12 tools that do a similar job, and what makes each one different.
Gravity is a prebuilt SaaS starter codebase for Node.js and React, sold as a downloadable source code package rather than a hosted service. It ships in two architectures: a Node.js build with a separate backend and frontend, and a Next.js build that runs as one unified application. Every published plan bundles the Node.js server, a React web client, a React Native mobile client, an Astro website template and Mission Control, the admin dashboard covering user management, feedback, events and logs. The licence terms matter as much as the feature list. Plans are one-time payments: Starter at 199 US dollars, Pro at 299 and Elite at 499. Each permits use in between one and three commercial applications depending on which plan was bought, so the number of products you may ship is fixed at purchase. Updates are included for one year from purchase and delivered through a private GitHub repository that buyers merge into their own project. Renewing that window costs 195 US dollars per year if you renew before it expires and 250 US dollars per year afterwards. Refunds are not issued under any circumstances, and filing a chargeback terminates the licence and permanently disables the account. Only the developers covered by the licence may use the code for development work, and reselling, renting, leasing, sublicensing or redistributing the source is forbidden. You may deploy Gravity inside applications owned and operated by your own clients, which makes it usable for agency work, but you may not build a product with the same or substantially the same primary function as Gravity itself. Billing is implemented on Stripe and covers subscriptions, free accounts, seat billing and usage billing, with 3D Secure handled for European cards. Free trials are set through a trial period value on the Stripe plan and apply only at first signup, not on plan upgrades. Authorisation ships with five permission levels (master, owner, admin, user and developer), and only the owner role can edit billing details, close the account or create and delete API keys. The REST API accepts both JWT bearer tokens and API keys sent as Basic authentication, and keys only work on endpoints that declare a scope such as account read or user read. One decision worth weighing: API keys are stored in the database in plain text so that a user can retrieve a lost key. Database access goes through Knex, with MySQL, Postgres and MongoDB named in the stack. The web client uses React, Vite, Tailwind, Shadcn and Radix UI, and social sign on uses Passport.js in the Node.js build and Arctic in the Next.js build. Transactional email goes through Nodemailer with Mailgun as the default transport, and the deployment guide names Heroku and Digital Ocean. A Custom plan adds between one and five bespoke features, deployment assistance and transfer of IP ownership, but carries no published price.
