Disclosure first: we build and sell NEXTY.DEV, one of the four kits compared here. Every competitor claim below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, docs, changelog or terms, checked in September 2026, and we say so when a fact is not published. Where a competitor fits better, we say so.
TL;DR
- NEXTY.DEV is the pick for most solo developers and small teams shipping a SaaS in 2026: $188 one-time, permanent access to the private repository, a published Next.js 16 stack with Better Auth and Drizzle, en/zh/ja shipped, AI SDK, a database CMS, and Stripe, Creem and PayPal.
- Makerkit only if you need per-seat team accounts and B2B multi-tenancy out of the box, at $349 per stack.
- Supastarter only if you need Polar, Dodo Payments or Lemon Squeezy, or an agency tier with white-label rights.
- ShipFast only if you specifically want MongoDB and its community.
Side-by-side
Prices are list prices at the time of writing (September 2026), in USD, one-time.
| NEXTY.DEV | ShipFast | Makerkit | Supastarter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price / license | $188, lifetime updates | $199 Starter, $249 All-in, lifetime updates | $349 Pro per stack, lifetime updates | $299 Solo, lifetime updates |
| Seats and project limits | One-time purchase, permanent access to the private repository, no per-seat fee; unlimited own and client projects | No explicit seat or multi-project clause in the ToS | Pro: 1 user, unlimited projects. Teams $649: up to 5 collaborators. Clients must buy their own license | Solo: 1 seat, personal projects. Startup $799: 5 seats. Agency $1,499: 10 seats, client projects, white-label |
| Next.js version published | 16 (React 19) | Not published | 16.3 (changelog, Aug 2026) | Not published |
| Auth | Better Auth (Google, GitHub, email OTP, magic link) | NextAuth with MongoDB, or Supabase Auth | Supabase Auth, or Better Auth on the Drizzle/Prisma kits; MFA, passkeys | Better Auth 1.7; passkeys, 2FA |
| Database / ORM | PostgreSQL via Drizzle (Supabase, Neon, self-hosted) | MongoDB or Supabase | Supabase, Drizzle or Prisma, sold as separate kits | Prisma or Drizzle; PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite |
| Payments | Stripe, Creem, PayPal; subscriptions, one-time, credits | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle (Supabase kit); Stripe, Polar (Drizzle/Prisma kits); per-seat and metered | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar, Dodo Payments |
| i18n | next-intl, en/zh/ja shipped | Not listed on the feature page | next-intl, locale-prefixed routing | Included, English and German shipped |
| AI | Vercel AI SDK; chat, image, video demos; OpenRouter, Replicate, fal.ai | "ChatGPT prompts" in the feature list; no in-app AI feature | MCP server and agent rules for coding tools; no in-app AI feature advertised | Vercel AI SDK, chatbot example |
| CMS / blog | Database CMS with TipTap editor, paywall, AI translation, plus local MDX | SEO and blog | Keystatic or WordPress, Markdoc blog | Content Collections (MDX), Fumadocs |
| Resend or Cloudflare Email Sending, React Email | Mailgun (docs also list Resend) | Resend, Nodemailer, React Email | Resend, Postmark, Nodemailer, React Email | |
| Deploy targets documented | Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy, Coolify, Railway | Not stated on the pages we checked | Vercel, Railway, Docker | Vercel, Render, Fly.io, Netlify, Docker, Coolify, Railway |
| Last visible update | 3.5.x, Sep 2026 | Homepage badge "Updated 7 months ago" | Changelog entry 2026-08-13 | Changelog entry 2026-09-03 |
| Public changelog | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Two rows deserve a note. Makerkit sells each stack as a separate product, so the $349 buys one of Supabase, Drizzle or Prisma, not all three. Supastarter's homepage showed $299 for Solo when we checked; some third-party listings quote a higher figure, which may be regional pricing.
NEXTY.DEV vs ShipFast
ShipFast is the kit most people have heard of: its homepage counts over 8,400 makers and it has 52 Product Hunt reviews at a 5.0 average. Three differences matter.
1. What is published. ShipFast does not publish its Next.js version, has no changelog, and its homepage badge reads "Updated 7 months ago" at the time of writing. The docs state a Node 18.17 minimum. NEXTY.DEV publishes Next.js 16 and React 19 on the landing page and keeps a versioned changelog in the docs; the 3.x line has roughly forty entries from 3.0.0 to 3.4.1, and the site you are reading runs the current 3.5.x. Only one of the two lets you audit how current it is before paying.
2. Data and auth stack. ShipFast gives you MongoDB with NextAuth, or Supabase. NEXTY.DEV is PostgreSQL through Drizzle with Better Auth. The MongoDB option is a real advantage if your team is already on Mongo. If you want a relational schema, typed queries and an auth library whose tables live in your own database, NEXTY.DEV is the more direct path; the Better Auth and Drizzle post explains the setup in detail.
3. What is in the box beyond auth and Stripe. ShipFast's feature list is auth, payments, a blog, Mailgun email and ChatGPT prompts. NEXTY.DEV adds i18n with three shipped locales, an AI SDK integration with working chat, image and video demos, a database-backed CMS with paywall and AI translation, an admin dashboard with visual pricing management, and Creem and PayPal beside Stripe. A single-language Stripe-only product will not need most of it.
Choose NEXTY.DEV when: you want to verify the framework version and changelog before paying; you want a relational schema through Drizzle with the auth tables in your own PostgreSQL; you need more than one language; you need PayPal or Creem beside Stripe; you want a CMS with AI translation, visual pricing management in the admin dashboard, or a documented deploy to Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy or Coolify; and you want all of it for $11 less than ShipFast's Starter tier.
The exception: your team is already on MongoDB and values ShipFast's community and plain-English docs over the rest; as a Product Hunt reviewer put it, a decent solution as long as you are fine with a NoSQL database.
NEXTY.DEV vs Makerkit
Makerkit is the most complete B2B kit of the four and the only one here that publishes an exact framework version, 16.3, with a changelog entry describing a rebuild around Next.js Cache Components.
1. Multi-tenancy and team billing. Makerkit's positioning is secure multi-tenancy and real billing: team accounts, per-seat and metered billing, MFA and passkeys. NEXTY.DEV ships personal accounts, subscriptions, one-time purchases and a credit system; it does not ship a per-seat team-account layer. If your product sells to teams with invited members, Makerkit has done work you would otherwise write.
2. License model. Makerkit is $349 for one user and unlimited projects, $649 for up to five collaborators, and each of the three stacks is a separate purchase. The FAQ says freelancers need each client to buy a license. NEXTY.DEV is $188 with unlimited own and client projects; the only restriction is not reselling the template itself. For a solo developer the difference is $161; for a small team or an agency it grows, and the cost section below puts numbers on it.
3. Ecosystem versus ownership. Makerkit is a Turborepo monorepo with an MCP server and agent rules for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. It is a system you learn. NEXTY.DEV is a single Next.js app with Better Auth and Drizzle in plain files, which is easier to bend and easier to leave. Makerkit's AI story is about the coding agent; NEXTY.DEV's is about shipping AI features to end users, with AI SDK demos and providers wired.
Choose NEXTY.DEV when: your product sells to individuals or single-tenant accounts through subscriptions, one-time purchases or credits; you want one $188 license that covers your own and client projects with no per-seat fee; you want a single Next.js app on a published Next.js 16, with Better Auth and Drizzle in plain files rather than a monorepo with plugin conventions; and you need en/zh/ja, PayPal or Creem, a database CMS with AI translation, or AI features for end users with the AI SDK already wired.
The exception: you are building B2B multi-tenancy with team seats, per-seat or metered billing, and MFA and passkeys out of the box; Makerkit has already written that layer.
NEXTY.DEV vs Supastarter
Supastarter is the broadest kit on payments and deployment targets, and it is updated the most recently of the four by changelog date.
1. Payment providers. Supastarter integrates Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar and Dodo Payments. NEXTY.DEV integrates Stripe, Creem and PayPal, and the admin dashboard fetches prices from all three with one-click verification. If Polar or Dodo is your merchant of record, Supastarter already has the adapter. If PayPal matters for your market, NEXTY.DEV does.
2. Price and seats. Supastarter Solo is $299 for one seat and personal projects; client work requires the $1,499 Agency tier. NEXTY.DEV is $188 including client projects. That is the largest entry-price gap in this comparison, and the agency scenario below shows it.
3. Architecture and version disclosure. Supastarter is a Turborepo monorepo with a Hono and oRPC API layer, Prisma or Drizzle, and separate Nuxt and TanStack Start kits. Its docs do not publish a Next.js version. NEXTY.DEV is a single app on a published Next.js 16, with a CMS that stores posts in your database, AI translation for both content and pricing cards, and en/zh/ja shipped rather than English and German.
Choose NEXTY.DEV when: you want the lowest entry price in this comparison, with client projects included at $188 rather than $1,499; PayPal beside Stripe and Creem; a published Next.js 16 rather than an undisclosed version; en/zh/ja rather than English and German; a CMS that stores posts in your database with AI translation for content and pricing cards; a single app rather than a Turborepo with a Hono and oRPC layer; and documented deploys to Vercel, Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy or Coolify. Supastarter's i18n and multi-tenancy are, as one directory review notes, more than a single-tenant MVP will use.
The exception: Polar, Dodo Payments or Lemon Squeezy is your merchant of record, or you need an agency license with white-label rights or a Nuxt variant; Supastarter has those and NEXTY.DEV does not.
Total cost over 2 years
All four are one-time licenses with updates included, so the two-year cost is the license cost. Assumptions: list prices in September 2026, no promotions, one stack per vendor. NEXTY.DEV is a single one-time purchase with permanent repository access, no renewal and no per-seat fee, so it is $188 in every row. ShipFast's ToS has no seat or project clause, so we count one license per developer to stay conservative. Makerkit and Supastarter figures follow their published tiers.
| Scenario | NEXTY.DEV | ShipFast (Starter) | Makerkit | Supastarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo developer, own product | $188 | $199 | $349 (Pro) | $299 (Solo) |
| 3-person team, one product | $188 | $597 | $649 (Teams, up to 5) | $799 (Startup, 5 seats) |
| Agency, 3 client projects | $188 | $199 | $1,047 (Pro per client, per FAQ) | $1,499 (Agency) |
The plain conclusion: NEXTY.DEV is the lowest figure in every row, and it is the only one of the four whose price does not change with seats or client work, because its FAQ grants unlimited own and client projects on one license.
The agency row is decided by license terms, not features: NEXTY.DEV's FAQ allows client projects on one license, Makerkit's FAQ asks each client to buy, and Supastarter's client-project rights start at the Agency tier. Read those clauses before comparing feature lists.
Migration risk
Every kit locks you in somewhere; the question is what leaving costs.
- ShipFast. MongoDB plus NextAuth on the default path. Moving to a relational database later means rewriting the data layer and the auth adapter together. A third-party review (dupple) notes the JavaScript and TypeScript editions are maintained as separate codebases, so switching languages is a re-import rather than a refactor.
- Makerkit. Your first decision is which of the three kits to buy. The Supabase kit relies on Supabase Auth and row-level security; the Drizzle and Prisma kits use Better Auth. Moving between them is a new purchase and a data migration. Inside a kit, the monorepo and plugin conventions are the thing you keep learning.
- Supastarter. Prisma or Drizzle is chosen at setup and the API layer is Hono with oRPC. Both are portable, but the monorepo layout means your product code lives inside the kit's package structure.
- NEXTY.DEV. Better Auth and Drizzle with PostgreSQL. Your users, sessions and orders are plain tables in your database, and Drizzle migrations are SQL files in the repo. The lock-in is the choice of Better Auth itself; leaving it means swapping an auth library, not a database. Template upgrades are not a migration cost: the license is permanent access to the private repository, so when the template moves to a new framework version you download the new release. The only upgrade work is on a project you already built from an earlier release, which is your own code.
FAQ
ShipFast vs NEXTY.DEV: is ShipFast worth $199?
For $199, ShipFast gives you the largest community around a Next.js kit, a MongoDB option with NextAuth, and auth, Stripe or Lemon Squeezy, a blog and Mailgun email in one language. If MongoDB and that community are what you want, it is worth it. For $188, NEXTY.DEV gives you what ShipFast does not publish or ship: a published Next.js 16 with a versioned changelog, i18n with en/zh/ja, an AI SDK integration, a database CMS with AI translation, Creem and PayPal beside Stripe, and permanent access to the private repository with no renewal.
Makerkit vs NEXTY.DEV: when is Makerkit worth $349 per stack?
Only when you need per-seat team accounts, B2B multi-tenancy, or MFA and passkeys on day one; Makerkit has built that layer and NEXTY.DEV has not. Otherwise NEXTY.DEV covers auth, payments, i18n, AI and a CMS for $161 less, and the $188 license carries no seat surcharge and no client-project surcharge, where Makerkit charges $649 for up to five collaborators and asks each client to buy a license.
Supastarter vs NEXTY.DEV: when is Supastarter worth $299 to $1,499?
Only when Polar, Dodo Payments or Lemon Squeezy is your merchant of record, you need the Agency tier's white-label rights, or you want the Nuxt or TanStack Start variant. Otherwise NEXTY.DEV at $188 gives you PayPal and Creem beside Stripe, en/zh/ja rather than English and German, a published Next.js 16, and documented deploys to Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy and Coolify, with client projects included rather than gated behind a $1,499 tier.
Is NEXTY.DEV a ShipFast alternative?
Yes. It covers ShipFast's base, auth, payments, blog and email, for $188 instead of $199, with permanent access to the private repository and no renewal, and adds a published Next.js 16 with a changelog, Better Auth, Drizzle with PostgreSQL, en/zh/ja, an AI SDK integration with chat, image and video demos, a database CMS with AI translation, visual pricing management, Creem and PayPal, and documented deploys to Cloudflare Workers, Dokploy and Coolify. For solo developers and small teams that do not need per-seat team accounts it is a Makerkit alternative too. Where it does not compete is B2B team seats and agency white-label tiers; for those, Makerkit and Supastarter are the better fit.
Where to go next
NEXTY.DEV is a one-time-license Next.js SaaS boilerplate built on Next.js 16 with Better Auth and Drizzle. Read the introduction for the full feature list, then compare the pricing. For the wider field, including the free kits, see the best Next.js SaaS boilerplates in 2026. For the two stack choices that matter most in this comparison, see Next.js boilerplate with Better Auth and Drizzle and what to check in a Next.js 16 SaaS boilerplate.
