Hitting $12k/mo with a boilerplate

That's an amazing work.

For someone looking for a free and open source boilerplate, Next.js Boilerplate on GitHub: https://github.com/ixartz/Next-js-Boilerplate

This guy is AMAZING and same is his product.

I'm using this template. Nice job!

Jonathan’s journey with Supastarter perfectly illustrates the power of building for yourself and then turning that into a scalable product. Turning repetitive internal tooling into a $12K/month business is a fantastic example of product‑market fit earned through iteration, transparency, and quality. And the pricing insight—‘don’t underprice your product’—is a lesson too often learned the hard way. Inspiring stuff for every developer‑turned‑maker.

Stuff like this inspires me and make me want to continue my own journey

It takes consistency, patience, and a lot of passion to achieve results like this. Truly an inspiration for anyone who creates and believes in their projects, great job thank you

Awesome, I am learning more and more from these stories. As a marketplace founder, I look at the nuggets of what can also help me build and scale.

First of all, I want to congratulate you on your success. Now I have a few concerns:

1. How do you handle upgrades when Next/Nuxt/SvelteKit ship breaking changes—LTS branches, codemods, or migration guides?

1. What ended up driving the most conversions: building in public on X, SEO/blog content, or customer showcases? Anything you tried that wasn’t worth the effort?

What a great story! It's amazing how solving a personal problem and then sharing it with the world can lead to such success. The advice on building in public and not underpricing is a fantastic takeaway for anyone starting out.

It's cool how a person wanted to reduce his working time by writing the same code that took a lot of time, simplify his life with a template solution and still earn money.

Really inspiring journey, Jonathan! I like how you started with solving your own repetitive coding problem and turned it into a sustainable business. Your point about not underpricing is spot on — it’s something a lot of devs (including me) learn the hard way. Also, big respect for keeping the kits updated with fast-moving frameworks; that’s no small feat. Curious — do you think building in public was the main driver for your early traction, or was it more about the initial quality of the codebase?

➡️ Jonathan, this is a textbook play on turning internal inefficiencies into scalable product gold.

• Repackaging internal tools is a smart Go-to-Market Strategy — you're selling validated outcomes. (#GoToMarketStrategy #PMFAdvisor)

• Pricing psychology matters — value-based pricing is a critical lever in SaaS Scaling. (#SaaSCoaching)

• Building in public accelerates trust and traction, especially for technical founders — a low-cost, high-return GTM channel. (#ScalingExpert)

👏 Supastarter is proof that solving your own problem can unlock real, recurring revenue.

Thanks for the insights . And I agree with you saying that one should not underprice their product . It is true that underpricing creates a perception of lower quality. That is something I learnt from your article.

This is such a clean example of solving your own problem first, then realizing the market had the same itch. What stands out is how organic the growth was no overthinking, no elaborate launch, just real-world utility that hit the right nerve.

Also love that it didn’t just become a revenue stream, but a reputation builder. The fact that your side project led to a leadership role at a startup using your own kit?

What’s been the biggest challenge scaling Supastarter from a one-off tool to something that now supports a full-time income and a growing customer base?

Sick

As an indie developer myself, I still vividly remember how tough it was to build and launch my first product. Having the right templates can really save time and help you get started much faster.

Great example of scratching your own itch — turning freelancing pain points into a product that scales. Iteration + real customer feedback = sustainable growth.

“Hi , I noticed your team uses Google Forms.
Quick Q: Are you manually moving responses into Sheets or CRM?

I recently built a workflow that makes every response go straight into Sheets + sends an alert (Slack/Telegram/Email).
One of my clients saved ~5 hours/week just from this.

Would you like me to show you a quick demo?

thats something great james !

That's cool bro!

What I like here is how Jonathan turned a pain point from client work into a product that compounds. Most freelancers stay stuck billing for time. He pulled himself out by productizing the same code he was rebuilding over and over. That’s the classic self employed to business owner transition.

Building in public on X was smart too. Engineers don’t always want to market, but sharing progress and letting the community test ideas is free distribution and validation. The lesson most people miss is he didn’t try to make it perfect at $49, he just got it out there and iterated.

My two cents: pricing is leverage. If you start too cheap, you anchor yourself as “cheap code.” Raising to $349 wasn’t just more revenue, it repositioned Supastarter as a serious tool worth investing in. That’s the same shift founders need to make when they stop selling themselves short in services and start thinking in terms of scalable assets.

Really cool to see how you turned a boilerplate you were already using into a $12k/mo product. Classic case of scratching your own itch, then letting the community shape it.

Curious how you handle it when frameworks push breaking changes. Its been a major issue for us.

Do you lean on LTS, codemods, or just ship migration guides as they come? And early on, what channel actually brought in the most paying users ? Twitter/community buzz, showcases, or SEO?

P.S. I’m with Buzz, we build conversion-focused Webflow sites and SEO strategies for product launches. Happy to share a quick GTM checklist if that’s useful.

I love this SaaS. I used to only use Next.js, but now this is a good starting point for me.

Super impressive journey 👏 Turning boilerplate code into a $12k/mo business is such a great example of solving your own problem and scaling it. Love the “don’t underprice your product” advice—so many makers need to hear that! 🚀

The power of consistency, optimization, and scalability can be seen in $12k/month with a boilerplate strategy. You can save time while delivering high-quality results by creating a framework that can be reused across clients or projects. Process refinement, automation of repetitive tasks, and tailoring boilerplate to specific needs are the keys to success. A combination of efficiency and customization maximizes revenue, reduces workload, and achieves sustainable monthly growth.

From boilerplate boredom to $12K MRR . So good.
If you ever end up hiring or expanding (esp. across borders or roles), I do lean HR fixes for dev-led teams like yours before things get messy. Ping me if it ever creeps into your world.

Love this — such a wholesome example of how solving your own problems can snowball into something amazing. Huge respect for staying consistent and sharing the journey openly. Super encouraging for anyone quietly hacking on their own little projects

Really impressive story — congrats on turning your own problem into something that has grown so much over the years 👏

One thing I keep wondering: when it comes to “building in public” on X, how do you actually get enough reach so that people start noticing and engaging with your updates?

I love the idea of sharing progress openly, but for many makers (myself included), it feels like shouting into the void at first. Did you follow a specific strategy for growing your audience on X, or did it come more naturally over time as Supastarter gained traction?

Congratulations! 12k in month is an excellent result.

Super inspiring — it shows that solving a very specific developer pain point can be more powerful than chasing a “big idea.” Love how you turned something reusable into recurring revenue. Do you see more potential in expanding the boilerplate itself, or in creating similar ones for different stacks?

Congrats on $12k/mo — boilerplates are a tough category!

A few specifics other makers would love to learn:

1) Activation → revenue

• What single action best predicts payment or retention? (e.g., “first deploy to Vercel,” “Stripe test charge succeeds,” “auth + DB seeded”)

• Do you track time-to-first-success (≤60–90 min) or time-to-first-dollar?

2) Distribution

• Which channel actually moved the needle (X, YouTube tutorials, HN, IH, affiliates, marketplaces like Gumroad/LemonSqueezy)?

• Any non-obvious loop (e.g., template repos → docs → video → email)?

3) Pricing & packaging

• One-time vs subscription: what % of MRR is support/updates vs new sales?

• What finally made pricing “click” (tiers, team license, commercial use, add-ons)?

4) Scope & differentiation

• In a crowded space, what’s the wedge (stack choices, tests/type-safety, real app patterns, prod deploy scripts)?

• How do you prevent scope creep while still shipping meaningful updates?

5) Support & guarantees

• Refund/support policy that reduces purchase anxiety?

• Update cadence (weekly/monthly) and how you communicate breaking changes.

If you’re open to sharing a rough month-by-month timeline (first 10 sales → first $1k → $10k), that’d be gold. Congrats again!

That's awesome! Maybe I should build one for react native?

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, and congrats on the results! Could you share a bit more detail on which channels contribute the most to your traffic, ideally with some percentages? If you had to apply the 80/20 rule, what’s driving 80% of your traffic? And roughly what cost range do you usually sustain for newsletter sponsorships? Thanks!

thats really cool :)

Absolutely inspiring! I love how you turned repetitive dev work into a scalable product

i like this content

Jonathan, this is such an inspiring story! 🚀

What really resonates with me is how you turned a repetitive pain point into a scalable product.I completely understand that frustration of rebuilding the same boilerplate over and over.
One question: How do you balance feature requests from 800+ customers? I imagine everyone has different needs and use cases. Do you have a systematic way to prioritize what goes into the core boilerplate vs. what becomes documentation/tutorials?

Great article! Super helpful to hear how others market their products. I've always found this a challenge knowing how to get it out there in the world. And interesting to see the perception of price difference $49 > $149

Love this — such a smart example of taking something “simple” and turning it into a sustainable business. It’s a reminder that you don’t always need a groundbreaking idea, just a real pain point solved well. Curious — how did you validate demand before going all in?

I will use this automatically

This is really so impressive thus motivating a person like me building a startup in travelf from scratch.

awesome start for a Saas
will use it for sure

Great however there are lot of tools which provide niche specific solution so combining coding with seo, geo i think a bit weird

Awesome Project and results!!

Great post, and great job!

Very inspiring, thx

This is amazing, great job.

Really interested - did you start X by just shouting in the air and eventually found people, did you already have a following?

I'm pushing through being a 'reply guy', but I'm thinking of just focusing on what I do best which is posting helpful marketing tips for SaaS founders.

Incredible journey—from freelancer to founder. Supastarter shows how a simple idea can scale into real impact. Congrats on the growth and your startup success.

"Also, one of the things I learned over the years is not to underprice your product. I started selling Supastarter at $49. I should have started at $149 or more. A higher price creates a higher quality perception."
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Can't agree more!

Really like how you kept it simple—solve your own problem, share it, and improve it over time. The point about not underpricing is a good one too, easy mistake to make early on.

Amazing! so great

One question: you said that someone offered you a job. Were you actively searching for jobs, or did someone call you because they saw your work?

its amazing

Just had the same idea tonight, i think i've gained alot of knowledge to create my own boilerplate

Selling shovels during gold rush, perfect!

If I never used X before, how would you start "building in public" on X? It is easy when you have an audience, but if you have fresh account? How would you do it?

Thanks

That is an Impressive Journey. The guy is Amazing and so is his product.

such an amazing perspective and so is his product!

Jonathan’s journey with Supastarter is a great example of turning repetitive work into a scalable product by scratching his own itch. Constant iteration, customer feedback, and building in public helped grow it into a $12k/month business, showing the power of persistence and listening to users.

That's an impressive journey, I like it.

I would love to see this product succeed and validate the core idea. With the advent of AI tools in building platforms, having a NextJS scalable template to help improve on deployment is a great idea.

great article)

Really inspiring to see how Jonathan turned repeated client work into a reusable product! I’m curious, how does Supastarter stay updated with the fast-moving JavaScript ecosystem? Do you have a dedicated process or community input for that?

There are many starter kits like this. At the beginning, what was the competitive landscape in your market? How many Next.js starter kits were there at that time? How did you stand out?

This is such a great example of solving your own problem and turning it into a sustainable business. I like how you kept iterating, built in public, and weren’t afraid to raise your prices — that’s inspiring.

Firstly, congratulations Jonathan and thanks James for sharing this story. I am also working on a meeting recording and note taking app that runs fully offline. I have made good progress but still have more work to do. As the product is maturing I am also wondering how should I price it and how to publicize it. So your article is very timely for me. is there any guidance on how to decide the worth of the product? and is subscription model is right or one time payment model is right?

Awesome story, Jonathan, love how you solved your own problem, proved it works, and kept making it better.

I’m working on something like that too, but for marketing instead of code.
It’s a “Supastarter” for early-stage founders, a ready-to-use Marketing Starter Kit with templates, positioning tips, email scripts, and growth plans so they can skip trial-and-error and start getting leads in months, not years.

Here's the link: https://wirehaired-protest-b61.notion.site/Founders-Traction-System-2367648c55c880079d35da6de0e8bec8

Your story reminds me of two things I’m doing as well:

1. Solve your own problem first.

2. Charge what your product is really worth.

Thanks for sharing, it’s inspiring to see a side project grow to $12k/mo. 🚀

Turning your own pain point into a thriving product is the ultimate dev superpower...

Good job, Jonathan! That's a great recurring revenue for a single payment product!

great

great dear

Insanely inspiring. Love how you turned repeat client work into a product. That transition from service to scalable product is underrated.

Kudos to Jonathan.

Why does this comment section feel like a bunch of AI though?