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Ask HN: SaaS Frameworks for Startups

32 points by asadkn 7y ago

Everyone's rolling out their own tech stack / framework solution or putting significant effort researching and putting the pieces together. @patio11 wrote about how someone needs to create a book on it: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1219997892028448768 Know of any frameworks/stacks built specifically for SaaS startups? Something that covers al the moving parts - Auth/Roles, Billing, APIs, CRUD, Logging and so on. Language is irrelevant but preferably in the popular ones most people already know. PHP, JS, Python, Ruby etc.

swah 7y ago
Interesting checklist in one of the replies: https://github.com/stockandawe/saas-startup-cto-checklist/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/stockandawe/saas-startup-cto-checklist/bl...
ThePhysicist 7y ago
There are SaaS solutions for some parts that you mentioned. Examples: - Auth0 for authentication - Stripe for payments - Billomat for billing For other parts there are good open source frameworks, for example: - Hasura for building an API on top of a Postgres data schema - Frameworks like Flask, Rails or Django for building a backends - Frameworks like React or Vue for building a frontend - Static site generators like Hugo or Jekyll for building your website - Hosting companies like DO or Linode and cloud providers like AWS or Microsoft Azure to host your services There are also more tightly integrated solutions for specific niches like e-commerce (e.g. Shopify), if you build a SaaS solution you will probably have too many aspects that are unique about your idea to use such a highly standardized solution.
- asadkn 7y ago
  All good suggestions. Adding to this, there's a thread full of similar gems: https://twitter.com/flybayer/status/1220406529901223936 https://twitter.com/flybayer/status/1220406529901223936 I do get that not all of these can be done and many are specific to niches. But I believe a lot of boilerplate can be done by one framework. And an opinionated framework can do a lot. Say Payment integration modules (Stripe, Paypal et. al), Logging & Error Reporting, Opinionated Backend/Frontend and storage for basic CRUD, CI/CD integration and deployment workflows working with cloud providers, tight integration with a messaging queue etc. Something like this could be a massive time saver in communities like Indiehackers.
- m_fayer 7y ago
  I looked into Auth0 (and some competitors) a few years ago, and eventually figured out that, outside of a narrow usage band, it was extremely expensive given the not-trivial nature of integrating it and its various downsides. So, compared to implementing an OSS auth server/framework yourself, it just didn't seem worth it.
rocketpastsix 7y ago
Laravel Spark[0]. It costs $99 to get a license for a site/$299 for unlimited sites, but then you are pretty much set. 0: https://spark.laravel.com https://spark.laravel.com
p0d 7y ago
I met the founder of https://usegravity.app/ https://usegravity.app/ yesterday. Interesting guy and product.
soneca 7y ago
There are a few companies selling all of that in a single package as a SaaS boilerplate application: If you like PHP - https://spark.laravel.com/ https://spark.laravel.com/ If you like Ruby on Rails - https://bullettrain.co/ https://bullettrain.co/, https://www.getsjabloon.com/ https://www.getsjabloon.com/, https://railskits.com/ https://railskits.com/ If you like NodeJS - https://usegravity.app/ https://usegravity.app/ If you like ASP.NET - https://aspnetzero.com/ https://aspnetzero.com/ If you like Python/Django - https://djaodjin.com/ https://djaodjin.com/ I can't specifically recommend any of them, as I never used, but I used another one built with Rails+EmberJS that was worth the money (I am not sure if it's still supported these days, but here it is https://www.maxiomapps.com/apps/application-starter-kit/ https://www.maxiomapps.com/apps/application-starter-kit/). If you want to build a SaaS web app for problems that don't require cutting edge technology to be solved (aka most of them), I think buying one of those is a no-brainer in terms of cost/benefit.
makeee 7y ago
I'm working on https://divjoy.com https://divjoy.com, a tool that generates custom React codebases. It doesn't yet cover everything a SaaS app needs, but Stripe integration, CRUD, db, etc are coming this year.

32 points by asadkn 7y ago

swah 7y ago

Interesting checklist in one of the replies: https://github.com/stockandawe/saas-startup-cto-checklist/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/stockandawe/saas-startup-cto-checklist/bl...

ThePhysicist 7y ago

There are SaaS solutions for some parts that you mentioned. Examples: - Auth0 for authentication - Stripe for payments - Billomat for billing For other parts there are good open source frameworks, for example: - Hasura for building an API on top of a Postgres data schema - Frameworks like Flask, Rails or Django for building a backends - Frameworks like React or Vue for building a frontend - Static site generators like Hugo or Jekyll for building your website - Hosting companies like DO or Linode and cloud providers like AWS or Microsoft Azure to host your services There are also more tightly integrated solutions for specific niches like e-commerce (e.g. Shopify), if you build a SaaS solution you will probably have too many aspects that are unique about your idea to use such a highly standardized solution.

asadkn 7y ago
All good suggestions. Adding to this, there's a thread full of similar gems: https://twitter.com/flybayer/status/1220406529901223936 https://twitter.com/flybayer/status/1220406529901223936 I do get that not all of these can be done and many are specific to niches. But I believe a lot of boilerplate can be done by one framework. And an opinionated framework can do a lot. Say Payment integration modules (Stripe, Paypal et. al), Logging & Error Reporting, Opinionated Backend/Frontend and storage for basic CRUD, CI/CD integration and deployment workflows working with cloud providers, tight integration with a messaging queue etc. Something like this could be a massive time saver in communities like Indiehackers.
m_fayer 7y ago
I looked into Auth0 (and some competitors) a few years ago, and eventually figured out that, outside of a narrow usage band, it was extremely expensive given the not-trivial nature of integrating it and its various downsides. So, compared to implementing an OSS auth server/framework yourself, it just didn't seem worth it.

rocketpastsix 7y ago

Laravel Spark[0]. It costs $99 to get a license for a site/$299 for unlimited sites, but then you are pretty much set. 0: https://spark.laravel.com https://spark.laravel.com

p0d 7y ago

I met the founder of https://usegravity.app/ https://usegravity.app/ yesterday. Interesting guy and product.

soneca 7y ago

There are a few companies selling all of that in a single package as a SaaS boilerplate application: If you like PHP - https://spark.laravel.com/ https://spark.laravel.com/ If you like Ruby on Rails - https://bullettrain.co/ https://bullettrain.co/, https://www.getsjabloon.com/ https://www.getsjabloon.com/, https://railskits.com/ https://railskits.com/ If you like NodeJS - https://usegravity.app/ https://usegravity.app/ If you like ASP.NET - https://aspnetzero.com/ https://aspnetzero.com/ If you like Python/Django - https://djaodjin.com/ https://djaodjin.com/ I can't specifically recommend any of them, as I never used, but I used another one built with Rails+EmberJS that was worth the money (I am not sure if it's still supported these days, but here it is https://www.maxiomapps.com/apps/application-starter-kit/ https://www.maxiomapps.com/apps/application-starter-kit/). If you want to build a SaaS web app for problems that don't require cutting edge technology to be solved (aka most of them), I think buying one of those is a no-brainer in terms of cost/benefit.

makeee 7y ago

I'm working on https://divjoy.com https://divjoy.com, a tool that generates custom React codebases. It doesn't yet cover everything a SaaS app needs, but Stripe integration, CRUD, db, etc are coming this year.