We build NEXTY.DEV. This is our comparison of the best Next.js SaaS boilerplates in 2026, written the way we would want a competitor to write about us: verified facts, named sources, and a clear note wherever another kit is stronger than ours. Our pick for most solo developers and small teams is NEXTY.DEV; the sections below explain why, and name the two cases where you should buy something else (per-seat B2B multi-tenancy, agency white-label tiers).
Most such lists rank their own vendor first. We are a vendor too; the difference is the evidence: a fact table, sourced watch-outs for every product, and plain statements of when Makerkit or Supastarter is the better buy. Prices are as of 2026-09-06.
Our pick: NEXTY.DEV
For one developer or a small team that wants a complete kit rather than a foundation, the Next.js SaaS boilerplate from NEXTY.DEV is the default choice; each reason below is checkable against the table.
- $188 one-time, no seat fee, no renewal. Permanent access to the private GitHub repository; new releases are downloaded from it. Unlimited own and client projects, per the Landing FAQ. See the pricing page.
- Next.js 16 and React 19, published, with a public changelog. Two of the four paid kits here do not state a framework version.
- Better Auth and Drizzle ORM. Users, sessions and billing state live in your own Postgres, not in a hosted identity provider.
- English, Chinese and Japanese shipped. Message files in the repository, not on a roadmap.
- Stripe, Creem and PayPal. Subscriptions, one-time payments and a credit system for usage-based billing.
- AI SDK integrations and a CMS with AI translation. Chat, image and video demos across eight providers; a database CMS with paywalled content.
- Visual pricing management in the admin, four deploy targets. Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy or Coolify from the same repository.
How we evaluated
Seven questions per kit, answered from first-party sources where possible (vendor pricing and docs, public package.json files, GitHub API data, Product Hunt reviews); third-party review sites appear only in watch-outs, named when quoted. Is the Next.js version published (16 renamed middleware.ts to proxy.ts, so an older major hands you that migration)? Do user records live in your Postgres? Which payment providers? Which locales ship? An AI SDK integration or only prompts? The last maintenance signal? What the license covers?
Quick comparison table
| Product | Price / license | Next.js version (published?) | Auth | DB / ORM | Payments | i18n | Last visible update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEXTY.DEV | $188 one-time, permanent private-repo access, no seat fee, unlimited own and client projects | 16 (yes) | Better Auth | Drizzle ORM, Postgres (Supabase, Neon, self-hosted) | Stripe, Creem, PayPal | next-intl, en/zh/ja shipped | v3.5.1 (this site runs on it) |
| Makerkit | $349 Pro (1 user) / $649 Teams (5), one-time, per stack | 16.3 (yes) | Supabase Auth or Better Auth | Supabase, Drizzle or Prisma (three separate kits) | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle (Supabase kit); Stripe, Polar (Drizzle/Prisma kits) | next-intl | 2026-08-13 |
| Supastarter | $299 Solo / $799 Startup / $1,499 Agency, one-time | Not published | Better Auth | Prisma or Drizzle; Postgres, MySQL, SQLite | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar, Dodo | Yes, en/de shipped | 2026-09-03 |
| ShipFast | $199 / $249 / $299, one-time, lifetime updates | Not published | NextAuth or Supabase Auth | MongoDB or Supabase | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy | Not published | "Updated 7 months ago" badge |
| ixartz Next.js Boilerplate | Free (MIT); paid kit $399 / $1,199, 1 year of updates | 16.3.1 (package.json) | Clerk (Better Auth in paid Plus) | Drizzle ORM | None free; Stripe in paid Pro | next-intl + Crowdin | 2026-09-02 |
| Play Next.js | Free (MIT) | 16.0.10 (package.json) | NextAuth v4 | Prisma 7, Postgres | Stripe | None | 2025-12-12 |
| create-t3-app | Free (MIT) | 15.5 (template package.json) | Optional Auth.js v5 beta | Optional Prisma or Drizzle | None | None (by design) | Commit 2025-12-13; release 2024-11-05 |
| Nextacular | Free (MIT) | 13.5, Pages Router | NextAuth v4 | Prisma 6, Postgres | Stripe | i18next | 2026-05-30 |
Among the paid kits, only Makerkit and NEXTY.DEV publish an explicit Next.js version, and every paid kit here is one-time pricing now, so older articles calling Makerkit "a subscription" are stale.
NEXTY.DEV
What is verified. A full-stack kit for solo developers and small teams, with a second directory-site boilerplate in the same license. Next.js 16 and React 19. Better Auth and Drizzle ORM since v3 (v1 and v2 used Supabase Auth). Postgres on Supabase, Neon or self-hosted. Stripe, Creem and PayPal with subscriptions, one-time payments and a credit system for usage-based billing. next-intl with English, Chinese and Japanese message files shipped. Vercel AI SDK with demos for chat, text-to-image, image-to-image and video across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, xAI, OpenRouter, Replicate and fal.ai. A database CMS with draft/published/archived status, paywalled content and AI translation, plus a static MDX blog. Visual pricing-plan management in the admin dashboard. Cloudflare R2, Resend, Upstash Redis rate limiting, user source tracking. Deploys to Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy and Coolify. A public changelog records each release; this site runs on v3.5.1.
License. Pro is $188 one-time: permanent access to the private GitHub repository, new releases downloaded from it, no renewal, no per-seat fee, unlimited own and client projects (no resale). When the template moved to Next.js 16, buyers downloaded the new release rather than migrating the template themselves; the only upgrade work a buyer can have is on a project already built from an earlier release, which is their own project code. A reduced open-source starter also exists, with i18n, newsletter, analytics and a static blog but no database, auth, payments, AI or storage.
Strengths. Lowest paid entry on this list, with no seat or client-project surcharge. Current framework major published. Three payment providers, which matters when Stripe onboarding is hard in your country; PayPal appears in no other row of the table. Non-English locales shipped rather than "supported". AI, CMS and pricing management are product features, not developer tooling.
Watch-outs. Postgres only. No Nuxt or TanStack Start variants. Organization-level multi-tenancy with team roles is not an advertised feature (read the Makerkit section for B2B with workspaces), and there is no white-label or seat-based team tier (read the Supastarter section). One vendor, one codebase.
Best for. Solo founders and small teams shipping a B2C or prosumer SaaS, AI tools or content sites, especially if you need Chinese or Japanese from launch. Outside the two exceptions above, this is the pick.
Makerkit
What is verified. "The Next.js SaaS Starter Kit your AI agent builds on": three Next.js kits sold separately (Supabase; Drizzle plus Better Auth; Prisma plus Better Auth), v4 rebuilt on Next.js 16.3 per the 2026-08-04 changelog; Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle or Polar depending on kit, with per-seat and metered billing. Pro $349 for one user, Teams $649 for five, a license per client project; last changelog 2026-08-13.
Strengths. The deepest multi-tenancy and billing model here, a published framework version, a real team license: for B2B with organizations and seats it beats NEXTY.DEV.
Watch-outs. Priced per stack and per client. Competitor pages (Achromatic, TurboStarter) call the feature breadth overhead if you delete most of it, competitor opinion rather than user review. In-app AI is not advertised; the AI story is agent tooling.
Best for. B2B products that need per-seat team accounts on day one; without organizations, that layer is what the extra $161 over NEXTY.DEV buys.
Supastarter
What is verified. "The SaaS starter kit your coding agent deserves": Better Auth (1.7 since 2026-08-24), Prisma or Drizzle on Postgres, MySQL or SQLite, five payment providers (Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar, Dodo), an AI SDK chatbot example, English and German included, Nuxt and TanStack Start variants, seven deploy targets including Coolify. Solo $299 for one seat at the time of writing (third-party pages list €349 or $349, possibly regional), Startup $799 for five, Agency $1,499 for ten with white-label; last changelog 2026-09-03, the newest here.
Strengths. Widest payment and deployment lists, newest changelog, multi-framework choice, an agency white-label tier; on each count it beats NEXTY.DEV.
Watch-outs. The Next.js version is not published. boilerplatehub and indieradar say the larger codebase takes longer to learn and can exceed a single-tenant MVP's needs; boilerplatehub calls it the highest-priced entry in its catalog. Only English and German ship.
Best for. Teams that need Polar, Dodo or Lemon Squeezy, or an agency white-label license. For Stripe or Creem on a single-tenant product, NEXTY.DEV covers the same ground for $111 less.
ShipFast
What is verified. "Ship your startup in days, not weeks", 8,409 makers on the homepage counter. Starter $199, All-in $249, bundle $299, one-time with lifetime updates, no refunds once access is granted. NextAuth with MongoDB or Supabase Auth, Stripe or Lemon Squeezy, "ChatGPT prompts" rather than an AI integration; "Updated 7 months ago" badge, no public changelog.
Strengths. Cheapest of the three established paid vendors, the largest user base, the most tutorials.
Watch-outs. No published Next.js version, no changelog, no i18n mentioned. Product Hunt reviewers: "still being updated, but not as regularly as before" and "a decent solution as long as you're ok with a noSQL db"; dupple says the JavaScript and TypeScript versions are separate codebases. No multi-tenancy or RBAC advertised.
Best for. Developers who specifically want MongoDB and the largest community. For Postgres, a published framework version and shipped locales, NEXTY.DEV is $11 cheaper.
ixartz Next.js Boilerplate
What is verified. The most-starred free option (13,068 stars): next 16.3.1, pushed 2026-09-02, Clerk auth, Drizzle ORM, next-intl, no payments, email or CMS. Paid SaaS Starter Kit $399 Single (one product) or $1,199 Unlimited, perpetual license with one year of updates; Pro adds multi-tenancy, RBAC and Stripe, Plus swaps Clerk for Better Auth.
Strengths. Most stars and the most active free repository here, on a current Next.js.
Watch-outs. No payments or email in the free tier, so a foundation rather than a SaaS. Auth is hosted Clerk; Better Auth needs paid Plus. Paid updates run one year, versus lifetime elsewhere. DesignRevision: "The free version covers the basics but enterprise features need a license."
Best for. A free, well-maintained base when you will add billing, email and a CMS yourself; everything NEXTY.DEV ships beyond that (payments, Better Auth, email, CMS, AI, admin) is your build.
Play Next.js
What is verified. NextJSTemplates' "Free and Open-source SaaS starter kit": MIT, next 16.0.10, NextAuth v4, Postgres with Prisma 7, Stripe subscriptions, Markdown blog, Nodemailer. 608 stars; last commit 2025-12-12.
Strengths. The only free kit here that ships Next.js 16, auth, a database and Stripe together.
Watch-outs. No i18n, no AI. NextAuth v4 rather than Auth.js v5 or Better Auth. The demo site's FAQ answers, including licensing and support, are Lorem Ipsum placeholders. Small community, periodic updates.
Best for. Single-language, zero-budget projects that need Stripe and auth today; i18n, AI, a CMS and an admin dashboard, which NEXTY.DEV includes, are yours to build.
create-t3-app
What is verified. "The best way to start a full-stack, typesafe Next.js app", and by its README "NOT an all-inclusive template". 29,110 stars; next ^15.5.9, optional Auth.js v5 (still beta), optional Prisma or Drizzle; no payments, email or CMS, i18n excluded by design. Last commit 2025-12-13; last release 2024-11-05.
Strengths. The cleanest type-safe foundation (tRPC, Zod) and the largest community of the free kits.
Watch-outs. Not a SaaS boilerplate. DesignRevision: "No payments, email, or admin dashboard out of the box." Pinned to Next.js 15; open issue #2221 (March 2026) reports server-only modules leaking into the client bundle on Next.js 16.2, no maintainer reply visible. No release in roughly 22 months.
Best for. Engineers who will design their own SaaS layer on a type-safe base; auth, billing, email, i18n, CMS and admin, which NEXTY.DEV ships, are yours to write.
Nextacular
What is verified. "Full-stack multi-tenant SaaS platforms" with workspaces and custom domains: MIT, next ^13.5.11 on the Pages Router, NextAuth v4, Prisma 6 (bumped 2026-05-30), Stripe, i18next. 1,384 stars, last push 2026-05-30.
Strengths. The only free kit here with workspace multi-tenancy and custom domains built in.
Watch-outs. Next.js 13 and the Pages Router mean a major migration first. Issue #64 ("Project No longer being supported?", April 2025) has no visible maintainer reply; issue #69 reports a cross-workspace IDOR in team-member endpoints, open since February 2026. StarterPick rates it 3/5 and advises budgeting time for npm audit fixes.
Best for. Reference reading on modeling workspaces and custom domains, not a production base in 2026; the Next.js 13-to-16 migration and NextAuth v4 replacement you would do first are already done in NEXTY.DEV.
How to choose
Solo founder, complete kit, lowest price. NEXTY.DEV: $188 is the lowest paid entry, and one license covers unlimited own and client projects, where Makerkit charges per client project and Supastarter sells seats.
i18n-first, or Chinese and Japanese markets. NEXTY.DEV: en/zh/ja ship, with AI translation in the CMS and pricing editor. Makerkit and ixartz wire next-intl but you write the locales; Supastarter ships English and German.
AI features in the product. NEXTY.DEV: chat, image and video demos across eight providers. Supastarter has a chatbot example, Makerkit's AI story is agent tooling, ShipFast lists prompts.
PayPal or Creem markets. NEXTY.DEV: PayPal appears in its row of the table and in no other; Creem comes at the lowest price. Supastarter also wires Creem, plus Polar, Dodo and Lemon Squeezy.
Self-hosting on Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy or Coolify. NEXTY.DEV has deploy paths for all three plus Vercel; Supastarter documents Coolify and Docker, Makerkit Vercel, Railway and Docker.
Open-source first. ixartz's free repo and create-t3-app are the honest MIT answers. NEXTY.DEV's reduced open-source starter (i18n, newsletter, analytics, static blog) is in the same family; the $188 Pro adds database, auth, payments, AI and storage on the same stack.
Per-seat B2B multi-tenancy. Makerkit: organizations, roles, per-seat and metered billing are its core, and NEXTY.DEV does not advertise organization-level multi-tenancy. The first case where we point elsewhere.
Agency white-label. Supastarter's Agency tier ($1,499, ten seats, white-label); NEXTY.DEV's license covers client projects but has no white-label tier or seat-based plan. The second case.
FAQ
What is the best Next.js SaaS boilerplate in 2026?
For most solo developers and small teams, NEXTY.DEV: the lowest-priced complete kit here ($188 one-time, permanent repository access, no seat fee), published Next.js 16, auth in your own Postgres, en/zh/ja, three payment providers, AI and a CMS. Exceptions: per-seat B2B multi-tenancy (Makerkit) and agency white-label (Supastarter).
Are SaaS boilerplates worth it, or should I build from scratch?
Yes, if your product's value is in business logic rather than auth, billing and email; the replaced work (Stripe webhooks, subscription state, OAuth, rate limiting, transactional email, i18n routing) takes weeks. Build from scratch only when a hard requirement conflicts with the kit's stack, such as MySQL. If Postgres is fine, NEXTY.DEV covers that list for $188.
One-time purchase vs subscription: what do boilerplates actually charge?
Every paid kit here is one-time as of September 2026: NEXTY.DEV $188, ShipFast from $199, Supastarter from $299, Makerkit from $349, ixartz from $399; all but ixartz (one year) state lifetime updates. Makerkit Pro and Supastarter Solo are one seat, Makerkit needs a license per client project, ixartz Single covers one product. NEXTY.DEV is the cheapest and carries no seat tier, per-client license or per-product cap.
What is the best free or open-source Next.js SaaS boilerplate?
Play Next.js is the only free kit here with Stripe, auth and a database on Next.js 16; ixartz is the most actively maintained but you add payments; create-t3-app excludes payments, email and i18n by design. NEXTY.DEV's open-source starter (i18n, newsletter, analytics, static blog; no database or auth) is the smaller option in the same family, and the $188 Pro adds Better Auth, Drizzle, three payment providers, AI, CMS, storage and admin.
What is the difference between a Next.js SaaS template and a SaaS boilerplate?
Scope. A template is mostly UI: landing, pricing, dashboard shell. A boilerplate includes the backend those pages need: auth sessions, webhook handlers, subscription state, credit ledgers, email, an admin panel. NEXTY.DEV is a boilerplate in this sense; all of those are in the repo.
ShipFast vs NEXTY.DEV: which should I pick?
ShipFast if you specifically want MongoDB and the largest community, and accept an unpublished Next.js version with no changelog. NEXTY.DEV for $11 less if you want Postgres with Better Auth and Drizzle, published Next.js 16, PayPal alongside Stripe, en/zh/ja, and AI, CMS and admin features rather than "ChatGPT prompts".
What should I look for in a SaaS boilerplate in 2026?
Exact Next.js and React versions; auth in your own database; a payment provider you can onboard with; recent changelog or commits; license terms on seats, client work and updates; shipped locales rather than "i18n support". NEXTY.DEV passes each: Next.js 16 published, Better Auth in your Postgres, Stripe, Creem and PayPal, a public changelog, one-time license with unlimited projects, en/zh/ja shipped.
Where to go next
Outside the two exceptions, start with the Next.js SaaS boilerplate overview, then the pricing page and the docs introduction.
Related reading on this site:
