MakerKit vs ShipFast
MakerKit and ShipFast, compared line by line on Pricing & licence, Tech stack, Billing features, Core features, Marketing & growth, Operations, AI, Tooling & updates.
MakerKit wins for anything a team touches: organizations, roles and an admin panel with RBAC, none of which ShipFast has.
- Choose MakerKit if
- Included: You need organizations, roles and invitations
- Included: You want Supabase Auth and RLS-native code
- Included: You want an admin panel with RBAC and metrics
- Choose ShipFast if
- Included: You want the lowest entry price
- Included: Your codebase is JavaScript, or on the Pages Router
- Included: You store documents in MongoDB
GenerateSaaS is the alternative to bothThat is us$249 one-time- Included: GenerateSaaS is $249 against MakerKit at $349, and ships the organizations, roles and invites ShipFast does not have.
- Included: MakerKit sells its audit log separately as Supamode and ShipFast names no admin panel at all; GenerateSaaS ships an admin panel and an audit log with a viewer.
- Included: Credits here are real balances with grants and top-ups, where MakerKit's are a build-it guide and ShipFast has none.
Side by side
Every feature, compared
Tap a name to hide or show its column
| Feature | MakerKit | ShipFast | GenerateSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $349 one-time | $199, from $299 | $249 one-time |
| Pricing & licence | |||
| Pricing model | Included: One-time, updates included | Included: One-time; updates from All-in | Included: One-time, updates included |
| Projects per licence | Included: Unlimited, per kit | Included: Unlimited | Included: Unlimited, per seat |
| Client work | Partial: Team tier; client buys a licence | Not available | Partial: Agency tier to deliver source |
| White-label | Not available | Not available: Notices must stay | Partial: Agency tier |
| Refund policy | Not available: No refunds, stated | Not available: No refunds, stated | Not available: All sales final |
| Verdict | ShipFast starts at $199, discounted from a $299 list, against MakerKit's $349 - and MakerKit licenses each stack separately. Neither offers refunds. | ||
| Tech stack | |||
| Frameworks | Included: Next.js 16.3, React Router 8, TanStack | Included: Next.js, either router | Included: Next.js 16.3 |
| Database | Included: Supabase, Drizzle, Prisma 7 | Included: MongoDB, Supabase Postgres | Included: Postgres, Neon, Supabase |
| Authentication | Included: Supabase Auth, Better Auth | Partial: Google login, magic links | Included: Better Auth, passkeys, 2FA |
| Verdict | Both are Next.js. MakerKit adds React Router and TanStack and is Supabase-native; ShipFast keeps MongoDB and the Pages Router on the table. | ||
| Billing features | |||
| Payments | Included: Three on Supabase kits, two elsewhere | Included: Stripe, Lemon Squeezy | Included: Stripe, Polar |
| Subscriptions | Included: Flat, per-seat, metered, one-off | Included: Stripe subscriptions | Included: Month, year, lifetime |
| Usage credits | Partial: Build-it guide | Not available | Included: Balances, grants, optional top-up |
| Finance dashboard | Not available | Not available | Included: Revenue, vendor cost, margin |
| Core features | |||
| Organizations | Included: Organizations, roles, invites | Not available | Included: Organizations, roles, invites |
| Admin panel | Included: Users, organizations, RBAC, metrics | Not available | Included: Eight admin tabs |
| Admin login as user | Included: Admin acts as user | Not available | Included: Admin acts as user |
| Onboarding | Partial: Recipe, build yourself | Not available | Included: Profile, first org, welcome drip |
| Notifications | Partial: Realtime, Supabase kits | Not available | Included: In-app bell, email |
| File storage | Included: S3, filesystem, Supabase Storage | Not available | Included: S3-compatible, local disk |
| Multiple languages | Included: Locales, language switcher | Not available | Included: Locales, language switcher |
| Legal pages | Included: Terms, privacy, cookies | Partial: ChatGPT prompts | Included: Terms, privacy pages |
| Verdict | MakerKit ships organizations, roles, an admin panel and impersonation. ShipFast's docs name none of them. | ||
| Marketing & growth | |||
| Included: Resend, SMTP | Included: Resend, Mailgun | Included: SMTP, SES, Resend | |
| Newsletter | Partial: Signup form, no provider | Not available | Included: Listmonk, Resend sync |
| Blog | Included: Blog in every kit | Included: Authors, categories, schema | Included: Categories, tags, RSS |
| SEO tools | Partial: Sitemap, robots, metadata | Included: Tags, sitemap, schema | Included: OG images, JSON-LD, sitemap |
| Analytics | Included: GA, PostHog, Umami, Meshes | Partial: DataFast script, pasted | Included: Eight providers |
| Support chat | Not available | Included: Crisp, one config key | Included: Crisp, Chatwoot |
| Affiliate tracking | Not available | Not available | Included: Refgrow, Affonso, PromoteKit |
| Cookie consent | Included: Banner, consent hook | Not available | Included: GDPR banner, four legal policies |
| Operations | |||
| Audit log | Not available: Supamode, sold separately | Not available | Included: With an admin viewer |
| User API keys | Not available | Not available | Included: Per-key rate limits |
| SMS | Not available | Not available | Included: Broadcast SMS, Twilio, SNS |
| Error reporting | Included: Sentry, SigNoz, PostHog, Honeybadger | Partial: Error and 404 pages | Included: Sentry, PostHog |
| Rate limiting | Included: Drizzle, Prisma kits | Partial: Upstash tutorial, self-installed | Included: Per-route, per-key |
| Background jobs | Not available | Not available | Included: Inngest |
| Deploy targets | Included: Vercel, Cloudflare, Docker, VPS | Included: Vercel, Netlify, Render | Included: Docker, Vercel, Fly, Railway, more |
| AI | |||
| AI assistant | Partial: Teams tier, separate templates | Not available | Included: Chat, files, web search |
| User-supplied AI keys | Not available | Not available | Included: Users add provider keys |
| MCP server | Included: Kit, CLI servers | Not available | Included: For your app's users |
| Tooling & updates | |||
| Project setup CLI | Included: @makerkit/cli new | Not available | Included: generatesaas init |
| Version updates | Included: CLI update, git merge | Partial: Updates included, All-in only | Included: CLI update, AI merges |
| End-to-end tests | Included: Playwright, pre-configured | Not available | Included: Playwright, pre-configured |
| Desktop app | Not available | Not available | Included: Electron app |
| Mobile app | Partial: Expo plugin, Supabase only | Not available | Not available |
- Included
- Partial
- Not available
Read from each vendor's site and docs in 2026. A cross means their docs and site do not show it.
The trade-offs
What each one gets right
MakerKit
Three kits built around Supabase, with Drizzle and Prisma variants and a plugin catalogue.
Drizzle and Prisma variants sit beside the Supabase kit, each a separate product at the same price. Thirteen plugins install by one command, and four error providers are wired, SigNoz and Honeybadger among them.
Client work needs the Teams tier, and every client who receives the source code must hold their own licence. Their licence states plainly that refunds are not offered.
- Pro $349
- Teams $649
Strengths
- Included: Supabase Auth with RLS-native code
- Included: Expo mobile plugin, Supabase kit
- Included: Fourteen plugins installed by one command
- Included: Four error providers, SigNoz included
- Included: Two MCP servers for coding agents
Trade-offs
- Not available: Each stack is a separate licence
- Not available: A licence per client project
- Not available: Credits are a guide, not code
- Not available: No audit log or user API keys
- Not available: No broadcast SMS or announcements
ShipFast
A compact single-tenant Next.js starter, sold for unlimited projects at the lowest entry price.
JavaScript and the Pages Router are supported beside TypeScript, and documents may live in MongoDB rather than Postgres. Twenty-seven marketing components and a blog ship with it.
Its docs name no organizations, no admin panel and no language switcher. Access cannot be refunded once granted, their licence keeps copyright and trademark notices in the code, and updates are announced only in a newsletter archive that has been silent since 2024.
- Starter $199
- All-in $249
- Bundle $299
Strengths
- Included: The lowest entry price here
- Included: JavaScript and the Pages Router
- Included: MongoDB or Supabase Postgres
- Included: 27 marketing components, a blog
- Included: Crisp support chat, one key
Trade-offs
- Not available: No organizations, roles or invitations
- Not available: No admin panel or audit log
- Not available: One language, no language switcher
- Not available: No credits, broadcast SMS or announcements
- Not available: Starter drops Discord, updates and discounts
FAQ
MakerKit vs ShipFast, answered
Short answers to the questions people actually ask.
Does one MakerKit licence cover every kit?
No. Each stack is licensed separately at the same price, and their FAQ says a freelancer needs a licence for each client project.
Does MakerKit ship credit-based billing?
Not as code. Its documentation shows how to build credits on top of the billing it ships, so the schema and the deduction logic are yours to write.
Does ShipFast support multi-tenant organizations?
Its documentation and public pages name no organizations, roles or invitations. Treat it as a single-tenant starter, where each account is one user.
Why is ShipFast cheaper than the others?
It covers less. There is no admin panel, audit log, credits billing or language switcher, so a team app needs work the other three ship as code.
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