Boring Business Showcase: Making a Living by Selling SaaS Boilerplates

What is a SaaS boilerplate?

Basically, it is source code packaged with all the boring features such as user accounts, login and password reset, billing, teams, and so on. The idea behind a SaaS boilerplate is to help developers focus on building the core value of their app, instead of starting from scratch every time.

Do you think selling SaaS boilerplates is boring?

You will probably agree. Essentially, it is just selling ready-made source code. Nothing creative or exciting. You do not get a chance to show off how innovative your product is; you do not get a chance to demonstrate what big problems your product is solving.

But what if I tell you that you can make a living by selling SaaS boilerplates? Will you change your mind?

Now, it sounds not boring at all. Right? It turns out selling SaaS boilerplates is actually a very lucrative business.

In this post, we'll demonstrate how some founders earn a living by selling SaaS boilerplates, a business that might seem boring but is, in fact, quite profitable.

SaaS Pegasus: $100k/year

SaaS Pegasus is a SaaS boilerplate made for Django, a web framework built on Python.

SaaS Pegasus was created by Cory Zue in 2018. He made SaaS Pegasus because he had already made two other SaaS apps and saw that he had to do the same work for both of them. He thought that if he had this problem, other people might have it too. After doing some research, he learned that paid boilerplate templates were a successful product category. But, there wasn't one available for Django, which is the web framework he likes to use. So, he decided it was a good opportunity to make one.

Cory Zue has been working on Pegasus for about four years. In 2022, it made more than $100,000 in profit.

Gravity: $25k/month

Gravity is a SaaS boilerplate made for Node.js & React.

Gravity was created by Kyle in 2018. He created Gravity because he faced an issue when making new products. He didn't expect it to earn money. He was experimenting with various software ideas and realized he had to repeat the same tasks when starting a new product. He was spending too much time designing interfaces, login forms, and payment systems instead of creating things people would want to purchase. So, he made a template to speed up and simplify the process for himself.

In May 31, 2022. Kyle revealed that he is making $25k revenue that month selling Gravity in one of his tweets.

ShipFast: $32k/month

ShipFast is a SaaS boilerplate made for NextJS.

ShipFast was made by Marc Lou in 2023. He made a few AI products to keep up with the latest trends. Then, Marc decided not to chase the flashy trend and build a boring business. This time, he created something he needed as a developer – a code template to help him ship things faster. He managed to build it in just a week without expecting much, and then he released it.

The outcome?

Marc shared on his Twitter account that he earned $32,000 in September 2023.

Supastarter: $4700/month

Supastarter is a SaaS boilerplate made for Supabase and NextJS.

Supastarter was made by Jonathan Wilke in 2022. Prior to Supastarter, Jonathan had been working as a freelancer and had extensive experience in web development. In addition to his full-time job, he embarked on the journey of creating Supastarter as a side project. His motivation for creating Supastarter stemmed from the belief that people should have the ability to easily and rapidly initiate new applications or SaaS projects.

On October 13, 2023, Jonathan made a public tweet announcing that Supastarter had generated over $4,700 and was about to surpass his salary.

Saasrock: $3400/month

Saasrock is a SaaS boilerplate designed for Remix. It's built using Remix, Tailwind CSS, and Prisma.

Saasrock was released by Alexandro Martinez in March 2019. Alexandro was a senior C# developer before he ventured into web development. He fell in love with web development and discovered Remix. He decided to create a reusable boilerplate to expedite his development process. That's when Saasrock was born.

Alexandro publicly shared on Twitter that Saasrock was generating $3,400 per month as of October 2022.

Makerkit: $3500/month

Makerkit is a SaaS boilerplate for Next.js and Remix.

Makerkit was launched by Giancarlo Buomprisco in August 2022. He created Makerkit as a side project primarily for fun. Giancarlo is a passionate developer who enjoys building his own products while working as a software engineer. He built Makerkit to assist developers in creating SaaS products with ease.

Giancarlo shares that after 4 months of launching Makerkit, it reached his target revenue, which is around $3,500 per month.

Conclusion

Do you still find SaaS boilerplates boring? I doubt it.

Many of our daily challenges can actually be addressed by seemingly "boring" solutions.

Don't overlook these opportunities just because you're drawn to creative or flashy businesses.