Free SaaS boilerplates worth building on, by framework (2026)
By Charanjit Singh · Updated 9 Oct 2026
TL;DR
- Free starters can be production-quality - several are maintained by Vercel or long-running open-source teams.
- The gap versus paid kits is usually multi-tenancy, transactional email, i18n and tests, not auth or billing.
- Pick by framework first; the best free option differs a lot between ecosystems.
A free boilerplate isn't automatically a weaker one. Some of the most-starred starters in the directory are free because their maintainers make money from hosting, support or a paid tier, not from the code. What does differ is how much is left for you to build. Below are the free SaaS starters we'd shortlist in each major ecosystem, with what each one leaves out so you can budget for it. For the complete list, see free and open-source boilerplates.
| Kit | Framework | Price | Stars | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next.js SaaS Starter | Next.js | Free | 16,088 | Teams that want to read and own every line of their SaaS foundation instead of adopting a paid kit's abstractions, and don't mind upgrading Next.js versions themselves. |
| Next Forge | Next.js | Free | 7,670 | Teams that want a production-grade Turborepo monorepo reference architecture (separate web/app/api/docs apps) rather than a single-app starter. |
| Open SaaS | React | Free | - | Developers who want a fully open-source, no-vendor-lock-in SaaS starter with payments and an admin dashboard already wired up. |
| CMSaaSStarter | SvelteKit | Free | 2,368 | SvelteKit developers who want a free, performance-tuned SaaS starter with Supabase and Stripe already integrated. |
| Wave | Laravel | Free | - | Laravel developers who want a free, open-source SaaS starter with billing, an admin panel, and a plugin/theme system already built. |
| Bullet Train | Ruby on Rails | Free | 1,886 | Rails developers who want a mature, MIT-licensed SaaS framework with multi-tenant teams, billing, and API generation instead of assembling gems themselves. |
| Apptension SaaS Boilerplate | Django | Free | 3,005 | Teams that want a completely free, actively-starred Django+React SaaS foundation with GraphQL, real-time features, and enterprise SSO already wired in. |
| GoShip | Go | Free | 457 | Go developers who want a batteries-included, HTMX-driven SaaS boilerplate with billing, notifications and PWA support, avoiding a JS frontend framework entirely. |
| FastAPI-boilerplate (Fastro) | FastAPI | Free | 2,091 | Teams who want a clean, hackable async FastAPI backend with auth, jobs, and caching already wired, without paying for a full SaaS bundle. |
Next.js and React
Next.js SaaS Starter
Next.js · Free · 16,088 stars
Vercel's official starter on Drizzle, Postgres, Stripe and shadcn/ui. It's small enough to read in an afternoon, which is the point: you own every line.
Not included: multi-tenancy beyond owner/member roles, i18n, transactional email, and a test suite. You'll also handle Next.js upgrades yourself.
Next Forge
Next.js · Free · 7,670 stars
A Vercel-maintained Turborepo reference architecture with separate web, app, API and docs apps. Choose it if you genuinely need several apps sharing packages; for a single product the monorepo is real overhead.
Open SaaS
React · Free
The most complete free option feature-wise: auth, payments through Stripe, Lemon Squeezy or Polar, and an admin dashboard. It's built on the Wasp framework, so you're learning Wasp's conventions as well as React and Node.
SvelteKit
CMSaaSStarter
SvelteKit · Free · 2,368 stars
An open-source SvelteKit starter tuned for PageSpeed scores, with Supabase and Stripe integrated. It assumes Supabase for auth and data, so it's the wrong base if you've picked a different database.
Laravel
Wave
Laravel · Free
An open-source Laravel SaaS starter with Stripe or Paddle billing, a Filament admin panel, and a plugin and theme system. The trade-off is community support instead of a paid support channel.
Ruby on Rails
Bullet Train
Ruby on Rails · Free · 1,886 stars
An MIT-licensed Rails SaaS framework with multi-tenant teams, billing and API generation - rare for a free starter. It comes with opinionated Super Scaffolding conventions, so it's less of a fit if you want a lightweight base.
Django
Apptension SaaS Boilerplate
Django · Free · 3,005 stars
A Django and React SaaS boilerplate with GraphQL, real-time features and enterprise SSO wired in. You'll be running an Apollo/GraphQL layer alongside Django, which is more to maintain than a REST-only stack.
Go
GoShip
Go · Free · 457 stars
A Go and HTMX SaaS boilerplate with Stripe, notifications and PWA support - a good fit if you want to avoid a JavaScript frontend framework entirely. Its documentation is still a work in progress.
Python API backends
FastAPI-boilerplate (Fastro)
FastAPI · Free · 2,091 stars
A clean async FastAPI backend with auth, caching, rate limits and background jobs. It's backend-only, and Stripe billing and entitlements live in the paid FastroAI tier, not this repo.
What free starters usually leave out
- Organizations and per-organization billing - Bullet Train is the notable free exception.
- Transactional email templates and a configured provider.
- Internationalization.
- An automated test suite you can trust when you change things.
- Support - you get issues and community chat, not a support inbox.
If several of those are must-haves, a paid kit can be cheaper than the weeks to build them - see how to choose a SaaS boilerplate for how to weigh that, or browse every SaaS boilerplate we track.