15 Must-Have Features to Look for in a SaaS Boilerplate

With so many SaaS boilerplates and starter kits available, each packed with different frameworks, features, and tech stacks, how can you be sure which one is the best fit for your product?

You need something that ensures long-term scalability, provides a complete solution, and comes with quality code along with proper support when you need it.

Today, when we talk about SaaS product development, boilerplates often come up. SaaS boilerplates are prebuilt, production-ready foundations that help startups and developers build their SaaS products faster.

Since you are planning to start your SaaS journey, you must take the time to research, compare, and choose wisely. That is exactly why we have listed 15 essential features to look for in a SaaS boilerplate to help SaaS makers like you understand what to look for and how to find the right boilerplate for your product.

Table of Contents

• What is a SaaS Boilerplate?
• Key Advantages of Using a SaaS Boilerplate
• 15 Essential Features Every SaaS Boilerplate Should Have
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is a SaaS Boilerplate?

To build a SaaS application, if you want to build and launch faster, you need a solid foundation that handles all the essentials like authentication, user roles, payments, security & more. That is where SaaS boilerplates or SaaS starter kits come in.

These prebuilt solutions provide production-ready features, allowing developers to start with scalability, API integrations, and best practices already in place. This ensures a faster, smoother, and more efficient development process without unnecessary complexity.

Key Advantages of Using a SaaS Boilerplate

It is true that more development hours lead to higher costs and a longer time to market. Luckily, a SaaS boilerplate helps you spend less time on setup and more time building a successful SaaS business.

Here is why using a SaaS boilerplate is a smart choice:

• Launch faster: With built-in core features like authentication, payments, and user management, you can bring your product to market quickly and start gathering early feedback.
• Better code quality: SaaS boilerplates are built by experienced developers, which means you get a clean, scalable, and maintainable codebase from day one.
• Cost-cutting solution: Since a lot of the groundwork is already done, you save money on development costs and reduce the need for extra resources.
• Powerful and flexible frameworks: Many boilerplates use modern, well-supported frameworks, making customization and scaling much easier.
• Built-in best practices: Security, scalability, and performance optimizations are already included, so you do not have to worry about handling them yourself.
• Early feedback: Build your MVP with a boilerplate and test it with real users. Early insights help refine your product before scaling.

By choosing the right SaaS boilerplate, you get a complete solution that helps you move faster without unnecessary complexity.

15 Essential Features Every SaaS Boilerplate Should Have

Although there are many SaaS boilerplates in the market, not all of them live up to their claims. Some add unnecessary complexity, others lack essential features, and some do not provide the long-term support needed to scale. Make sure to look for these must-have features before investing in a paid one.

1. Authentication and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Almost every SaaS boilerplate includes authentication and user access management, but not all offer the flexibility and security you need. You should look for a boilerplate that supports strong password requirements and provides secure password reset methods.

• Multiple Authentication Options: Supports Google, GitHub, Apple, and more for flexible sign-in.
• Secure Password Recovery: Allows users to reset passwords via email securely.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Adds an extra layer of security against unauthorized access.
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Manages user roles and permissions efficiently.
• Database Access Control: Restricts data access based on user roles for security.

2. User Management System

A solid User Management System is essential for any SaaS application, allowing users to create, update, and manage their profiles with ease. Your SaaS boilerplate should include features like profile creation with image uploads and secure storage, ensuring a smooth onboarding experience.

Users should be able to update their profile details, change passwords, and manage their marketing email preferences easily. A secure password update feature is a must, whether they set a new password manually or use third-party authentication like Google or GitHub.

Additionally, providing an option to delete profiles ensures users have full control over their data.

3. Multi-Tenant Support (Multi-Organization Functionality)

If your SaaS product serves multiple businesses or teams, multi-tenant support is a must! Your boilerplate should allow you to create, customize, and manage multiple organizations effortlessly.

A smooth onboarding flow helps users set up their organizations without friction. You should be able to invite and manage members with defined roles like Super Admin, Owner, Admin, and Member, ensuring proper access control. Role-based feature access (RBAC) is crucial, allowing different users to have permissions tailored to their responsibilities.

Managing subscriptions, handling feature flags, and enabling organization-level settings should be seamless.

4. Subscription and Billing Integration

Handling subscriptions and payments shouldn’t be a headache! Your SaaS boilerplate should provide seamless billing integration with payment gateways like Stripe, LemonSqueezy, and others, making it easy to create and manage billing plans without writing tons of custom code.

You should be able to sync billing data in real-time by integrating webhooks, ensuring subscription and payment details stay updated automatically. Managing invoices and payment methods should be hassle-free through the Stripe/LemonSqueezy Customer Portal, where users can also handle cancellations with ease.

A reliable billing system should handle recurring payments automatically, monitor failed transactions, and generate detailed financial reports.

With useSAASkit, integrate Stripe or LemonSqueezy, sync products instantly, and keep subscriptions updated with built-in webhooks. Manage invoices, payments, and plan changes easily.

5. API Integration

APIs are the backbone of your SaaS app! They let you connect with third-party services, automate workflows, and make your platform more powerful. Here’s what matters:

• Effortless Third-Party Integrations: Plug in payment gateways, email services, or auth providers without the hassle.
• REST & GraphQL Support: Fetch data your way, whether you need flexibility or efficiency.
• Rock-Solid Security: Use API keys, OAuth, and rate limiting to keep your data safe.
• Built for Scale: Handle high traffic without slowing down—fast, reliable, and optimised!

Get your APIs right, and everything else just works!

6. Database Integration

Make sure your database is secure, scalable, and optimised for seamless data retrieval! Set up API connections correctly, apply necessary migrations, and enable read replicas to handle high traffic. Strengthen security with data encryption, access control, and row-level security (RLS).

Keep things running smoothly with real-time monitoring, automated backups, and alerts. A quality boilerplate ensures database scalability while maintaining top-notch security. Your SaaS is built to grow—stay reliable and efficient from day one!

7. AI-Driven Features

When it’s time to integrate AI into your SaaS, you need functionalities that not only automate tasks but also enhance user experience. AI-driven features can help with content generation, data extraction, and intelligent interactions, making your platform smarter and more efficient.

However, building these from scratch takes time and expertise. useSAASkit provides you with built-in AI capabilities like PDF Upload and Parsing, allowing users to upload PDFs and interact with their content using AI-powered search.

You can also switch between AI models like OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini to optimize responses. These features create a smart AI experience, enabling users to gain instant insights from their documents without any complexity.

The Next.js Supabase AI boilerplate by useSAASkit is packed with essential features and components, helping you launch your SaaS app in days. Check out the live demo.

8. Transactional and Automated Email Handling

Choose a SaaS boilerplate that keeps your business communication seamless!

Your SaaS should support both marketing and transactional emails, giving you the flexibility to enable or disable features like resend as needed.

Customize email functions to fit your business needs, whether it's setting up email templates, automating follow-ups, or handling marketing email resend simply. With built-in reliability, security, and scalability, make sure your emails reach the right audience at the right time!

9. Customizable UI Components

Build a UI that perfectly matches your brand and user needs! With customizable UI components, you get full control over styling—modify colors, borders, global styles, and backgrounds. TailwindCSS ensures design consistency while keeping layouts responsive and flexible.

Enable theme switching so users can toggle between light and dark modes, or add a language switcher for localization. Predefined UI elements like buttons and forms create a seamless look across your app.

Pick that SaaS boilerplate built with modern frameworks like Next.js for performance, scalability, and easy maintainability. Whether you're launching an MVP or scaling a full SaaS platform, a quality boilerplate ensures your front-end is ready to go!

10. Admin Dashboard and Management Tools

Find that SaaS boilerplate that gives you complete control over your application with a powerful admin dashboard. Manage many users by impersonating accounts for debugging, enabling or disabling users, and tracking real-time activity.

Gain deep insights into performance metrics, error logs, and system health to keep your app running smoothly.

This feature can help you customize access control, monitor API usage, and manage database records without diving into code. A well-built admin panel saves you time, streamlines operations, and keeps everything under your control.

With useSAASkit’s Super Admin panel, you get full control over users and organizations in your SaaS app. Easily manage memberships, update details, and keep everything organized all from one place.

11. Internationalization (i18n) and Localization

Your SaaS boilerplate should include internationalization (i18n) and localization to make your application accessible in multiple languages. This feature helps you easily set up multilingual support, making it more user-friendly and globally accessible.

With language folders and simple translation management, you can create a fully localized experience without extra hassle. Users can switch between languages, and the UI updates instantly based on their selection. You also get the flexibility to enable or disable the language switcher, giving you full control over how your app handles multiple languages.

12. Marketing Pages

Marketing pages may include essential sections like the Home Page, Blog Page, and more. Some boilerplates come with pre-defined marketing pages, but you should look for customization options that reflect your product's presence and USPs.

Your marketing page is where users land first, so first impressions matter! It should have a customizable Navigation Bar, a Hero Section for branding and messaging, and a Scroll Banner for key updates.

Choose a SaaS boilerplate with responsive and customizable marketing pages, allowing you to tweak layouts, add new pages, and align everything with your brand.

13. Analytics and Performance Monitoring

Analytics and performance monitoring are just as important as development and feature updates. If you are not tracking user behavior and product performance, you are missing valuable insights!

Look for a SaaS boilerplate that includes a solid analytics dashboard. It should offer user behavior tracking, capturing clicks, page views, time spent, and where users drop off on key features. With useSAASkit, you can choose between Google Analytics or PostHog to track key events and gather deep insights.

A good boilerplate also includes customizable dashboards to display key performance indicators (KPIs), helping you monitor your SaaS product’s performance at a glance.

14. CI/CD and Production Deployment Tools

To get your SaaS product live and running smoothly, you need production deployment tools that allow for a hassle-free, scalable, and automated deployment process.

You are supposed to have a deployment setup that reduces time-to-market and improves operational efficiency. Look for a SaaS boilerplate that supports CI/CD pipelines so you don’t have to manually push updates every time.

With useSAASkit, deployment is effortless. Vercel handles frontend hosting and serverless APIs, while customizable environment variables and real-time webhooks ensure smooth scaling. The right tools help you push updates faster, monitor performance, and keep your SaaS running seamlessly.

15. Documentation and Support

To let developers work efficiently, clear and comprehensive documentation is essential. It is not just about explaining features but making implementation seamless.

For example, useSAASkit provides a well-organized step-by-step guide covering everything from setup to customization, ensuring you never feel lost. Plus, you get 1:1 personalized support from the team for a Boilerplate walkthrough and setup assistance.

When choosing a SaaS boilerplate, look for strong documentation and dedicated support because as your product grows, having reliable guidance will save you time and effort in the long run.

Conclusion

When making your final decision, these 15 must-have features in a SaaS boilerplate will ensure your SaaS application is built on a solid foundation. But do not just go for fancy features. Make sure to choose a boilerplate that aligns with your needs.

Look beyond the features and consider factors like the tech stack, your team’s capabilities, scalability, past reviews, support, and the experience of the makers. Your goal is to save time and build fast so that you can launch and get early feedback. When investing in a paid boilerplate, ensure it aligns with your goals, not just the feature list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Next.js SaaS boilerplate?

A Next.js SaaS boilerplate or SaaS starter is a prebuilt setup that helps you build your SaaS app faster with Next.js. It gives you speed, SEO benefits, and flexibility, making it a solid choice for modern SaaS projects. If you want a detailed breakdown, check out Next.js SaaS Boilerplate: Working, Key Features & Benefits.

How do I choose the right SaaS boilerplate for my project?

Do not just look for features. Factors like scalability, the tech stack, support, code quality, past maker reviews, and the experience of the developers behind it also matter. Choose by analysing these aspects carefully.

What technologies should a modern SaaS boilerplate use?

A good SaaS boilerplate should have a tech stack that makes development faster, scalable, and easy to manage. For example, Next.js is a great choice because it’s fast, flexible, and SEO-friendly. Supabase handles backend tasks like authentication, database, and storage, while Tailwind CSS makes UI design simple and customizable. But in the end, it all comes down to what your team is comfortable working with.