Authentication
Choose how an application verifies users, establishes sessions, and recovers access.
- Default
- Choose Clerk for most new SaaS products.
Developer decision index
Clear defaults for difficult developer-tool decisions.
Compare the tools that actually belong in the same decision. See the default choice, the trade-offs, and the conditions that should change it.
Task→Default route→Alternatives→Starter stack
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Quick search
Start here
Start with the decision
Six high-consequence choices that define the rest of a modern product stack.Payments
Choose the seller and funds-flow operating model, then select a direct payment processor or hand off to Merchant of Record or Marketplace Payments.
- Decision route
- Choose the operating model before the payment provider.
Database
Choose the authoritative system of record by data shape, access patterns, integrity, recovery, and operating constraints.
- Decision route
- Start with PostgreSQL for a conventional SaaS or business application.
Hosting
Choose where an application runs by runtime, process, state, networking, region, and operating ownership.
- Decision route
- Choose the operating boundary before the hosting brand.
Transactional Email
Choose a provider and operating model for application-triggered email without confusing delivery infrastructure with marketing automation.
- Decision route
- Start with Resend for a small new web product.
AI APIs
Choose a model-provider evaluation set through measured task quality, required capabilities, governance, lifecycle, and total workload cost.
- Decision route
- Build a small provider evaluation set.
Decision map
Browse by category
Choose the area first, then follow a bounded sequence instead of scanning a flat tool directory.Identity
Users, access, and permissions
Data
Storage, search, and synchronization
Infrastructure
Hosting, compute, and delivery
Payments
Payments, billing, and tax
Messaging
Email, notifications, and chat
AI
Models, agents, and AI delivery
Observability
Errors, logs, and performance
Security
Protection, controls, and compliance
Product
Feedback, content, and onboarding
Developer workflow
Code, testing, and delivery
Working combinations
Starter stacks
Five opinionated starting points with explicit product assumptions and replacement boundaries.AI SaaS
Use this Stack when AI is a product capability inside a conventional SaaS system rather than a standalone model-research platform.
- Next.js
- Clerk
- Neon
- Stripe
- AI SDK
Main trade-off
View stack The stack accelerates product delivery but combines identity, database, billing, model, SDK, and hosting dependencies whose usage costs and failure modes must be measured independently.
B2B SaaS
Use this Stack when customer organizations, enterprise federation, provisioning, operational workflows, and account-level billing are core product requirements.
- Next.js
- WorkOS
- PostgreSQL
- Stripe
- Inngest
Main trade-off
View stack The stack covers common enterprise SaaS infrastructure quickly, but the team must own cross-system identity mapping, tenant isolation, authorization, event consistency, enterprise support, and vendor migration.
Content Site
Use this Stack when editors need a managed structured-content system and the product needs a custom Next.js frontend, dedicated search, global delivery, and managed deployment.
- Next.js
- Sanity
- Algolia
- Cloudflare
- Vercel
Main trade-off
View stack The Stack accelerates content operations and delivery but distributes data, indexing, cache, and runtime state across managed providers whose usage, failure, and migration boundaries must be operated deliberately.
Indie SaaS
Use this Stack when a small team wants a conventional SaaS foundation, prefers application-owned authentication, and values outsourcing seller-of-record operations.
- Next.js
- Better Auth
- Turso
- Lemon Squeezy
- Resend
Main trade-off
View stack The stack can be economical and portable at small scale, but the developer assumes more authentication and integration responsibility and must validate runtime compatibility, MoR eligibility, database behavior, and migration paths.
Next.js SaaS
Use this Stack when the product needs application authentication, relational data, card payments, transactional email, and managed web deployment without operating each subsystem.
- Next.js
- Clerk
- Supabase
- Stripe
- Resend
Main trade-off
View stack The stack minimizes initial operations but concentrates product risk across several managed vendors and leaves the application responsible for domain data, authorization, tax scope, and migration planning.
Selected evaluations
Featured evaluations
Tools that recur across important decisions, cover distinct routes, or define a widely misunderstood boundary.Clerk
IdentityClerk is the strongest general default for a new SaaS team that values a short path to polished authentication more than infrastructure ownership.Read evaluation
Better Auth
IdentityChoose Better Auth when owning the authentication runtime, schema, and data is a requirement rather than an implementation preference.Read evaluation
Stripe
Payment processorChoose Stripe when direct payment infrastructure, subscriptions, or platform payments are intentional and the business will own the remaining merchant operations.Read evaluation
Paddle
Merchant of RecordChoose Paddle when its eligibility, seller role, checkout, payout, tax, and contract model fit and reduced merchant operations outweigh lower platform control.Read evaluation
Supabase
Backend platformChoose Supabase when PostgreSQL, Auth, Storage, Realtime, and generated APIs belong in one coherent backend boundary.Read evaluation
Neon
Managed PostgreSQLChoose Neon when PostgreSQL compatibility, database branching, and elastic or suspendable compute align with the development workflow and workload.Read evaluation
Vercel
Managed web platformChoose Vercel when framework-aware deployment, previews, and managed web delivery materially reduce team effort.Read evaluation
Cloudflare
Developer platformChoose Cloudflare when its edge runtime and integrated delivery, security, and data products match the application's execution and locality model.Read evaluation
Resend
Transactional email APIChoose Resend when a compact developer API is the priority and the team can own consent, domain authentication, reputation, suppression, failure handling, and provider concentration.Read evaluation
PostHog
Product engineering and analytics platformChoose PostHog when suite consolidation is intentional and the team can govern identity, event taxonomy, replay capture, flag requests, retention, regions, and separate product meters.Read evaluation
Sentry
Issue-centric application monitoringChoose Sentry when application error triage is the leading job and the team can own SDK, release, source-map or symbol, sampling, and sensitive-data configuration.Read evaluation
AI SDK
AI application SDKChoose AI SDK when a TypeScript product benefits from shared application primitives and its supported provider adapters.Read evaluation
Editorial standard
How recommendations are made
A compact decision process designed to reduce the shortlist without hiding uncertainty.Clear defaults
A practical starting point when one route fits the common case.
Explicit exceptions
The conditions that should move you away from the default.
Verified sources
Important claims trace back to current, reliable documentation.