create-t3-app vs Makerkit
Both are boilerplates tools. Here is what separates them.
| create-t3-app | Makerkit | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Boilerplates | Boilerplates |
| Pricing model | open-source | paid |
| Price from | Open source | Paid |
| Upvotes | 11 | 3 |
| What it does | A typesafe Next.js stack scaffolded by answering four questions. | Multi-tenant SaaS boilerplate with teams and billing done properly. |
What create-t3-app is
Create T3 App is a command line tool that scaffolds a new TypeScript web project with a chosen set of libraries already wired together. It is a scaffolding tool rather than a framework, and the distinction matters: once a project has been initialised it belongs to whoever created it, with no mandatory updates to follow afterwards. The libraries on offer make up the T3 Stack. Next.js handles the application itself, TypeScript is used throughout for typesafety, NextAuth.js covers authentication, Tailwind CSS handles styling, tRPC is used for client development, and database work goes through Prisma or Drizzle. Typesafety is the organising principle of the selection rather than a feature bolted on afterwards. The combination is opinionated: these are the libraries the project has settled on, and the scaffolding wires them to work together rather than leaving the connections to be written by hand. Choices are made at scaffolding time. The /app directory structure is one of the options, and the project regards it as mature enough for production use. Some .js files remain in the generated output because not every framework in the stack supports TypeScript configuration files, which is a deliberate compromise rather than an oversight. Internationalisation is not included by default. Instead of building it in, the project maintains a reference repository showing how to add i18n with next-i18next. That fits its wider position, which is that people learn the stack by building with it rather than by working through extensive preliminary material first. Create T3 App is open source and the applications it produces are self-hostable. It draws on Create Next App and Astro's CLI, and its involvement ends once the project has been generated: what comes out is an ordinary Next.js codebase that can be changed, deployed and maintained on its own terms. The tool has a narrow remit. It builds new T3 Stack projects and does not try to be a runtime, a hosting platform or a component library, so anything beyond the initial setup is handled by the libraries themselves rather than by Create T3 App.
What Makerkit is
Makerkit sells production-ready SaaS starter kits: TypeScript codebases that arrive with authentication, billing and multi-tenancy already wired up, so those foundations do not have to be rebuilt for every new project. Variants ship for Next.js, React Router, Remix, TanStack Start and React Native, and the documented kits include next-supabase-turbo, nextjs-drizzle, nextjs-prisma, react-native-supabase, react-router-supabase-turbo, tanstack-drizzle and supamode. The Supabase stack uses Supabase auth, storage and database with Postgres row level security. The Drizzle and Prisma stacks instead pair Better Auth with a bring your own database setup, and the Drizzle kits can target MySQL and SQLite as well as Postgres. What comes in the box is the plumbing most SaaS products need. Multi-tenant organisations, team management and role based access control are built in. Authentication covers email and password, magic links, passkeys using WebAuthn, and TOTP based multi-factor authentication, with social sign in through Google, GitHub, Facebook, X and Discord. Billing can run on Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle or Polar, and a Stripe customer portal is connected so that subscribers manage their own plans. A super admin dashboard handles user and organisation management, account impersonation and account disabling. Around that sit the parts that tend to get postponed. The interface is built from Shadcn UI components on Tailwind CSS v4, and a Figma UI kit is bundled with the purchase. Each kit includes an SEO ready blog, a documentation section and a changelog, with Keystatic and WordPress available as CMS options alongside a custom CMS client. End to end tests are set up with Playwright, with separate unit and database test tooling, and local email is caught by Inbucket and Mailpit. The codebase runs on strict TypeScript compiler settings. For anyone working with coding assistants, the kits ship an MCP server plus agent rule files for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Gemini. Pricing is a one-off payment rather than a subscription, and the same figures apply across the Supabase, Drizzle and Prisma stacks. The Pro licence is 349 USD, covers one user, allows unlimited projects and includes Discord community access. The Teams licence is 649 USD, covers up to five collaborators, also allows unlimited projects, and adds a private Discord channel and priority support. One purchase includes all future updates to the kit.
We are not affiliated with either product. Upvote counts come from the published formula and neither position was paid for.