Hey Dev Community,

I wanted to share a little project I’ve been working on called StartFast, a free, minimalistic SaaS starter kit designed for those who want to jump straight into building without spending days setting up or wrestling with unnecessary complexity.

Tech Stack: Keeping it Simple and Fast
I decided to use JavaScript (JS) over TypeScript (TS) to keep things beginner-friendly. I know that JS is less type-safe, but it’s approachable for those just starting out and still perfectly capable for building production-ready apps. StartFast’s free version has only 18 tidy JS files, each designed to be concise and focused, so you won’t get bogged down in a maze of code.

For the frontend, I’ve included TailwindCSS. I know Tailwind has a learning curve, especially if you haven’t used utility-first CSS before, but the trade-off is worth it. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it speeds up UI development significantly. And given Tailwind’s popularity, it felt like the right choice to include it in the project.

On the backend, I opted for Supabase—specifically, Supabase Auth with Magic Link for passwordless authentication. It offers a straightforward way to set up authentication, which helps keep things simple and secure. Supabase also gives you a PostgreSQL database out of the box, providing the full power of SQL without much effort.

Stripe handles payment processing, and here’s where I took a different route: credit-based pay-per-use payments. Most of the starter kits I’ve come across focus on a subscription-based model, which doesn’t fit everyone’s needs. Based on my experience building micro SaaS apps, I found that users often prefer pay-per-use when trying out a new tool. It lowers the commitment threshold and makes it easier to validate your idea with real users and feedback.

Why the Credit-Based Model?

In my past projects, I always found myself having to rework the payment model from subscriptions to pay-per-use. I tested both models, and the results consistently showed that users were more inclined to pay for what they used rather than subscribe to a plan they weren’t fully committed to yet. This approach helped me get valuable user feedback and validate my ideas faster.

Want More Features? Check Out the Pro Version

If you need more advanced features, there’s a Pro version of StartFast. It includes all the essentials from the free version, plus:

• AI-Powered Blog Post Generator: Generate SEO-friendly blog posts from the CLI with the help of OpenAI. Just provide a topic, keywords, and preferred style, and you’ll have a new post ready to go.

• AI-Powered Landing Page Generator: Create landing page content automatically by answering a simple questionnaire. It saves time and gives you a starting point to edit and fine-tune.

• Centralized Configuration: Control your app’s design, content, and appearance from a single JSON config file. No more hunting through code—everything is organized.

If you’re interested in trying the free version, feel free to check it out. I’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts!