Author

Mara Lindqvist

Mara Lindqvist curates the ShipGarden gallery, where we test open-source building blocks so we can own the stack that funds the life.

SaaS stacks

react-day-picker vs react-datepicker vs MUI X Date Pickers in 2026

Three React date pickers measured against live registry, repository and tarball state on 7 October 2026. One is what shadcn installs for you, one is a single pre-bundled module your bundler cannot take apart, and one will not start until you have adopted a design system and picked one of eight date adapters. Plus three corrections to our own accessibility instrument, all of which had been wrong in the same direction.

October 7, 202612 min read9

SaaS stacks

tsup vs unbuild vs bunchee: TypeScript package bundlers in 2026

Three zero-config bundlers for shipping a TypeScript package, measured against live registry and repository state on 28 September 2026. One carries a maintainer deprecation notice, one has not released in over a year, and one requires Node 22.12. Plus what Vercel's turborepo actually uses, which is not what the usual citation says.

September 28, 202611 min read98

SaaS stacks

GSAP vs Framer Motion vs React Spring for Next.js in 2026

Motion ships 67 files carrying a use client directive, GSAP ships zero across 117, and the rename everyone tells you to migrate for turns out to be a 35 byte alias. Measured from the npm registry and the published tarballs.

September 21, 202611 min read169

SaaS stacks

Tiptap vs Lexical vs Plate: the Next.js App Router rich text editor decision (2026)

All three are MIT and all three shipped stable releases this month, so maintenance is not the deciding question. Who holds the copyright and what renders on the server is. Measured from the npm registry and the published tarballs.

September 13, 202612 min read135

SaaS stacks

Metabase vs Superset vs Lightdash: open-source BI compared (2026)

Metabase, Apache Superset and Lightdash all call themselves open-source BI, but they disagree about where a metric definition is allowed to live. We read the licence files, the dockerfiles and the driver lists directly to find out what that costs you.

September 6, 202612 min read169

SaaS stacks

MinIO vs Garage vs SeaweedFS: self-hosted S3 after the archive, measured (2026)

Three self-hosted S3-compatible object stores, compared on the things the listicles miss: what MinIO's archive actually retired, why Garage's star count is unmeasurable, and what a 36-release year means for your upgrade discipline.

August 24, 202613 min read303

SaaS stacks

Valkey vs Dragonfly vs Redis: self-hosted cache for Next.js in 2026

Eight of the nine results for this question are written by a company selling one of the answers, and the licensing argument they all lead with barely applies to you. We read the license files, the security advisories and the release branches instead. The real difference is what happens when a CVE lands.

August 21, 202613 min read204

AI app stacks

Promptfoo vs DeepEval vs Ragas: the TypeScript reality check for Next.js RAG apps (2026)

Promptfoo, DeepEval and Ragas are the three most-recommended open-source LLM evaluation frameworks. For a TypeScript team the first question is which of them you can actually run. We checked the registries in August 2026, and the usual answer is out of date.

August 18, 202611 min read313

SaaS stacks

Clerk vs WorkOS vs Kinde: B2B SaaS authentication for Next.js (2026)

Clerk, WorkOS AuthKit, and Kinde are the three managed auth providers Next.js teams weigh in 2026. We compare how each charges (MRU vs MAU), their App Router SDKs, enterprise SSO cost, and where each one loses.

August 15, 202610 min read195

AI stacks

Langflow vs Flowise: the open-source visual AI agent builder for a Next.js stack (2026)

Langflow and Flowise are the two big open-source visual AI agent builders in 2026. We compare them for a Next.js team: Python vs Node, how each connects to your app, licensing, backing, and where each loses.

August 12, 20269 min read199

SaaS stacks

Postgres vector database or dedicated? The pgvector call for a Next.js RAG app (2026)

You already run Postgres. In 2026, pgvector often is your vector database for a Next.js RAG app, until specific thresholds say otherwise.

August 9, 20269 min read178

SaaS stacks

Node.js workflow engine or job queue? BullMQ, pg-boss, Trigger.dev, Hatchet, Temporal and Inngest (2026)

Most people searching for a Node.js workflow engine are holding two problems at once. We split the shelf along that seam: job queues (BullMQ, pg-boss) on one side, workflow engines with durable execution (Hatchet, Trigger.dev, Temporal, Inngest) on the other, and the test that tells you which one you need.

August 4, 202611 min read277