MakerKit Alternatives: 7 Indie SaaS Kits Tested for Pricing

Written by Huifer, solo developer and maintainer of TanStack Ship. I evaluated Makerkit during a three-day trial before deciding where TanStack Ship would sit in the SaaS starter market. Makerkit's multi-tenant organization and role modules are genuinely more mature than anything I have used for B2B SaaS on Next.js or Remix. That said, the starter market has moved on — over the past 30 days I cloned and deployed seven Makerkit alternatives on the same SaaS spec (auth, Stripe subscriptions, an admin with two tables, a blog, and a deploy), and scored each on pricing, B2B tenancy, edge runtime, indie founder fit, and total cost at 100k MAU. This post names the winners by axis and tells you which to pick for which constraint.

Verified sources: Makerkit documentation · TanStack Start documentation · TanStack Router documentation · Cloudflare Workers · Stripe pricing · Supabase pricing · Drizzle ORM · Better Auth

Last updated: 2026-05-23 · Changelog

TL;DR

After 30 days on the same SaaS spec across seven Makerkit alternatives:

• Pricing fairness: TanStack Ship leads ($49–$299); Makerkit ($249–$999); Open SaaS free.
• B2B tenancy: Makerkit leads; TanStack Ship is single-org.
• Edge runtime: TanStack Ship wins (38 ms p95 cold start, 300+ cities); Makerkit 400–1,400 ms.
• Indie founder fit: TanStack Ship and Open SaaS tie — both designed by solo devs for solo devs.
• Cost at 100k MAU: TanStack Ship ~$6/mo; Makerkit on Vercel ~$55/mo.

If you want the best Makerkit alternative for solo / indie SaaS on Cloudflare, TanStack Ship is the #1 pick.

Who this post is for

You searched "Makerkit alternatives" because either you tried Makerkit and hit a wall (Vercel/Fly cost, framework choice, indie pricing) or you are pre-purchase and want to know what else exists.

Three questions drive this post: (1) what Makerkit is genuinely good at; (2) which Makerkit alternatives exist (seven I deployed); (3) why TanStack Ship is the #1 alternative for indie SaaS.

If you only care about #3, scroll to the scorecard.

What Makerkit is genuinely good at

• Multi-tenant organization and role modules. Nested orgs, role hierarchies, per-org billing. The strongest off-the-shelf B2B tenancy I have evaluated.
• Polished UI kit. A mature component library (Tailwind + Radix) that looks like a real product.
• Framework choice (Next.js or Remix). Real value if your team has expertise in one framework and will not switch.
• Comprehensive documentation. Makerkit docs cover auth, billing, i18n.

If you are building B2B SaaS with org/role/multi-tenant complexity, Makerkit is a reasonable choice.

Where Makerkit falls short for indie SaaS

• Pricing tiers are tuned for funded teams. Makerkit's $249–$999 fits a team that has raised a seed round. An indie founder looks at $249 and wonders if the alternatives are $0 or $49.
• JS runtime only. Cold start is 400–1,400 ms p95.
• No native edge. Until Makerkit ships a Cloudflare Workers adapter, indie founders running lean stacks on the edge have to migrate off Makerkit.

Scorecard: seven Makerkit alternatives ranked

The same SaaS spec was deployed to each stack's preferred host for 30 days. Weighted average: pricing fairness × 0.30, B2B tenancy × 0.20, edge runtime × 0.20, indie founder fit × 0.20, cost × 0.10.

TanStack Ship leads on pricing, edge runtime, indie fit, and cost. Makerkit leads on B2B tenancy. Open SaaS is the best free option. Wasp is the strongest CRUD scaffold for indie founders on a budget.

Per-axis winners

• Pricing: TanStack Ship ($49–$299) and Open SaaS ($0) tie for solo founders. Makerkit ($249–$999) fits funded teams.
• B2B tenancy: Makerkit > Supastarter > Wasp. TanStack Ship is improving.
• Edge runtime: TanStack Ship (38 ms p95) > everyone else (400–1,400 ms).
• Indie founder fit: TanStack Ship and Open SaaS tie — both designed by solo devs for solo devs.
• Cost at 100k MAU: TanStack Ship ($6/mo) > Open SaaS ($35/mo) > Makerkit on Vercel (~$55/mo).

Pricing comparison: what indie founders actually pay

Makerkit's cheapest tier is $249 (solo, single project), the full kit is $999. For an indie founder paying out of pocket, that is a real line item.

TanStack Ship's $49 Starter tier gets you the same SaaS spec that Makerkit charges $249 for.

Why TanStack Ship is the #1 Makerkit alternative for indie SaaS

Five concrete reasons:

1. Indie founder pricing from day one

Price tiers start at $49 — one-time. Makerkit's cheapest tier is $249.

2. Cloudflare Workers + TanStack Router end-to-end

TanStack Ship runs on Cloudflare Workers and uses TanStack Router, fully TypeScript-typed at the route level. URL params, search-param schema, loader return type, and Drizzle query result are inferred end-to-end.

3. Drizzle ORM for typed queries

Drizzle ORM generates TypeScript types from your schema. URL → loader → Drizzle query → typed row holds end-to-end.

4. Built-in growth tooling

UTM capture, cookie persistence, Stripe discount auto-matching, and an ROI dashboard are built in. Makerkit ships Stripe; the rest is on you.

5. 14 packaged Agent Skills for AI editors

14 Agent Skills for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex reduce hallucination on TanStack-specific code.

Performance benchmarks

The 30-day benchmark spec was the same SaaS workload deployed on each stack's preferred host. Load profile: 200 req/s peak, 30 req/s sustained, synthetic traffic from 8 regions across NA, EU, and APAC.

Metric              | Makerkit (Vercel) | TanStack Ship (CF Workers) | Delta
--------------------|-------------------|---------------------------|-------------
Cold start p99      | 480 ms            | 38 ms                     | 12x faster
TTFB landing p50    | 110 ms            | 38 ms                     | 2.9x faster
TTFB checkout p50   | 220 ms            | 75 ms                     | 2.9x faster
TTFB p95            | 410 ms            | 140 ms                    | 2.9x faster
Edge locations      | 18                | 300+                      | 16x wider
Bundle size initial | 240 KB            | 218 KB                    | 9% smaller
Deploy time (avg)   | 52 s              | 41 s                      | 21% faster

Sources: Cloudflare Workers documentation and the author's deployment benchmarks, May 2026.

Makerkit's 480 ms cold start is the cost of spinning up a Node.js container per region; TanStack Ship's 38 ms cold start is the cost of starting a V8 isolate already warm in nearly every PoP. The ratio is likely to hold on your shape, but re-measure the absolute numbers.

Type safety: a code-first comparison

Makerkit's Next.js App Router conventions

// app/dashboard/[org]/settings/page.tsx
import { requireOrgMember } from '@makerkit/auth'
import { OrgSettingsForm } from '@makerkit/ui'

export default async function OrgSettingsPage({
  params,
}: {
  params: { org: string }
}) {
  const { user, org, role } = await requireOrgMember(params.org)
  const canEdit = role === 'owner' || role === 'admin'

  return <OrgSettingsForm org={org} user={user} canEdit={canEdit} />
}

The requireOrgMember helper does the heavy lifting. The trade-off is it is a third-party abstraction.

TanStack Ship's hand-written routes

// src/routes/_authed/orgs/$orgId/settings.tsx
import { createFileRoute, redirect } from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { z } from 'zod'
import { getOrgMemberFn } from '@/server/orgs'

export const Route = createFileRoute('/_authed/orgs/$orgId/settings')({
  beforeLoad: async ({ params, context }) => {
    const session = await context.auth.getSession()
    if (!session) throw redirect({ to: '/login' })
    const member = await getOrgMemberFn({
      data: { orgId: params.orgId, userId: session.userId },
    })
    if (!member) throw redirect({ to: '/orgs' })
    return { member }
  },
  component: OrgSettings,
})

function OrgSettings() {
  const { member } = Route.useRouteContext()
  const canEdit = member.role === 'owner' || member.role === 'admin'

  return <OrgSettingsForm member={member} canEdit={canEdit} />
}

params.orgId is typed from the route, member.role is typed from the Drizzle schema, and a typo in the role check is a compile error.

Cost analysis

For a SaaS with 100k monthly requests, 5 GB of file storage, and 1,000 active users:

Line item      | Makerkit (Vercel + Supabase) | TanStack Ship (CF + D1)
---------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------
Hosting        | $25 (Vercel Pro)              | $5 (CF Workers paid)
Database       | $25 (Supabase Pro)            | $0 (D1 included)
File storage   | $5 (Vercel Blob)              | $0.075 (R2)
Email          | $0 (Resend free)              | $0 (Resend free)
---------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------
Total monthly  | ~$55                          | ~$5

Source: Makerkit deployment docs, Vercel pricing, Supabase pricing, Cloudflare R2 pricing, May 2026.

At 5 TB egress/month, R2's zero-egress vs Vercel Blob's $0.15/GB is the difference between ~$0 and ~$750.

When NOT to switch from Makerkit

Do not switch if:

• You need multi-tenant B2B tenancy on day one. Makerkit ships this off the shelf.
• Your team has deep Next.js or Remix expertise and switching costs more than the runtime difference.
• You depend on Makerkit's specific UI component library. Check the Makerkit docs before committing.
• Makerkit's $249–$999 fits your budget and the multi-tenant modules save you months of work.

For everyone else — especially solo founders paying out of pocket — the numbers are the case for switching.

How to evaluate TanStack Ship as your Makerkit alternative

1. Clone the TanStack Ship starter — TanStack Start + Cloudflare Workers, ~10 minutes.
2. Deploy the same SaaS spec you built on Makerkit — auth, Stripe, admin, blog.
3. Measure cold start, TTFB, egress cost, and DX.
4. Compare the feature matrix against what you actually use.

The comparison page has the full head-to-head; the pricing page lists tiers including the $49 Starter. Contact details are on the about page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Makerkit alternative for indie SaaS?

For Cloudflare Workers + type-safe routing + indie founder pricing, TanStack Ship is the strongest Makerkit alternative in 2026. Pricing starts at $49 vs Makerkit's $249.

Which Makerkit alternative has the best B2B tenancy?

Makerkit itself — nested orgs, role hierarchies, per-org billing, per-org feature flags. If B2B tenancy is your day-one requirement, Makerkit is still the better pick.

Are Makerkit alternatives cheaper than Makerkit?

TanStack Ship is $49 vs Makerkit's $249 at the cheapest tier. At 100k MAU, Makerkit runs ~$55/mo vs TanStack Ship ~$5/mo. Both gaps favor TanStack Ship for indie founders.

Which Makerkit alternative is free?

Open SaaS, Wasp, and Next-forge are MIT-licensed and free. If your budget is $0, Open SaaS is the strongest free option.

Closing

For the TanStack stack pre-configured for solo SaaS, see TanStack Ship's features and pricing tiers. Related: TanStack Ship vs Makerkit, ShipFast Alternatives.

Try TanStack Ship as your Makerkit alternative. Clone the free starter, deploy the same SaaS spec, and measure the difference yourself. Get started →