Author
Aaron Brick curates the ShipGarden gallery, where we test open-source building blocks so we can own the stack that funds the life.
Three React drag and drop libraries, three different stages of life. Read from the npm registry, the published tarballs and the GitHub API on 16 September 2026: one is archived, one is quietly split in two, and one is not a React library at all.
Three self-hosted observability backends that all claim to be open source. We read the licence files, opened the enterprise directories and measured every container image on September 8, 2026, and the licence, the visibility and the footprint each land in the opposite place to the reputation.
Three ways to make a PDF from a Next.js app, compared on the thing the listicles skip: where the Chromium binary lives, and who is responsible for keeping its version aligned. One of the three currently asks you to bridge a three-major-version gap.
Vault's licence file now names IBM, and the Additional Use Grant inside it probably does not restrict you at all. We read the licence text, the npm registry and all three pricing pages: the meters count different nouns, and that inverts which tool is cheaper.
Soketi is still the most-recommended open-source Pusher alternative, and it has not shipped a release since March 2024. Centrifugo shipped one yesterday. We read the repositories, the pricing pages and Vercel's new WebSocket docs on August 19, 2026, and the usual advice for Next.js is out of date twice over.
Three open-source feature-flag platforms, one Next.js SaaS. We self-hosted all three and compared cost, A/B testing, edge support, and App Router wiring.
A developer-lens 2026 comparison of the Vercel AI SDK and LangChain.js: a thin, edge-native model-and-UI toolkit versus a broader retrieval-and-agent orchestration framework, and why the @ai-sdk/langchain adapter means many Next.js teams should use both.
The three best open-source Google Analytics alternatives for a Next.js SaaS in 2026, compared by license, self-host cost, and how cleanly each wires into the App Router.
A hands-on 2026 review of ToolJet, the open-source (AGPL-3.0), self-hosted low-code builder for internal tools. What you actually get for free, the AI credit pricing, the license trap, and whether it fits a Next.js SaaS.
CopilotKit, assistant-ui, and Vercel AI SDK UI sit at three different layers of the stack. A hands-on 2026 guide to picking the right open-source AI chat UI for your Next.js SaaS.
Sentry vs GlitchTip vs Highlight for error monitoring in a Next.js SaaS in 2026: the license fork, what each costs to self-host, and honest where-each-loses.
Payload, Strapi, and Directus for a Next.js SaaS content layer in 2026: Next.js-native vs standalone, schema-first vs database-first, and the license ceiling that decides the tie.
