step 6: Set up your environment variables properly
Take your .env.example and convert it into .env.local. Enter all the needed information. Don't commit your .env.local file. Each service key should be obtained in your services' dashboards.
Step 7: Audit security defaults
Make sure that all the routes are secured properly. Check if there is the middleware that runs for each authenticated request. Check API routes if they validate auth in order to handle requests.
How to Build a SaaS with a Next.js Boilerplate
Now let's see how a complete development process looks like with the boilerplate being a base.
Week 1: Foundation
Day 1-2: Cloning the project, configuration, and environment setting up.
Start cloning the boilerplate, connect it with your Stripe account (in test mode). Ensure that the auth flow works fine and everything else is properly configured.
Day 3-4: Defining data schema.
Write your product-specific schema for the database.
Your boilerplate contains already written models for users and organizations. So you need to write all of those which are specific for your product: what users will create, manage, and collaborate on.
Day 5: Price setup.
Connect Stripe products and assign their price IDs in a proper format. Set corresponding price tier for your landing page.
Week 2 – Main Feature Implementation
Develop your product's MVP feature.
Something that your product will do and which will solve the particular problem for your audience. Use all the tools your boilerplate gave you.
Week 3 – Polishing and preparation for launching
First thing to do would be updating your landing page:
Add new copy.
Put some screenshots or a demo if possible.
Provide clear and honest description of what your product does.
Onboarding flow: think about what will happen with users right after signup. It will be the deciding factor in further product usage. Try to map all the steps and implement.
Create necessary email flows.
Some of them are already there but in general you'll want:
Welcome email,
Trial expiration warning
Payment failed message
Testing the product: pass through all the steps a regular customer will have to do when using it.
Sign up
Set up a workspace.
Do something useful with the product itself.
Upgrade to a premium version.
Cancel the subscription
Everything should work and if not fix all bugs.
Launch
Deploy to Vercel or any other preferred platform. Change Stripe to live mode. Go public.
And here we are. Three-week launch with help of the boilerplate was completed.
FAQs
Where can I find Next.js boilerplate repos on GitHub?
The GitHub topic nextjs-boilerplate is the best starting point. Sort by Most Stars for a quality signal. Well-maintained options currently on GitHub include
ixartz/Next-js-Boilerplate,
ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate,
t3-oss/create-t3-app,
Blazity/next-enterprise, and
boxyhq/saas-starter-kit.
Also, you can try searching for such combinations of keywords: nextjs saas starter, nextjs boilerplate typescript tailwind, next.js saas template. Remember to look at the repository's last activity date.
What is the best Next.js boilerplate with authentication?
In case you are planning to host it yourself: use the Vercel Next.js SaaS Starter as it utilizes Auth.js v5 as a reference implementation created by the Next.js team.
If you're going to use a hosted solution: the best example of Next.js boilerplate with authentication is either ixartz Next.js Boilerplate or ixartz SaaS Boilerplate. They use Clerk for handling user authentication, providing Multi-Factor Authentication, device-level sessions, and more advanced authentication capabilities.
If you're working on B2B SaaS and need SAML-based Single Sign-On: choose BoxyHQ SaaS Starter Kit as the only available free one for now.
What is a Next.js boilerplate template?
This is basically the same concept as Next.js boilerplate. Sometimes people differentiate between boilerplate and template with meaning that template is more related to styling and structuring while the former covers backend stuff as well.
What is a good Next.js boilerplate example?
The most referenced one is the ixartz Next.js Boilerplate. Take it for a walk, clone it, run and check the code. It gives an idea of what a complete production-ready boilerplate could look like with:
strict TypeScript
Drizzle ORM
Clerk
Playwright tests
Storybook
Sentry monitoring and much more.
What is the best Next.js boilerplate overall?
Depending on the kind of the application you'll develop the following might serve as your choice:
for web applications: T3 Stack (more than 30,000 GitHub stars, end-to-end type safety)
for SaaS products (free): ixartz SaaS Boilerplate (most feature-complete free boilerplate)
for SaaS products (paid): Kostra (ready-made multi-tenant auth, billing, and SaaS infrastructure, actively maintained by its author)
for enterprise teams: Blazity next-enterprise (infrastructure as code, observability, CI/CD)
It's important to remember that there is no single best Next.js boilerplate since it depends on a variety of factors such as your stack, your needs, and personal preferences.
Is there a Next.js 16 boilerplate?
Currently the ixartz Next.js Boilerplate supports Next.js 16. It supports both Page Router and App Router, Tailwind CSS 4, and uses strict TypeScript.
As of 2025 the mentioned boilerplate becomes the most up-to-date one. Other boilerplates that support Next.js 15/16 are Blazity enterprise boilerplate and Vercel Next.js SaaS Starter. Look for information about supported versions on each repo's main page.
What is a Next.js enterprise boilerplate?
The enterprise boilerplate differs from a regular one as it considers needs of enterprise teams. In particular, it's more focused on automated dependency management, semantic versioning, infrastructure as code, etc. One of the best choices in this category could be Blazity/next-enterprise repo. This repo consists of:
Next.js 15
Tailwind CSS v4
Strict TypeScript
Vitest + Playwright Tests
Storybook
OpenTelemetry Observability
GitHub Actions CI/CD
Terraform Based Infrastructure with AWS as a target cloud provider At the time of writing it has more than 7,300 GitHub stars.
What is the ixartz Next.js Boilerplate?
The ixartz Next.js Boilerplate is an open-source Next.js starter which is maintained by developer Ixartz (Remi Weng). It is one of the best-organized free boilerplates with:
Next.js 15
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Drizzle ORM
Clerk
Playwright
ESLint
Prettier
Husky
It provides fully prepared App Router, login/auth flows, bot protection, end-to-end tests, and various page templates as a starter.
Developer Ixartz also maintains an ixartz SaaS Boilerplate which is an extension for the basic boilerplate and has features like multi-tenancy, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Stripe billing, and other SaaS-specific features.
Have You Ever Used a Next.js Boilerplate?
If you're an experienced developer chances are high that you did. And here is the experience.
The first-time experience is usually a bit humiliating. You get ready-to-use code with around 40 different files and start trying to figure it out. Then change something which broke everything else. Spend a whole day debugging.
The lesson learned is that the first thing to do is read the boilerplate before making any changes. Learn the database schema and how the app is built.
After having success in implementing a boilerplate-based app the developer starts paying attention to what matters: maintenance, documentation, architecture decisions, not just a list of features.
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