SaaS Boilerplate

Open source web app that saves you many days of work when building your own SaaS product. The boilerplate comes with many basic SaaS features (see Features below) so that you can focus on features that differentiate your product.

If you want to learn how to build this project from scratch, check out our book: https://builderbook.org/book

The open source project is located in the saas folder. If you purchased our book, codebases for each of the book's chapters are located in the book folder.

Live demo:

• APP: https://saas-app.async-await.com
• API: https://saas-api.async-await.com

Contents

• Features
• Run locally
• Stage locally
• Deploy
• Built with
• Screenshots
• Showcase
• Contributing
• Team
• License
• Project structure

Features

• Server-side rendering for fast initial load and SEO.
• User authentication with Google OAuth API and Passwordless, cookie, and session.
• Production-ready Express server with compression, parser, and helmet.
• Transactional emails (AWS SES): welcome, team invitation, and payment.
• Adding email addresses to newsletter lists (Mailchimp): new users, paying users.
• File upload, load, and deletion (AWS S3) with pre-signed request for: Posts, Team Profile, and User Profile.
• Websockets with socket.io v3.
• Team creation, Team Member invitation, and settings for Team and User.
• Opinionated architecture:
  • keeping babel and webpack configurations under the hood,
  • striving to minimize number of configurations,
  • withAuth HOC to pass user prop and control user access to pages,
  • HOC extensions MyApp and MyDocument
  • server-side rendering with Material-UI,
  • model-specific components in addition to common components.
• Universally-available environmental variables at runtime.
• Custom logger (configure what not to print in production).
• Useful components for any web app: ActiveLink, Confirm, Notifier, MenuWithLinks, and more.
• Analytics with Google Analytics.
• Production-ready, scalable architecture:
  • app - user-facing web app with Next/Express server, responsible for rendering pages (either client-side or server-side rendered). app sends requests via API methods to api Express server.
  • api - server-only code, Express server, responsible for processing requests for internal and external API infrastructures.
  • we prepared both apps for easy deployment to now by vercel.
• Subscriptions with Stripe:
  • subscribe/unsubscribe Team to plan,
  • update card information,
  • verified Stripe webhook for failed payment for subscription.

Running api locally:

• Before running, create a .env file inside the api folder with the environmental variables listed below.
  This file must have values for the required variables.
  To use all features and third-party integrations, also add the optional variables.
  

  api/.env:

  # Used in api/server/server.ts
  MONGO_URL=
  SESSION_NAME=
  SESSION_SECRET=
  COOKIE_DOMAIN=
  
  # Used in api/server/google.ts
  GOOGLE_CLIENTID=
  GOOGLE_CLIENTSECRET=
  
  # Used in api/server/aws-s3.ts and api/server/aws-ses.ts
  AWS_REGION=
  AWS_ACCESSKEYID=
  AWS_SECRETACCESSKEY=
  
  # Used in api/server/models/Invitation.ts and api/server/models/User.ts
  EMAIL_SUPPORT_FROM_ADDRESS=
  
  # Used in api/server/mailchimp.ts
  MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=
  MAILCHIMP_REGION=
  MAILCHIMP_SAAS_ALL_LIST_ID=
  
  # All env variables above this line are needed for successful user signup
  
  # Used in api/server/stripe.ts
  STRIPE_TEST_SECRETKEY=sk_test_xxxxxx
  STRIPE_LIVE_SECRETKEY=sk_live_xxxxxx
  
  STRIPE_TEST_PLANID=plan_xxxxxx
  STRIPE_LIVE_PLANID=plan_xxxxxx
  
  STRIPE_LIVE_ENDPOINTSECRET=whsec_xxxxxx
  
  # Optionally determine the URL
  URL_APP=http://localhost:3000
  URL_API=http://localhost:8000
  PRODUCTION_URL_API=
  PRODUCTION_URL_APP=
  
  # in pages/_document.tsx and lib/withAuth.tsx
  GA_MEASUREMENT_ID=
  

  Important: The above environmental variables are available on the server only. You should add your .env file to .gitignore inside the api folder so that your secret keys are not stored on a remote Github repo.

  • To get MONGO_URL, we recommend you run yarn stage:db to spawn a database locally or a free MongoDB at MongoDB Atlas.
  • Specify your own name and secret keys for Express session: SESSION_NAME and SESSION_SECRET
  • Get GOOGLE_CLIENTID and GOOGLE_CLIENTSECRET by following the official OAuth tutorial.
    Important: For Google OAuth app, callback URL is: http://localhost:8000/oauth2callback
    Important: You have to enable Google+ API in your Google Cloud Platform account.

• Once .env is created, you can run the api app. Navigate to the api folder, run yarn install to add all packages, then run the command below:

  yarn dev
  

Running app locally:

• Navigate to the app folder, run yarn to add all packages, then run yarn dev and navigate to http://localhost:3000:

  • A .env file in the app folder is not required to run, but you can create one to override the default variables:

    STRIPE_TEST_PUBLISHABLEKEY=pk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    STRIPE_LIVE_PUBLISHABLEKEY=pk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  
    BUCKET_FOR_POSTS=
    BUCKET_FOR_TEAM_AVATARS=
    BUCKET_FOR_TEAM_LOGOS=
  
    URL_APP=http://localhost:3000
    URL_API=http://localhost:8000
    PRODUCTION_URL_API=
    PRODUCTION_URL_APP=
  
    API_GATEWAY_ENDPOINT=
    GA_MEASUREMENT_ID=
  

  • To get GA_MEASUREMENT_ID, set up Google Analytics and follow these instructions to find your tracking ID.
  • To get STRIPE_TEST_PUBLISHABLEKEY, go to your Stripe dashboard, click Developers, then click API keys.

• For successful file uploading, make sure your buckets have proper CORS configuration. Go to your AWS account, find your bucket, go to Permissions > CORS configuration, add:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <CORSConfiguration xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
  <CORSRule>
      <AllowedOrigin>http://localhost:3000</AllowedOrigin>
      <AllowedOrigin>https://saas-app.async-await.com</AllowedOrigin>
      <AllowedMethod>POST</AllowedMethod>
      <AllowedMethod>GET</AllowedMethod>
      <AllowedMethod>PUT</AllowedMethod>
      <AllowedMethod>DELETE</AllowedMethod>
      <AllowedMethod>HEAD</AllowedMethod>
      <ExposeHeader>ETag</ExposeHeader>
      <ExposeHeader>x-amz-meta-custom-header</ExposeHeader>
      <AllowedHeader>*</AllowedHeader>
  </CORSRule>
  </CORSConfiguration>
  

• Make sure to update allowed origin with your actual values for URL_APP and PRODUCTION_URL_APP.

• Once .env is created, you can run the app app. Navigate to the app folder, run yarn install to add all packages, then run the command below:

  yarn dev
  

Deploy with Heroku

To deploy the two apps (api and app), you can follow these instructions to deploy each app individually to Heroku:

https://github.com/async-labs/builderbook/blob/master/README.md#deploy-to-heroku

You are welcome to deploy to any cloud provider. Eventually, we will publish a tutorial for AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

If you need help deploying your SaaS Boilerplate app, or variation of it, you can hire us. Email us for more details: team@async-await.com.

Built with

• React
• Material-UI
• Next
• MobX
• Express
• Mongoose
• MongoDB
• Typescript

For more detail, check package.json files in both app and api folders and project's root.

To customize styles, check this guide.

Screenshots

Google or passwordless login:

Dropdown menu for settings:

Personal settings:

Team settings:

Creating a Discussion:

Writing a Post, Markdown vs. HTML view:

Discussion between team members:

Billing settings:

Purchasing a subscription:

Payment history:

Showcase

Check out projects built with the code in this open source app. Feel free to add your own project by creating a pull request.

• Retaino by Earl Lee : Save, annotate, review, and share great web content. Receive smart email digests to retain key information.
• Builder Book: Open source web app to publish documentation or books. Built with React, Material-UI, Next, Express, Mongoose, MongoDB.
• Harbor: Open source web app that allows anyone with a Gmail account to automatically charge for advice sent via email.
• Async: asynchronous communication for small teams of software engineers.

Contributing

Want to support this project? Sign up at async and/or buy our book, which teaches you how to build this project from scratch.

Team

• Kelly Burke
• Delgermurun Purevkhuu
• Timur Zhiyentayev

You can contact us at team@async-await.com.

License

All code in this repository is provided under the MIT License.

Project structure

├── .elasticbeanstalk
│   └── config.yml
├── .github
│   └── FUNDING.yml
├── .vscode
│   ├── extensions.json
│   ├── launch.json
│   └── settings.json
├── api
│   ├── .elasticbeanstalk
│   │   └── config.yml
│   ├── server
│   │   ├── api
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   ├── public.ts
│   │   │   ├── team-leader.ts
│   │   │   └── team-member.ts
│   │   ├── models
│   │   │   ├── Discussion.ts
│   │   │   ├── EmailTemplate.ts
│   │   │   ├── Invitation.ts
│   │   │   ├── Post.ts
│   │   │   ├── Team.ts
│   │   │   └── User.ts
│   │   ├── utils
│   │   │   ├── slugify.ts
│   │   │   └── sum.ts
│   │   ├── aws-s3.ts
│   │   ├── aws-ses.ts
│   │   ├── google-auth.ts
│   │   ├── logger.ts
│   │   ├── mailchimp.ts
│   │   ├── passwordless-auth.ts
│   │   ├── passwordless-token-mongostore.ts
│   │   ├── server.ts
│   │   ├── sockets.ts
│   │   └── stripe.ts
│   ├── static
│   │   └── robots.txt
│   ├── test/server/utils
│   │   ├── slugify.test.ts
│   │   └── sum.test.ts
│   ├── .eslintignore
│   ├── .eslintrc.js
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tsconfig.json
│   ├── tsconfig.server.json
│   └── yarn.lock
├── app
│   ├── .elasticbeanstalk
│   │   └── config.yml
│   ├── components
│   │   ├── common
│   │   │   ├── Confirmer.tsx
│   │   │   ├── LoginButton.tsx
│   │   │   ├── MemberChooser.tsx
│   │   │   ├── MenuWithLinks.tsx
│   │   │   ├── MenuWithMenuItems.tsx
│   │   │   └── Notifier.tsx
│   │   ├── discussions
│   │   │   ├── CreateDiscussionForm.tsx
│   │   │   ├── DiscussionActionMenu.tsx
│   │   │   ├── DiscussionList.tsx
│   │   │   ├── DiscussionListItem.tsx
│   │   │   └── EditDiscussionForm.tsx
│   │   ├── layout
│   │   │   ├── index.tsx
│   │   ├── posts
│   │   │   ├── PostContent.tsx
│   │   │   ├── PostDetail.tsx
│   │   │   ├── PostEditor.tsx
│   │   │   └── PostForm.tsx
│   │   ├── teams
│   │   │   └── InviteMember.tsx
│   ├── lib
│   │   ├── api
│   │   │   ├── makeQueryString.ts
│   │   │   ├── public.ts
│   │   │   ├── sendRequestAndGetResponse.ts
│   │   │   ├── team-leader.ts
│   │   │   └── team-member.ts
│   │   ├── store
│   │   │   ├── discussion.ts
│   │   │   ├── index.ts
│   │   │   ├── invitation.ts
│   │   │   ├── post.ts
│   │   │   ├── team.ts
│   │   │   └── user.ts
│   │   ├── confirm.ts
│   │   ├── isMobile.ts
│   │   ├── notify.ts
│   │   ├── resizeImage.ts
│   │   ├── sharedStyles.ts
│   │   ├── theme.ts
│   │   └── withAuth.tsx
│   ├── pages
│   │   ├── _app.tsx
│   │   ├── _document.tsx
│   │   ├── billing.tsx
│   │   ├── create-team.tsx
│   │   ├── discussion.tsx
│   │   ├── invitation.tsx
│   │   ├── login-cached.tsx
│   │   ├── login.tsx
│   │   ├── team-settings.tsx
│   │   └── your-settings.tsx
│   ├── public
│   │   └── pepe.jpg
│   ├── server
│   │   ├── robots.txt
│   │   ├── routesWithCache.ts
│   │   ├── server.ts
│   │   └── setupSitemapAndRobots.ts
│   ├── .babelrc
│   ├── .eslintignore
│   ├── .eslintrc.js
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── next.env.d.ts
│   ├── next.config.js
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── tsconfig.json
│   ├── tsconfig.server.json
│   └── yarn.lock
├── book
├── lambda
│   ├── .estlintignore
│   ├── .eslintrc.js
│   ├── .gitignore
│   ├── api
│   ├── handler.ts
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── serverless.yml
│   ├── tsconfig.json
│   └── yarn.lock
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE.md
├── README.md
├── package.json
├── yarn.lock