velobase-harness vs hackathon-starter
Two of the top saas boilerplates, side by side: score, setup, license, activity and what each review found.
velobase-harness
Next.js AI SaaS base with credits, usage billing, workers and anti-abuse
hackathon-starter
Node.js and Express boilerplate with auth, API examples and AI samples
| What we compare | velobase-harness | hackathon-starter |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 31, known | 75, popular |
| Freshness | 100, active | 95, active |
| Maintenance | 68, fair | 50, fair |
| Easy to run | 33, some setup | 0, hard |
| Agent-ready | 70, partly | 70, partly |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 609 | 35.2k |
| License | MIT (permissive) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Sep 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Docker | Yes | No |
| GPU | Not needed | Not stated |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Not stated |
velobase-harness
A Next.js 15 and tRPC application with Prisma on Postgres and BullMQ on Redis that already has accounts, subscriptions, a credit ledger, Stripe and NowPayments, entitlement checks, affiliate accounting, server-side attribution, anti-abuse controls (rate limits, Turnstile, disposable-email checks), lifecycle email, an admin area and a multi-provider AI chat module. One command starts Postgres and Redis in Docker. For builders turning an AI prototype into a paid product.
Who it is for: Builders turning an AI prototype into a paid product
Strengths
- Credit ledger, usage metering and entitlements are built in, not left to you
- Anti-abuse for free credits: rate limits, Turnstile, disposable-email checks, clawbacks
- Runs as one process or split web, worker and API by SERVICE_MODE
- Docker compose, English and Chinese docs, AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md
Weaknesses
- No unit-test script; only service-mode smoke tests
- Large surface area; the framework guide asks for domain design before coding
- Payments are Stripe and NowPayments; others need adapters
- Seed shows 607 stars; young project
- TypeScript, ai-sdk, openai, anthropic, google
- Needs postgres, redis, docker, stripe, model-api-keys
- GitHub template
- Docker
- env example file
- sign-in: Auth.js
hackathon-starter
Hackathon Starter is an Express and MongoDB web app template with local, passkey and OAuth 2.0 sign-in, account management, 2FA, a contact form and file upload. It ships examples for third-party APIs such as Stripe, Twilio and Google Maps, plus AI samples: a ReAct agent with tool calling and MongoDB session persistence, and RAG with embedding caching. Views are server-rendered Pug with Bootstrap 5.3 and Sass.
Who it is for: Developers starting a Node.js web app with auth and API integrations
Strengths
- Local, passkey and eight OAuth 2.0 providers already wired up
- Account flows included: email verification, password reset, 2FA, account deletion
- Many API integration examples: Stripe, Twilio, Google Drive, Maps, Steam
- Live demo and a production checklist (PROD_CHECKLIST.md)
Weaknesses
- Requires MongoDB; no other database option is documented
- No Dockerfile or compose file detected
- AI examples are a small part of a general web boilerplate
- Most integrations need separate API keys and OAuth app setup
- JavaScript, LangChain, Groq, Hugging Face, GPT-OSS
- Needs MongoDB, Node.js LTS 24, SMTP provider
- env example file
- sign-in: Passport