Build vs buy a SaaS boilerplate

A boilerplate is worth it only if it saves you more time than it costs. The hours below are rough estimates for one experienced developer building each part from scratch. They are defaults, not measurements: change them to match your own experience.

Your hourly rate (USD)Hours to learn and adapt the kit

What you would otherwise build yourself (edit the hours)

Auth: email/password, magic links, OAuth, roles
Stripe subscriptions, webhooks, billing portal
PostgreSQL, ORM and migrations
Transactional email and templates
Admin area and API keys
Rate limiting and API protection
Streaming AI chat
Unit and end-to-end tests
Docker and deploy setup

Build it yourself: $5,900; 118 hours
Buy ShipFast.sh: $349; $149 plus 4 hours of your time
Difference: $5,551; cheaper to buy

On your numbers, buying wins. The kit pays for itself if it saves you more than 7.0 hours.

When you should not buy ShipFast.sh

You already have a starter you like. Switching costs more than it saves.
You need organizations with seat-based billing, built-in i18n or Nuxt. Read the Supastarter comparison.
You want JavaScript or the Pages Router, or a MongoDB setup. See where ShipFa.st is the better pick.
You need multi-tenant teams out of the box. The Makerkit comparison covers it.

If the numbers favor buying, see what is included and the 14-day refund window, or read the quickstart to see how long setup takes.