Short version: ShipFast is one of the best tools for solo founders who want the fastest path from idea to live URL. It doesn't try to be a complete production platform — and that's fine. Already is for teams building B2B SaaS where multi-tenancy, admin controls, background jobs, and AI integration are table stakes. Same one-time price, different scope.
Feature matrix
| Feature | ShipFast | Already |
|---|---|---|
| Framework & Language | ||
| Next.js App Router | ✓ | ✓ |
| TypeScript | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tailwind CSS | ✓ | ✓ |
| shadcn/ui components | ✓ | ✓ |
| ORM | Mongoose/Prisma | Drizzle |
| Database | Mongo/Postgres | Supabase Postgres |
| Authentication | ||
| Pre-built sign-in / sign-up screens | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email + password | ✓ | ✓ |
| OAuth (Google, GitHub) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Magic link (passwordless) | — | ✓ |
| TOTP 2FA (authenticator app) | — | ✓ |
| Passkeys (WebAuthn) | — | ✓ |
| Auth event audit log | — | ✓ |
| Billing & Payments | ||
| Stripe integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Idempotent webhook handler | — | ✓ |
| Dead-letter queue for failed webhooks | — | ✓ |
| Plan-based feature gating | ~basic | ✓ |
| Customer billing portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trial + grace period | — | ✓ |
| Multi-tenancy & Orgs | ||
| Organisation / workspace model | — | ✓ |
| Role-based access control (RBAC) | — | ✓ |
| Member invitations | — | ✓ |
| Row-level security (Postgres RLS) | — | ✓ |
| Admin dashboard with impersonation | — | ✓ |
| Messaging | ||
| Transactional email (Resend + React Email) | ✓ | ✓ |
| In-app notifications (Realtime) | — | ✓ |
| Background Work | ||
| Cron-based background jobs | — | ✓ |
| Postgres-backed job queue | — | ✓ |
| API key management (hashed at rest) | — | ✓ |
| Security & Hardening | ||
| CSP nonces | — | ✓ |
| Rate limiting | — | ✓ |
| Bot / scraper detection | — | ✓ |
| Suspicious activity detection | — | ✓ |
| GDPR export + deletion endpoints | — | ✓ |
| AI & Developer Experience | ||
| Multi-provider AI module | — | ✓ |
| AI credits ledger | — | ✓ |
| Feature flags (PostHog) | — | ✓ |
| AI-native context (CLAUDE.md / Cursor rules) | — | ✓ |
| i18n (next-intl, 5 locales) | — | ✓ |
| SEO + marketing pages | ✓ | ~basic |
| Cost | ||
| Price | $149–299 one-time | $199 one-time |
| Recurring subscription | — | — |
✓ Included · — Not included · Amber text = partial or buyer's choice.
Auth
ShipFast
Ships pre-built sign-in and sign-up screens backed by NextAuth.js or Supabase Auth — buyer chooses at setup. Email + password, OAuth providers, and magic link (via Supabase) are covered. No TOTP 2FA, no passkey support, and no auth event audit log.
Already complete
Ships Supabase Auth with pre-built screens for every flow: email + password, magic link, OAuth (Google, GitHub), TOTP, and passkeys. Auth event log tracks every login by device and IP. Email enumeration protection and rate limiting on auth endpoints are on by default.
Billing
ShipFast
Includes a basic Stripe integration with subscription creation and a customer portal link. The webhook handler works for most cases, but it is not idempotent by default — retried events can cause duplicate processing. No dead-letter queue for silently dropped webhook events.
Already complete
Full Stripe integration with idempotent webhook handling and a dead-letter queue for failed events. Plan-based feature gating, customer portal, trial periods with grace periods, and billing email notifications — all wired. Run pnpm setup:stripe and it's live.
Multi-tenancy — the biggest gap
ShipFast
Ships nothing for multi-tenancy. ShipFast is designed for B2C or simple B2B — one user, one account. If your product needs workspaces, organisations, or team management, you're building that from scratch: data model, RLS, invite flows, RBAC, and admin tooling before your first feature.
Already complete
Full multi-tenant org model with Postgres RLS and query-layer tenant scoping. Member invitations with role assignment, RBAC across all routes, and an admin dashboard with user impersonation. Tested for cross-tenant data isolation. Standard B2B SaaS infrastructure, shipped.
Pricing model
ShipFast
One-time payment: $149 Solo (core kit), $199 with extra marketing pages, $299 premium tier with more templates. All tiers give you the code with no recurring fee. Marc Lou's approach — sell fast, no subscription — is what made ShipFast popular.
Already one-time
$199 Solo or $399 Team — one-time, own the code. No recurring fee. The Solo licence covers 1 commercial project. At the same base price as ShipFast's mid-tier, Already ships multi-tenancy, admin dashboard, background jobs, API keys, AI integration, and hardened security on top.
Who should use what
Use ShipFast when
- You're a solo founder who needs to ship in a weekend
- Your product is B2C or simple single-user B2B
- You want polished marketing pages and landing templates
- You prefer MongoDB or have an existing Mongoose codebase
- Community size and Marc's support network matter to you
- You don't need multi-tenancy, admin, or background jobs
Use Already when
- Your product needs workspaces, teams, or org management
- You need an admin dashboard from day one
- Background jobs and a job queue are on your roadmap
- You want AI integration with a credits ledger built in
- You're using AI coding assistants and want AI-native DX
- You need idempotent billing and production-grade security
The honest comparison
ShipFast is genuinely excellent at what it promises: the fastest path from zero to a live product. Marc Lou built it from his own experience shipping indie products, and the community and support reflect that. If you're building a B2C product or a simple SaaS where time-to-first-user is the only metric, ShipFast is hard to beat.
Already is for a different moment. If your product needs B2B multi-tenancy, an admin dashboard, background jobs, API key management, or AI integration — features ShipFast doesn't include — you'll spend weeks building them after ShipFast gets you live. Already ships those modules wired and tested, at the same one-time price point.