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From 0 To 10k ⭐: How Open Saas Became The Free Boilerplate Devs Love

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The Open SaaS Story

When building an app, I want to start on the unique idea that sparked the project in the first place, not spend weeks configuring auth, payments, and user management.

Of course, there are paid 3rd-party solutions for integrating things like authentication, cron jobs, and email sending quickly. And paid SaaS boilerplates exist, too.

But when I looked there was surprisingly no great full-featured, open-source solution for building a SaaS quickly.

So I decided to build one.

And I'm excited to announce that it now has over 10,000 stars on GitHub!

What is Open SaaS?

For those unfamiliar, Open SaaS is a 100% free and open-source, batteries-included SaaS starter kit, built on top of the Wasp full-stack framework (using React, Node.js, and Prisma).

Its mission is simple:

Accelerate and focus your SaaS development by providing an open-source, full-featured foundation with essential features, like:

  • Authentication (email, google, github, etc.)
  • Payments (Stripe or Lemon Squeezy integration)
  • Example Apps w/ the OpenAI API
  • AWS S3 File Upload
  • Email sending
  • Admin dashboard
  • And more, right out of the box

The best part is that it doesn't rely on a ton of paid 3rd-party services like other templates do, so you own more of your app (oh, and you can deploy it wherever you want, too).

Since its launch, Open SaaS hasn't just gathered stars; it has empowered developers to launch countless projects faster, turning ideas into profitable businesses, sometimes in a matter of days.

It's been crazy to see the apps and businesses people are building with it, like some of these below (yes, all of them were built with Open SaaS ????):

Besides all the cool stuff being built with it, an interesting side-effect of Open SaaS is that it has also become the cornerstone of the Wasp ecosystem, demonstrating the framework's power and really delighting developers in the process.

Support us! ????⭐️

Everything we do at Wasp is open-source. You can show your support by giving us a star on Github. It helps us make web development easier and motivates us to write more articles like this!

⭐️ Thanks For Your Support ????

Under the Hood: The Wasp Advantage

Launched in December 2023, Open SaaS adoption took off almost immediately. The positive reception was surprising, but it confirmed our belief that developers needed a high-quality, open-source SaaS boilerplate starter.

While Open SaaS leverages familiar tools like React, NodeJS, and Prisma, and comes with a bunch of built-in examples like an OpenAI example app, AWS S3 file storage, and more, its secret sauce lies in its core tool choice that glues them all together: the Wasp framework.

Wasp is special because it's the only full-stack framework that actually manages the tedious boilerplate that plagues modern web development.

It does this through its use of a central config file and its compiler, allowing developers (and AI) to define tons of full-stack features in just a few lines of code.

The Central Nervous System: main.wasp

Think of the main.wasp config file as the central nervous system of your application. Here, you declaratively define key aspects of your app:

  • Authentication methods
  • Database models (via Prisma integration)
  • Routes and Pages
  • API endpoints (Queries and Actions)
  • Background jobs
  • Email sending
  • ...and more.

This configuration file acts as a single "source of truth" for your app's architecture, a concept highlighted in our post on AI-assisted workflows, and it's how you can get complex web app features really quickly and easily as a developer.

Here's a quick code snippet of what a main.wasp file looks like:

app exampleApp { 
  wasp: { version: "^0.16.3" }, 
  title: "Example App", 
  auth: { 
    userEntity: User, 
    methods: { 
      email: {}, 
      github: {}, 
    }, 
  } 
} 
 
route LoginRoute { path: "/login", to: Login } 
page Login { 
  component: import { Login } from "@src/features/auth/login" 
} 
 
route EnvelopesRoute { path: "/envelopes", to: EnvelopesPage } 
page EnvelopesPage { 
  authRequired: true, 
  component: import { EnvelopesPage } from "@src/features/envelopes/EnvelopesPage.tsx" 
} 
 
query getEnvelopes { 
  fn: import { getEnvelopes } from "@src/features/envelopes/operations.ts", 
  entities: [Envelope, UserBudgetProfile] 
} 
 
action createEnvelope { 
  fn: import { createEnvelope } from "@src/features/envelopes/operations.ts", 
  entities: [Envelope, UserBudgetProfile]  
} 
 
//...

The Wasp Compiler: Where the Magic Happens

Then, the Wasp compiler takes over. It analyzes your .wasp declarations alongside your custom React and Node.js code (where you write your specific business logic) and intelligently generates the complete underlying code.

This includes:

  • Setting up the server and database connections.
  • Wiring up communication between client and server with full type-safety.
  • Handling complex authentication flows and session management.
  • Simplifying deployment with commands like wasp deploy.

Using this as the basis for Open SaaS, this translates directly into less code and complexity for essential features.

In other words, you get to focus solely on building your unique product, rather than struggling with putting all the pieces together.

Implementing a new authentication method, adding background jobs, or defining protected routes is as easy as a couple lines of code in the main.wasp file.

This allows Open SaaS apps to be feature-rich yet maintainable and, crucially, easy to understand and extend.

Open SaaS + AI = Vibe Coding Superpowers

This also means that Open SaaS is exceptionally well-suited for AI-assisted development.

Why?

Because the effectiveness of AI-assisted development (or "vibe coding" as some call it) heavily depends on the underlying codebase structure and clarity.

Open SaaS's foundation on Wasp makes it exceptionally well-suited for AI-assisted development for two key reasons:

Clear Architecture through Wasp's Config: The main.wasp file serves as a perfect "source of truth" for AI tools.

When an AI assistant needs to understand your app's structure – its routes, models, operations, and features – everything is clearly laid out in one declarative file.

This makes it significantly easier for AI to comprehend the context and generate accurate, relevant code.

Focus on Business Logic: Since Wasp's compiler handles the underlying infrastructure, both you and your AI assistant can focus purely on implementing your unique features.

No time is wasted having the AI generate or explain boilerplate code for auth flows, API setup, or database connections – Wasp handles all of that.

This means that LLMs have considerably less code to write, and can pass of the complexity of connecting the different parts of the stack to Wasp.

(BTW, If you're curious to see how using Open SaaS with AI-assisted development tools like Cursor looks like, make sure to check out this 3 hour walkthrough tutorial on YouTube)

Using AI tools in a vibe coding workflow like this on top of Open SaaS's robust foundation creates a powerful development environment where you and your LLM buddy only have to focus on the fun stuff – the business logic of your SaaS app.

The Future of Open SaaS

Hitting 10,000 GitHub stars is a milestone, but it's just the beginning. The community and I are actively working on making Open SaaS even more powerful and flexible.

Here's some stuff we have in store for you:

  • Complete Redesign w/ Shadcn UI: We're working on a complete redesign of the Open SaaS template to make it even more modern and user-friendly by leveraging the power of Shadcn UI.
  • More Example Apps: Ready-to-use app templates, like ones that leverage AI APIs (because GPT Wrappers are in!).
  • Enhanced Admin Features: Expanding the admin dashboard with more analytics, role-based authentication, and customization options.

BTW, if you have any feature requests, please let us know by creating an issue or a discussion on GitHub.

Whether you're a React developer looking to contribute new features, a designer interested in improving the UI, or someone who just found a bug, don't be shy!

Ready to Build Your SaaS?

In just a few months, Open SaaS has grown from an idea to one of the most popular SaaS repos on GitHub that's helping developers launch SaaS applications by writing less boilerplate code.

By combining:

  • A robust, full-featured SaaS starter
  • The power and simplicity of the Wasp framework
  • An active, supportive community
  • AI-friendly architecture for modern development workflows

Open SaaS has become more than just a template.

If you wanna start building your SaaS, all you need to get started is install Wasp and get the Open SaaS template by running:

curl -sSL https://get.wasp.sh/installer.sh | sh 
wasp new -t saas

After that, check out the Open SaaS documentation ???? where everything you need to know is outlined for you, along with step-by-step setup guides!

And don't forget to:

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