Comparison of Full-Stack SaaS Boilerplates vs Sushi Templates

Comparison of Full-Stack SaaS Boilerplates vs Sushi Templates

Building a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product from scratch can be time-consuming. That’s why full-stack SaaS boilerplates have become popular – these templates provide pre-built code for the front end, back end, database, authentication, and more. Developers can jumpstart their SaaS apps without reinventing common features. In this post, we’ll compare some of the leading open-source Next.js SaaS starter templates to Sushi Templates (the Sushi SaaS boilerplate) and see where Sushi stands out. We will evaluate them on their feature completeness (full-stack capabilities), design quality, open-source status, maintenance activity, responsiveness (mobile-friendliness), and documentation.

The Landscape of Full-Stack SaaS Boilerplates

Open-source SaaS starters for Next.js have exploded in popularity. They typically integrate modern frameworks and services to cover the basics of any SaaS. For example, the widely used Next.js SaaS Starter provides a Next.js app with Postgres database, Drizzle ORM, Stripe payments, and a Shadcn/UI component library[1][2]. Other notable templates include:

• SaaS Boilerplate (by ixartz) – a full-stack React/Next.js app with built-in auth, multi-tenancy (teams/organizations), roles/permissions, i18n, landing page, and testing setup[3][4]. It uses Clerk for authentication and includes many essentials (logging, error monitoring, etc.).
• Cloudflare SaaS Kit – a starter optimized for Cloudflare’s platform, using Cloudflare D1 (a serverless SQLite database) and Cloudflare Pages. It combines Next.js with NextAuth for auth, Drizzle ORM, and Shadcn UI, enabling deployment on Cloudflare’s global network[5].
• SaasFly – an “enterprise-grade” Next.js boilerplate, also full-stack. It uses Next.js with Postgres, Prisma ORM, NextAuth (with optional Clerk integration), Stripe payments, and Shadcn UI[6][7]. It even sets up a monorepo structure and includes extras like tRPC and state management to scale with complex apps.
• Next SaaS Stripe Starter – a Next.js 14 starter kit that comes with user role management and an admin panel. It uses Prisma with Neon (hosted Postgres), Auth.js (NextAuth v5) for auth, Resend/React Email for emails, and integrates Stripe subscriptions and serverless functions[8][9].

All of these boilerplates are full-stack, meaning they ship both the front-end UI and the back-end logic (database, APIs) in one template. This gives developers a running start with features like sign-up flows, payment integration, and a basic dashboard. Sushi Templates belongs to this same category – it’s a Next.js 15 based SaaS starter that comes “production-ready from day one” with a complete stack[10]. In the next sections, we’ll see how Sushi compares to these other boilerplates across key criteria.

Design and User Interface

Modern SaaS starters generally emphasize clean, professional design by leveraging UI libraries. A majority of popular Next.js templates use Tailwind CSS for rapid styling and the Shadcn/UI component library (built on Radix UI) for a cohesive look and accessible components[2]. This means out-of-the-box, these templates have a modern design system – things like ready-made form inputs, modals, navigation bars, etc., all following a consistent style.

Sushi Templates is no exception. It is built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS[11], and the author also incorporated Shadcn/UI in the stack (as noted in early project discussions). In practice, Sushi’s design quality is on par with the best: it provides a polished landing page (including a multilingual hero section) and a well-structured dashboard UI. For instance, Sushi’s live demo site showcases a clean landing page with proper typography and sections, and a dark-mode friendly dashboard. All pages are designed to be fully responsive (mobile-friendly), thanks to Tailwind’s utility classes that ensure layouts adjust to different screen sizes. This responsiveness is a common goal in these templates – the SaaS Boilerplate by ixartz even includes a minimal theme and aims to “maximize Lighthouse scores” for performance and best practices[12]. Sushi keeps up by using a responsive layout and lightweight front-end (Next.js 15 with React server components) so that it not only looks good but also loads fast on any device.

One area where Sushi’s UI design takes an extra step is in built-in features like its MDX-powered documentation pages. The template’s docs section is styled with Fumadocs UI, ensuring that even documentation pages have proper styling and theming[13]. In summary, when it comes to design and UX, Sushi Templates holds its own among the top SaaS starters, providing a modern, cohesive interface out-of-the-box, with mobile-responsive pages and a consistent design system.

Open Source License and Community

All the templates we’re comparing are open source and free to use (typically MIT licensed). This is great for indie hackers and companies because it means you can start without a licensing fee. The Next.js SaaS Starter, for example, is MIT-licensed on GitHub[14] and has gathered over 14,000 stars, indicating a large community of users and contributors. The ixartz SaaS-Boilerplate is also MIT-licensed[15] (with a free version on GitHub at ~6k stars, plus an optional “Pro” upgrade for additional features). Similarly, Sushi SaaS is completely open-source under the MIT license and encourages contributions (the project explicitly states it’s MIT and welcomes community involvement). The author, Pansa Legrand, has even open-sourced the Sushi Templates website itself and advertises the boilerplate on social platforms[16].

Because these projects are open, developers can inspect the code, file issues, and submit improvements. Community size can matter for longevity – the Next.js Starter’s huge adoption means plenty of community support. Sushi is a newer project, but it is quickly gaining attention for its completeness. It’s worth noting that some “open source” boilerplates hold certain features for paid tiers (for example, ixartz’s boilerplate offers all essential features in the free version but includes some extras like more themes or advanced components in a Pro version). Sushi Templates does not hold anything back for a paid tier – all its features are available in the free repository. This egalitarian approach (along with multilingual README and docs) shows a commitment to the open-source community that can be a strong selling point for developers evaluating templates.

Maintenance and Cutting-Edge Tech

When choosing a starter template, it’s important to consider how actively maintained it is and whether it uses up-to-date technology. On this front, Sushi Templates shines by adopting the latest Next.js 15 and related modern libraries. On the official site, Sushi is advertised as an open-source Next.js 15 boilerplate that is “production-ready from day one”[10]. It leverages React Server Components and the App Router architecture of Next.js 13+ era, meaning it’s built on the newest recommended patterns (whereas some older starters may still be on Next.js 12 or 13).

Most of the popular boilerplates are relatively new (circa 2023-2024) and thus use modern stacks as well. For instance, many have already switched to Drizzle ORM (a type-safe SQL ORM) and Next.js App Router, or support Next.js 14/15. The SaasFly template even mentions support for Next.js 15 and React 19 in its description[17]. The good news is that the ecosystem is keeping up with the tech – you won’t find outdated jQuery in these; instead you see TypeScript-first code, and integrations with services like Stripe, Prisma/Drizzle, etc.

What differentiates Sushi is the breadth of its integrated stack and evidence of active iteration. The author of Sushi has been steadily adding features (for example, early announcements mentioned Stripe and blog features “planned”, and indeed those are now implemented). Sushi uses Better Auth (an authentication solution) combined with a Postgres + Drizzle database layer[18][19]. This choice suggests a focus on long-term maintainability: Better Auth is a robust, self-hosted auth system that avoids the external dependency of third-party auth services. Meanwhile, other templates use Auth.js/NextAuth or Clerk – which work well, but NextAuth can require careful configuration and Clerk, while convenient, is a proprietary service. Sushi’s auth may require a bit more initial setup (generating DB migrations for users and sessions), but it “lasts” in that everything stays under your control. It supports email/password login and even OAuth (Google sign-in is included out of the box)[18], covering common use cases.

In terms of maintenance: some projects explicitly note their update schedule. The ixartz boilerplate, for example, mentions that “dependencies are updated every month”[20] – indicating active maintenance. Sushi’s repository is very active as well, with frequent commits and even translations of documentation being maintained (the README is available in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese, which is quite unusual and speaks to ongoing effort). Choosing Sushi, you can be confident it’s using the latest tech (Next.js 15, React 18/19, Drizzle, etc.) and that the maintainer is actively polishing the project.

Responsiveness and User Experience

“Responsiveness” refers to two things: how responsive the application feels (performance-wise) and how well the UI adapts to different screen sizes. All modern boilerplates aim for a fast, responsive experience by using Next.js (which supports server-side rendering and static optimization) and performance-oriented setups. For instance, Next SaaS Starter’s demo emphasizes that you get an app leveraging Next.js for optimal performance and developer experience[21]. In practice, any Next.js-based template with proper usage of React server components and caching will feel snappy for end-users. Sushi Templates builds on Next.js 15’s performance improvements and includes a health-check endpoint for monitoring uptime (useful for ops) at GET /api/health, so performance and reliability are considered from the start.

On the UI responsiveness side (mobile and cross-device support), these templates usually employ fluid layouts and Tailwind CSS breakpoints to ensure the app works on phones, tablets, and desktops. The SaaS Boilerplate demo, for example, shows a landing page, dashboard, and profile screens that are all mobile-friendly and even has a dark mode option[22][23]. Sushi’s template follows suit by using a mobile-responsive Tailwind design for its landing page and dashboard. You can navigate the Sushi Templates demo on a smartphone and find that the navigation, images, and text all scale and reflow correctly. The inclusion of Tailwind and Radix UI components (via Shadcn) means that things like dialogs or dropdowns are not only accessible but also work well on touch devices by default. In summary, Sushi matches the industry standard in responsive design – it wins by not requiring you to do extra work to support multiple viewports; it’s already baked in.

Documentation and Developer Experience

Strong documentation can make or break a developer’s ability to actually use a boilerplate. Many open-source starters rely on a comprehensive README and perhaps example code or comments to guide users. The Next.js SaaS Starter, for instance, has a step-by-step README explaining how to set up Stripe keys, run migrations, seed the database, and so on[24][25] – enough to get started. The ixartz SaaS Boilerplate provides a documentation website (react-saas.com) and even has in-app guided components (like form handling examples, test cases, etc.) to help developers understand the pieces.

Sushi Templates offers exceptional documentation for an open-source starter. First, the repository’s README has been translated into five languages, reflecting an effort to make the project accessible globally. Second, Sushi actually incorporates a documentation system into the app itself: it has a “Docs & MDX” feature, meaning you get a documentation site or blog section as part of your SaaS application[13]. This serves two purposes: developers can read the built-in docs to learn how features work (for example, there are guides for setting up the database, email service, file storage, etc., accessible under /en/blogs/... routes), and you also have a ready-made docs/blog section for your eventual product’s content. The content system supports markdown/MDX with frontmatter that automatically generates SEO metadata and JSON-LD for rich search results, which is a highly polished addition.

Few other templates include an integrated documentation website like this. One notable exception is the Next SaaS Stripe Starter, which uses Contentlayer/MDX for some pages[26] – but it is more positioned as a blog/newsletter content example, whereas Sushi explicitly frames it as a docs system for your SaaS. Additionally, Sushi’s docs leverage Fumadocs, which provides pre-styled documentation components, so the docs pages are nicely formatted without extra work[13].

Beyond end-user docs, Sushi also cares about developer experience (DX) in day-to-day coding. It comes configured with ESLint and Prettier for code quality, uses pnpm and Turbopack (with an option to switch to Webpack) for efficient dev builds, and includes TypeScript types and even environment variable type-checking. These are similar to what other high-quality boilerplates provide – for example, the ixartz boilerplate sets up ESLint, Prettier, Husky, commit linting, Vitest, Playwright, etc., to ensure a smooth DX[27][28]. Sushi’s DX is solid and “batteries-included,” so you spend less time configuring the project and more time building your product’s unique features.

Where Sushi Templates Wins

After comparing Sushi with other SaaS starters, it’s clear that Sushi Templates distinguishes itself with a few standout advantages:

• Feature Completeness (Revenue-Ready) – Sushi isn’t just a bare-bones starter; it’s what you might call “revenue-ready.” It has built-in monetization and growth features that most others lack. For example, it integrates Stripe Checkout for subscriptions and one-time payments along with a flexible credits ledger system for usage-based billing[29]. If your SaaS will charge per usage or offer credits, Sushi has that logic pre-made. On top of that, Sushi includes an affiliate and referral program out of the box – users can get invite links, and the system tracks sign-ups and rewards commissions for referrals[30]. This kind of growth loop feature is rarely found in other open-source templates, which typically focus on core functionality and leave marketing/referral systems to the developer. With Sushi, you can incentivize growth from day one without adding a third-party referral tool.
• Internationalization and Localization – Sushi is global from day one with its internationalization (i18n) setup. It uses Next.js internationalized routing (via next-intl v4) to serve content in multiple languages easily[31]. The template’s landing page and even the docs can be in different languages (English, French, Chinese, etc., are already provided as examples). While a couple of other boilerplates support i18n (ixartz’s does include multi-language support with Crowdin integration[32]), Sushi’s implementation is particularly smooth – locale subpaths are always present (e.g. /en/...), and it comes with translation files and helpers ready to go. For anyone targeting a global audience, this is a big win, as you won’t need to retrofit i18n into your app.
• Authentication and Security – All templates provide auth, but Sushi’s Better Auth integration gives it an edge in control and reliability. Better Auth manages secure sessions stored in your own database and is designed for long-lived auth sessions. It supports email/password by default and Google OAuth, and because it’s self-hosted, you avoid the vendor lock-in of external auth services. In contrast, some starters use Clerk (which, while feature-rich – offering social login, MFA, etc. – is a paid hosted service) or rely on NextAuth (which is flexible but can be complex to self-host at scale). Sushi’s auth is already wired up with role-based access control (RBAC) as well – there are admin-only routes and the template defines read-only vs. read-write roles for admin users[33]. That means from the start you have a pattern to protect sensitive admin pages on the server side. This focus on robust auth and security gives you confidence that user data and admin actions are properly safeguarded.
• Extensibility and Modularity – Sushi comes with some unique modules, like a Reservations feature (an example of a mini product flow for booking with calendar invites). This isn’t a common feature across other starters and serves as a blueprint for how to build modular features in the app. It shows how to toggle features on/off via environment config and how to integrate external services (Stripe for payments, Resend for emails, etc.) in a feature-specific way. This approach can guide developers in adding their own custom modules cleanly. Essentially, Sushi not only gives you features, it teaches you how those features can be structured within a larger app – reducing the learning curve when you go to implement something new.
• Built-in Documentation and Guides – As highlighted earlier, Sushi wins on docs. It provides internal documentation pages (with proper SEO) right in the app[13]. This means you have a ready-made place to write your product documentation or marketing blog content. None of the other popular templates include an in-app docs system to this extent. Furthermore, the existence of detailed guides (covering things like setting up the database, configuring third-party keys, etc.) in Sushi’s repository means that as a developer you’re less likely to get stuck. If you need to, say, set up the email service, Sushi’s guide at /en/blogs/email-service walks you through it. This level of documentation reduces development friction and is a big win for Sushi users.

In summary, Sushi Templates matches other top SaaS boilerplates in the essentials – it’s full-stack, well-designed, open-source, and up-to-date. But it wins in areas that matter greatly for launching a SaaS business: it’s pre-packaged with revenue features (payments, subscriptions, usage credits), growth tools (affiliates/referrals), global-ready localization, and a robust admin/auth setup. It also doesn’t skimp on the developer experience or documentation, meaning you can both build and scale your app faster and more confidently. For developers who want to “build and launch your SaaS faster,” Sushi Templates lives up to its tagline by providing a more comprehensive starting point than most, allowing you to focus on your unique product features rather than the boilerplate that every SaaS needs.

Conclusion

The ecosystem of Next.js SaaS templates is rich and continually improving. Many open-source boilerplates will save you weeks of setup time by delivering common SaaS features out-of-the-box. Ultimately, the right choice depends on your project’s needs. If you need something minimal and educational, the official Next.js SaaS Starter is a great choice to learn from[34]. If you require advanced enterprise features like multi-tenancy or prefer an auth service like Clerk, a template like the ixartz SaaS-Boilerplate might suit you[3].

However, if you’re looking for a well-rounded, production-ready starter that not only covers the basics but also gives you built-in monetization, internationalization, and growth features, Sushi Templates has a clear edge. It wins in delivering a truly full-stack boilerplate with a “batteries included” philosophy – from auth to payments to referrals to documentation – all within an open-source, Next.js 15 framework[10]. By choosing Sushi SaaS, you can hit the ground running with a robust foundation and launch your SaaS product faster, focusing your time on the features that make your product unique rather than the boilerplate that every SaaS needs.

Sources

Many of the comparisons and facts above are drawn from the official documentation and repositories of the mentioned projects, including Sushi Templates’ README and site, and other open-source SaaS starter project pages[1][30][13], as well as community reviews. These sources illustrate the tech stacks, features, and philosophies behind each template, helping us understand where Sushi Templates stands out in the current landscape.

• [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [17] Top 8 Most Popular Open-Source Next.js SaaS Templates - DEV Community — https://dev.to/bytefer/top-8-most-popular-open-source-nextjs-saas-templates-1pma
• [10] [11] [13] [18] [19] [29] [30] [31] [33] Sushi SaaS — https://www.sushi-templates.com/en
• [12] [15] [20] [22] [23] [27] [28] [32] GitHub - ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate — https://github.com/ixartz/SaaS-Boilerplate
• [14] [24] [25] [34] GitHub - nextjs/saas-starter — https://github.com/nextjs/saas-starter
• [16] Pansa Legrand (@WenzhuPan) / X — https://x.com/WenzhuPan
• [21] Next.js SaaS Starter (demo) — https://next-saas-start.vercel.app
• [26] GitHub - mickasmt/next-saas-stripe-starter — https://github.com/mickasmt/next-saas-stripe-starter