Apptension SaaS Boilerplate

Free, open-source Django + React SaaS boilerplate with 3k GitHub stars

Apptension SaaS BoilerplateCheck Apptension SaaS Boilerplate

Best for: Teams that want a completely free, actively-starred Django+React SaaS foundation with GraphQL, real-time features, and enterprise SSO already wired in.
Skip if: You want a simpler REST-only stack, or you're not prepared to run and maintain a GraphQL/Apollo layer alongside Django.

A free, MIT-licensed SaaS starter built and maintained by the software agency Apptension. The backend is Django 5 with Django REST Framework and GraphQL (Graphene), the frontend is React 19 with TypeScript, Apollo Client, and shadcn/ui, and infrastructure is Dockerized with an AWS CDK deployment setup. It ships authentication (including OAuth, passkeys, and enterprise SSO), Stripe subscriptions, multi-tenancy with role-based access, email templating, real-time notifications over WebSocket, a CRUD generator, and OpenAI integration.

Pros

Genuinely free and open source under MIT, with roughly 3,000 GitHub stars - a real, actively-used project rather than an abandoned template.
Built and backed by a software agency (Apptension) rather than a solo maker, which is a different risk profile for long-term maintenance.
Enterprise-grade auth out of the box: OAuth, WebAuthn/passkeys, and SSO, alongside the usual email/password flow.
Real-time notifications and a CRUD generator are included, which most free Django kits don't attempt.

Cons

The stack is heavier than most competitors: Django + DRF + GraphQL/Graphene + React + Apollo + AWS CDK is a lot of moving parts to learn if you're not already familiar with all of them.
No dedicated marketing site or hosted demo was found - the GitHub repo is the only entry point, which makes evaluating it before cloning harder than for paid competitors with live demos.
This listing is built from the repo's own README and package files - independent reviews, issue-tracker health, and release cadence were not separately checked.
As an agency side-project rather than a commercial product, support and roadmap depend on Apptension's own priorities rather than a dedicated team.