Laravel SaaS Starter Kit: What to Look For Before You Buy
By ERAG··7 min read
A Laravel SaaS starter kit is a ready-made Laravel application that already contains the parts every software-as-a-service product needs — sign-in, accounts, teams or tenants, roles and permissions, settings and an admin area — so you can start on the features that make your product unique instead of rebuilding the basics.
The right kit can save you weeks or months. The wrong one can lock you into an architecture you'll fight for years. This guide explains what a good SaaS kit for Laravel should include, how to compare them, and the questions to ask before you buy.
What is a Laravel SaaS starter kit?
Laravel's official starter kits give you a clean starting point: authentication, a dashboard layout and your choice of frontend. That's a great foundation for any app — but a SaaS product needs much more on top.
A Laravel SaaS starter kit (sometimes called a Laravel SaaS boilerplate) builds that "much more" for you. Typically it adds:
- Multi-tenancy — many customers in one application, each with its own data
- Team or tenant management — creating workspaces, inviting users, suspending accounts
- Roles and permissions — who can see and do what
- Advanced authentication — two-factor authentication, passkeys, email verification
- Settings, layouts and localization — the details that make an app feel finished
- Tests and tooling — so you can change things with confidence
You buy or download it once, then build your own product on top.
Why use a SaaS starter kit instead of starting from scratch?
| Starting from scratch | Starting from a SaaS starter kit |
|---|---|
| Weeks spent on sign-in, tenants, roles and settings | Those parts already work on day one |
| Architecture decisions made under time pressure | A structure that was designed and tested up front |
| Security details (2FA, permissions, isolation) are easy to miss | Common security features are built in |
| Your first demo shows a login page | Your first demo shows your actual product idea |
The trade-off: you start with someone else's code. That's why choosing a good kit matters so much.
What a good Laravel SaaS starter kit should include
Use this list as your checklist when comparing kits.
1. Multi-tenancy that fits your product
Ask how the kit separates customers. The two common models are:
- Single database with a
tenant_idon every table — simple, but every query must filter correctly. - Database per tenant — each customer gets its own database. Stronger isolation, per-customer backups and exports, and no
tenant_idin your queries.
Neither is always right, but you should know which one you're buying. We explain the differences in detail in How to Build a Multi-Tenant SaaS with Laravel.
2. Complete authentication
Look for more than a login form: registration, password reset, email verification, two-factor authentication with recovery codes and, increasingly, passkeys. Bonus points if features can be switched on or off per customer.
3. Roles and permissions
Most SaaS products need at least an owner, an admin and regular users. A good kit ships protected default roles, lets you add your own, and checks permissions on routes, menus and buttons — not just in one place.
4. User management and invitations
Your customers will invite their colleagues. Check for invitation emails with secure, expiring links — ideally sent through a queue so they don't slow down the app.
5. A clean, readable architecture
Open the code before you commit to it. Are features organized so you can find them? Are controllers thin, with business logic in services? Is validation handled consistently? You'll live in this code every day. (Our kits use a module-based structure for exactly this reason.)
6. Your preferred frontend
Many kits support only one frontend. If your team prefers React, a Vue-only kit is a poor fit — and vice versa. With Inertia, the backend stays the same whichever frontend you choose; read Vue, React or Svelte for Your Laravel SaaS? to decide.
7. Tests, types and tooling
Automated tests, static analysis and TypeScript support show that the kit is maintained seriously — and they protect you when you change things.
8. Documentation
Good documentation explains why, not just how: the architecture, how to add a feature, how to deploy. If the docs are thin, expect to spend your time reading source code instead.
Questions to ask before you buy
- Is it a one-time payment or a subscription? And what happens if you stop paying?
- How often is it updated — and how do you receive updates? A kit that isn't updated falls behind Laravel quickly.
- What does the license allow? Can you build unlimited projects? Client projects? Are you allowed to publish or resell it (usually not)?
- Which Laravel and PHP versions does it support?
- Is billing included — and with which provider? Some kits ship with one payment provider built in; others leave the choice to you.
- Can you see the documentation before buying?
Free vs premium Laravel SaaS kits
Free and open-source kits are great for learning and small projects, and you can read every line before you start. They're usually lighter on features and depend on community maintenance.
Premium kits cost money but tend to include more complete features (multi-tenancy, permissions, invitations), regular updates and documentation — plus someone who is responsible for keeping them working.
A good rule of thumb: if the kit saves you even a few days of development, a one-time price is usually worth it.
How SaaS Laravel compares
SaaS Laravel is a premium Laravel SaaS starter kit built around the checklist above. Here's how it answers each point — including what it does not do:
| Checklist item | SaaS Laravel |
|---|---|
| Multi-tenancy | Database per tenant with stancl/tenancy, identified by subdomain, with automatic database creation, migrations and seeding |
| Authentication | Laravel Fortify with email verification, two-factor authentication, recovery codes and passkeys — switchable per domain |
| Roles and permissions | Spatie roles and permissions with protected system roles, custom roles and permission checks on routes, menus and buttons |
| Users and invitations | User management with queued, signed invitation emails |
| Architecture | Module-based Laravel backend with thin controllers, services and Data objects |
| Frontend | Your choice of Vue, React or Svelte, all with TypeScript and shadcn-based components |
| Extras | 17 languages, per-domain settings, maintenance mode and workspace suspension, sidebar or header layouts |
| Tests and tooling | Pest, Larastan, Pint, ESLint, Prettier, a GitHub Actions workflow and Laravel Boost guidelines for AI agents |
| Billing | Not included — by design, so you can use Stripe, Paddle, Razorpay or any provider that fits your market |
| Pricing | One-time payment from $29 per kit, or $79 for all three, with lifetime access and weekly updates |
See the full list on the features overview and compare plans on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Laravel SaaS starter kit?
The best kit is the one that matches your product: the right multi-tenancy model, the frontend your team knows, and a license and update policy you're comfortable with. Use the checklist in this guide to compare your options side by side.
Is a Laravel SaaS boilerplate the same as a starter kit?
Yes. "Boilerplate", "starter kit" and "SaaS kit" are used for the same thing: a pre-built Laravel application that already includes the common SaaS features, so you can build your product on top.
Can I use a Laravel SaaS starter kit for client projects?
It depends on the license. The SaaS Laravel Commercial License allows unlimited projects for yourself or your clients, but not reselling or publishing the kit's source code. Always check the license of any kit before you buy.
Do I need multi-tenancy for my SaaS?
If each customer has their own data, users and settings — a company, a school, a team — you need some form of multi-tenancy. The only question is which model: a shared database with a tenant_id, or a database per tenant.