5 ms·

Show HN: SvelteKit SaaS Boilerplate to help launch your product fast

26 points by thomasmol 3y ago

Hi HN! I am a indie hacker and love building apps with SvelteKit, so I built a boilerplate with the tech stack I always use. It has almost everything needed to launch a SaaS/tool/AI app, like auth, db + orm, email, payments and styling. You can view everything that's included on the website and the docs (https://docs.launchleopard.com https://docs.launchleopard.com) Would love to hear what other features or tech you'd want to see in a boilerplate like this!

swalsh 3y ago
I don't understand why I would want to buy this, everything you're "giving" me is available a few commands away using NPM.
- thomasmol 3y ago
  Yes you're right, some of this can be easily installed with a few commands! However, the boilerplate also has a lot of other api routes, components and demo pages to setup an app. If you're capable of easily setting that up yourself then this might not be for you, that's totally fine of course!
Obscurity4340 3y ago
I like that leopard, I do like that
_fat_santa 3y ago
There's just not enough here to justify the price.
- thomasmol 3y ago
  I can understand that! What would you like to see included that would justify the price for you?
  - _fat_santa 3y ago
    I honestly don't know. But from my perspective, this year I've spent probably in excess of 1000 hours working on my SaaS app, by contrast it took me maybe 3 days to setup all the required services to connect to Stripe, my analytics provider, etc. Simply put, saving a few days of setup time does not cross the threshold of a product or service I would pay for. If this was something that would take me a few weeks or a month to put together myself then it would be a product I'd be willing to pay for. Take a product like TailwindUI, it's expensive but also very worth it because it takes the time to build a professional landing page from 2-3 weeks of work down to 2-3 days of work.
    - rsp1984 3y ago
      You literally just valued your time at $13 per day.
      - metaloha 3y ago
        This is a huge problem in the tech world I think. I think of myself as $30/hour against purchases and subscriptions - each hour something saves me is worth $30. This boilerkit is worth $39 to me because it would definitely take me longer than a couple hours to build myself. Someone else has already put in the 100 to 1000 hours to make it a decent experience.
altdataseller 3y ago
Please solve some harder problems for me. I don't need this - there's so many tools that do this already. Boilerplate SaaS code is a commodity. Help me find customers, please
- thomasmol 3y ago
  I understand! Perhaps I should include more tools and tutorials on marketing as well?
Lienetic 3y ago
Does your auth implementation with authjs support refresh token rotation?
- thomasmol 3y ago
  Currently no.. Going to have to add that still. The Auth.js devs have said that they're going to include zero-config support for this
  - Lienetic 3y ago
    If you add support for that then I'll buy this.
RamblingCTO 3y ago
I get a 500
- thomasmol 3y ago
  Mmm strange, could you share on what page exactly? Edit: got rate limited by the Github api haha, fixed now :)
  - sgaur 3y ago
    Getting a 500 on https://launchleopard.com/ https://launchleopard.com/ <div class="flex h-screen flex-col justify-between scroll-smooth"><h1>500</h1> <p>Internal Error</p> <div id="svelte-announcer" aria-live="assertive" aria-atomic="true" style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); clip-path: inset(50%); overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px; height: 1px;"></div></div>
minajevs 3y ago
Looks like frontpage url (launchleopard.com) is not working - giving me 500 response. Then in docs neither starter repository buttons works - leads to 404. Is it built using your own boilerplate? If yes, then I am not buying :)
- thomasmol 3y ago
  Haha yes, was an issue with a rate limit on the Github API, should be fixed now! Didn't expect this amount of traffic :) Docs were built with Mintlify and the links to the repos in the docs will work once you have accepted the invite (after making a purchase).
droptablemain 3y ago
I've been seeing so many people trying to sell "kits" like this for Next.js and similar, it's quite strange as it's always mostly boilerplate code and otherwise freely available NPM packages. These types of things should be "starter projects" and frankly they should be free on Github for anyone to download and learn with. I have a hard time seeing any market for these kits outside of lazy junior developers.
- realusername 3y ago
  I've setup my own internal kit (I'm not selling it now) and it's much work that you think to get the small details right and bring everything together properly. I've spent a few days on it and the price is worth it to save that amount of work in my opinion.
  - 4star3star 3y ago
    Wasn't it worth it to truly learn the internals, though?
    - thomasmol 3y ago
      Interesting thought, maybe I should add clear reasons why specific parts were included and how they work
    - realusername 3y ago
      Personally I've done it for that goal so yeah it was worth it but if you are looking to launch a project, I can understand that you might want to skip that step.
- oooyay 3y ago
  Free boilerplate templates are often not maintained for that long, dare I say usually maintained as long as the author is interested in that particular stack. I think there's some value in offering a stack that has preconfigured settings for your IDE, linters, formatters etc as well as complicated things like multi-tenant databases. It eliminates a lot of toil when setting up a new product and generally the price for these kits is under $100.
lordofmoria 3y ago
Glad to see DaisyUI on here - it’s a component library designed with tailwindcss - it hits that fine balance for component libraries between covering the hard-to-do stuff (modals, accordions, drop-down) without building such big components that you end up constantly tinkering to get what you want.
throwaway295729 3y ago
This looks great, and I can certainly see this saving me some time!
iJohnDoe 3y ago
I’m not a skilled enough developer. I wanted to create a product to sell access to a URL endpoint that provides data. The URL is used within other products, like a SEIM, firewall, dashboard, etc. I can create the URL endpoint, data, server infrastructure, etc. I also already have enterprise customers ready to subscribe. However, I’m not skilled enough to create a storefront, auth, billing, etc. I tried finding a solution I could pay for, but it was a rabbit hole of solutions that would not work.
sickcodebruh 3y ago
I know that it takes a lot of effort to setup these things but I wonder about the long term benefit to buyers. They’re buying into the Launch Leopard Architectural Philosophy, which they may or may not appreciate and grow the way they hope. Today’s unproved framework or boilerplate is tomorrow’s tech debt liability. Did you consider adding guaranteed support or consulting hours to help buyers launch and grow? That would de-risk the initial buy and provide ongoing value. “Buy the starter, get X hours of time, I’ll be there to help you as a partner on your journey.” Then a contract (hourly, quarterly, yearly?) for continued engagement. Boilerplates are everywhere, relationships and guidance are not. I imagine that anyone in the market for this would see that as a major value add and differentiator.
- thomasmol 3y ago
  Very interesting idea! Currently I only have a discord channel for support and help, but your suggested approach of offering some included one on one consulting makes sense. I am gonna look into how I can implement this
devhe4d 3y ago
Starter kits are helpful for beginners, but relying on them too much can be limiting. It's crucial for developers to learn how to configure their own coding stack. This foundational skill is key to growth and adaptability in tech. While starter kits offer a good starting point, they shouldn't replace the essential know-how of setup and configuration in my opinion.
djfdat 3y ago
Congrats on the launch. I actually think this is a good idea as something to provide. As someone who just has time to dabble in web projects and loves to use Sveltekit, having something like this would be great, since I spend about the first 1-2 days relearning how to get everything started. There are a few things that I am looking for before I'd buy this though: - An update commitment. When I come back to doing web dev, I want to know that this boilerplate is up-to-date. For example, expect Sveltekit updates within 30 days of a major release, expect integration libraries updated within 90 days of major release, minor versions & patches will be updated automatically assuming they pass tests. - Integration testing. I'd like to know that each integration has tests written, and that they are still passing. I'd hate to spin up a project and run in to an issue, only to realize that either an integration hasn't been updated or that something there is failing. - A product roadmap. I'd like to know what other integrations are planned and when they can be roughly expected. - Launch Leopard Lite? A free boilerplate with Sveltekit+Tailwind+DaisyUI+SEO stuff to try things out. Good luck!

26 points by thomasmol 3y ago

swalsh 3y ago

I don't understand why I would want to buy this, everything you're "giving" me is available a few commands away using NPM.

thomasmol 3y ago
Yes you're right, some of this can be easily installed with a few commands! However, the boilerplate also has a lot of other api routes, components and demo pages to setup an app. If you're capable of easily setting that up yourself then this might not be for you, that's totally fine of course!

Obscurity4340 3y ago

I like that leopard, I do like that

_fat_santa 3y ago

There's just not enough here to justify the price.

thomasmol 3y ago
I can understand that! What would you like to see included that would justify the price for you?
- _fat_santa 3y ago
  I honestly don't know. But from my perspective, this year I've spent probably in excess of 1000 hours working on my SaaS app, by contrast it took me maybe 3 days to setup all the required services to connect to Stripe, my analytics provider, etc. Simply put, saving a few days of setup time does not cross the threshold of a product or service I would pay for. If this was something that would take me a few weeks or a month to put together myself then it would be a product I'd be willing to pay for. Take a product like TailwindUI, it's expensive but also very worth it because it takes the time to build a professional landing page from 2-3 weeks of work down to 2-3 days of work.
  - rsp1984 3y ago
    You literally just valued your time at $13 per day.
    - metaloha 3y ago
      This is a huge problem in the tech world I think. I think of myself as $30/hour against purchases and subscriptions - each hour something saves me is worth $30. This boilerkit is worth $39 to me because it would definitely take me longer than a couple hours to build myself. Someone else has already put in the 100 to 1000 hours to make it a decent experience.

altdataseller 3y ago

Please solve some harder problems for me. I don't need this - there's so many tools that do this already. Boilerplate SaaS code is a commodity. Help me find customers, please

thomasmol 3y ago
I understand! Perhaps I should include more tools and tutorials on marketing as well?

Lienetic 3y ago

Does your auth implementation with authjs support refresh token rotation?

thomasmol 3y ago
Currently no.. Going to have to add that still. The Auth.js devs have said that they're going to include zero-config support for this
- Lienetic 3y ago
  If you add support for that then I'll buy this.

RamblingCTO 3y ago

I get a 500

thomasmol 3y ago
Mmm strange, could you share on what page exactly? Edit: got rate limited by the Github api haha, fixed now :)
- sgaur 3y ago
  Getting a 500 on https://launchleopard.com/ https://launchleopard.com/ <div class="flex h-screen flex-col justify-between scroll-smooth"><h1>500</h1> <p>Internal Error</p> <div id="svelte-announcer" aria-live="assertive" aria-atomic="true" style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); clip-path: inset(50%); overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px; height: 1px;"></div></div>

minajevs 3y ago

Looks like frontpage url (launchleopard.com) is not working - giving me 500 response. Then in docs neither starter repository buttons works - leads to 404. Is it built using your own boilerplate? If yes, then I am not buying :)

thomasmol 3y ago
Haha yes, was an issue with a rate limit on the Github API, should be fixed now! Didn't expect this amount of traffic :) Docs were built with Mintlify and the links to the repos in the docs will work once you have accepted the invite (after making a purchase).

droptablemain 3y ago

I've been seeing so many people trying to sell "kits" like this for Next.js and similar, it's quite strange as it's always mostly boilerplate code and otherwise freely available NPM packages. These types of things should be "starter projects" and frankly they should be free on Github for anyone to download and learn with. I have a hard time seeing any market for these kits outside of lazy junior developers.

realusername 3y ago
I've setup my own internal kit (I'm not selling it now) and it's much work that you think to get the small details right and bring everything together properly. I've spent a few days on it and the price is worth it to save that amount of work in my opinion.
- 4star3star 3y ago
  Wasn't it worth it to truly learn the internals, though?
  - thomasmol 3y ago
    Interesting thought, maybe I should add clear reasons why specific parts were included and how they work
  - realusername 3y ago
    Personally I've done it for that goal so yeah it was worth it but if you are looking to launch a project, I can understand that you might want to skip that step.
oooyay 3y ago
Free boilerplate templates are often not maintained for that long, dare I say usually maintained as long as the author is interested in that particular stack. I think there's some value in offering a stack that has preconfigured settings for your IDE, linters, formatters etc as well as complicated things like multi-tenant databases. It eliminates a lot of toil when setting up a new product and generally the price for these kits is under $100.

lordofmoria 3y ago

Glad to see DaisyUI on here - it’s a component library designed with tailwindcss - it hits that fine balance for component libraries between covering the hard-to-do stuff (modals, accordions, drop-down) without building such big components that you end up constantly tinkering to get what you want.

throwaway295729 3y ago

This looks great, and I can certainly see this saving me some time!

iJohnDoe 3y ago

I’m not a skilled enough developer. I wanted to create a product to sell access to a URL endpoint that provides data. The URL is used within other products, like a SEIM, firewall, dashboard, etc. I can create the URL endpoint, data, server infrastructure, etc. I also already have enterprise customers ready to subscribe. However, I’m not skilled enough to create a storefront, auth, billing, etc. I tried finding a solution I could pay for, but it was a rabbit hole of solutions that would not work.

sickcodebruh 3y ago

I know that it takes a lot of effort to setup these things but I wonder about the long term benefit to buyers. They’re buying into the Launch Leopard Architectural Philosophy, which they may or may not appreciate and grow the way they hope. Today’s unproved framework or boilerplate is tomorrow’s tech debt liability. Did you consider adding guaranteed support or consulting hours to help buyers launch and grow? That would de-risk the initial buy and provide ongoing value. “Buy the starter, get X hours of time, I’ll be there to help you as a partner on your journey.” Then a contract (hourly, quarterly, yearly?) for continued engagement. Boilerplates are everywhere, relationships and guidance are not. I imagine that anyone in the market for this would see that as a major value add and differentiator.

thomasmol 3y ago
Very interesting idea! Currently I only have a discord channel for support and help, but your suggested approach of offering some included one on one consulting makes sense. I am gonna look into how I can implement this

devhe4d 3y ago

Starter kits are helpful for beginners, but relying on them too much can be limiting. It's crucial for developers to learn how to configure their own coding stack. This foundational skill is key to growth and adaptability in tech. While starter kits offer a good starting point, they shouldn't replace the essential know-how of setup and configuration in my opinion.

djfdat 3y ago

Congrats on the launch. I actually think this is a good idea as something to provide. As someone who just has time to dabble in web projects and loves to use Sveltekit, having something like this would be great, since I spend about the first 1-2 days relearning how to get everything started. There are a few things that I am looking for before I'd buy this though: - An update commitment. When I come back to doing web dev, I want to know that this boilerplate is up-to-date. For example, expect Sveltekit updates within 30 days of a major release, expect integration libraries updated within 90 days of major release, minor versions & patches will be updated automatically assuming they pass tests. - Integration testing. I'd like to know that each integration has tests written, and that they are still passing. I'd hate to spin up a project and run in to an issue, only to realize that either an integration hasn't been updated or that something there is failing. - A product roadmap. I'd like to know what other integrations are planned and when they can be roughly expected. - Launch Leopard Lite? A free boilerplate with Sveltekit+Tailwind+DaisyUI+SEO stuff to try things out. Good luck!