One of the most common questions we get: "Should I start with a free template or go straight to premium?" The honest answer is: it depends on what you're building. Here's a decision framework.
What Free Templates Include
Our free templates are production-quality starting points. They're not stripped-down demos — they're the foundation that premium templates are built on.
Every free template includes:
- TanStack Router with file-based routing and type-safe navigation
- TanStack Query pre-configured with query key factories
- Tailwind CSS 4 with a complete design system
- TypeScript strict mode throughout
- Vite with optimized build configuration
- ESLint + Prettier configured and ready
- Cloudflare Workers deployment configuration
Free templates are fully open-source (MIT license). Use them for commercial projects, modify them, don't credit us if you don't want to.
What Premium Templates Add
Premium templates build on the free foundation with complete feature modules that would take weeks to build correctly:
- Authentication — Complete auth with email/password, OAuth (Google, GitHub), email verification, password reset, and protected routes
- Billing — Stripe integration with subscriptions, usage-based billing, a customer portal, and webhook handling
- Dashboard — Admin dashboard with analytics charts, data tables, role-based access, and team management
- Email — Transactional email templates with React Email, responsive design, and provider integrations
- Storage — File upload with image optimization, CDN delivery, and Cloudflare R2 integration
The Decision Framework
graph TD
Start["What are you building?"] --> Q1["Does it need user accounts?"]
Q1 -->|No| Free["Free Template is enough"]
Q1 -->|Yes| Q2["Does it need payments?"]
Q2 -->|No| Q3["Just auth needed?"]
Q3 -->|Yes| Auth["Auth Premium Template"]
Q3 -->|No| Free2["Free Template + build auth yourself"]
Q2 -->|Yes| Q4["Launch timeline?"]
Q4 -->|"< 4 weeks"| Premium["Premium Template — saves weeks"]
Q4 -->|"> 3 months"| Q5["Team size?"]
Q5 -->|Solo| Either["Either works — personal preference"]
Q5 -->|"2+ devs"| Premium2["Premium — consistent patterns matter"]Cost-Benefit Analysis
Let's be concrete about the numbers. A mid-level developer costs roughly $75-100/hour. Building auth, billing, and a dashboard from scratch takes:
| Feature | Estimated Time |
|---|---|
| Auth (with OAuth + email verification) | 3-5 days |
| Stripe subscriptions + webhooks | 2-3 days |
| Customer portal | 1-2 days |
| Admin dashboard | 4-6 days |
| Email templates | 1-2 days |
| Total | 11-18 days |
At $75/hour, that's $6,600 – $10,800 in development time. Premium templates start at $149.
Even if you only save 30% of that time (accounting for learning and customization), the ROI is substantial.
When to Start Free
Start with a free template if:
- You're learning TanStack Router/Query and want a clean base
- You're building an internal tool that doesn't need billing
- You're prototyping to validate an idea
- Your app doesn't need user authentication
- You enjoy building auth and billing systems from scratch
When to Go Premium
Go premium if:
- You're launching a SaaS product with paying customers
- Your deadline is measured in weeks, not months
- You want production-tested auth and billing code
- You have a team that needs consistent patterns to follow
- You've built auth/billing before and don't want to do it again
The Honest Truth
Most developers underestimate how long auth and billing take to do correctly. It's not just the happy path — it's email verification, password reset flows, subscription edge cases, webhook retry logic, team invitations, role permissions, and a dozen other things that bite you in production.
If you're building something you want to charge for, a premium template is almost always worth it. The time you save pays for itself before you've even acquired your first customer.
Browse the free templates or check out premium templates to find the right starting point for your project.