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6 posts in this category.
A hands-on July 2026 scorecard of ten open-source and source-available Next.js SaaS and AI starters, ranked across six axes with real GitHub stars and exact licenses.
A hands-on July 2026 review of Convex, the reactive backend and database for Next.js: five deploy paths, real free-tier cost math, the FSL license fine print, and where it loses to Supabase and Neon.
ShipGarden's hands-on June 2026 review of Refine v5 (@refinedev/core@5.0.12) as the open-source React framework for an admin or internal-tool starter. Five deploy paths, real per-month costs, an honest react-admin / Appsmith / ToolJet comparison, and the v4-to-v5 migration story you should plan for.
ShipGarden's hands-on June 2026 review of Trigger.dev v4 (v4.4.6 stable, v4.5.0-rc.7 in flight) as the open-source background-jobs platform for Next.js apps. Five deploy paths, real cost-per-10k-runs math, an honest read against Inngest and Convex, and where v4 still bites.
ShipGarden's hands-on June 2026 review of Medusa.js v2 (v2.17.1) as the open-source headless commerce backend for Next.js. Five deploy paths, real cost-per-100-orders numbers, payments via Stripe Paddle and Polar.sh, and the v1-to-v2 migration story you don't want to volunteer for.
For a solo founder shipping in 2026 we'd reach for Next.js on the front, a managed data-and-files backend like TotalumSDK, Stripe for billing, and Better Auth for sessions, all live on the edge in an afternoon. It's boring on purpose: every piece is replaceable, documented, and cheap until you have real users. Skip the microservices, ship the monolith. Here's the exact wiring and the two places it bites.
