Best Boilerplate with Stripe Integration: ShipFast vs Makerkit vs Supastarter

Stripe Is the Easy Part — Until It Isn't

Every SaaS boilerplate advertises "Stripe integration." But the gap between a basic Stripe Checkout session and a production-ready billing system is enormous.

The basics — creating a subscription, handling a successful payment — take a few hours. The hard parts — subscription upgrades with proration, failed payment recovery, tax calculation, multi-currency, team billing, usage-based pricing — take weeks.

We compared how ShipFast, Makerkit, and Supastarter handle Stripe integration, from the simple stuff to the edge cases that break production billing systems.

TL;DR

Supastarter has the most comprehensive Stripe integration — five payment providers, per-org billing, subscription management UI, and webhook handling for the full subscription lifecycle. Makerkit is a close second with clean billing architecture and Lemon Squeezy support. ShipFast handles the basics well but requires manual work for enterprise billing features. Choose Supastarter for billing flexibility. Choose Makerkit for clean architecture. Choose ShipFast if basic subscriptions are enough.

Key Takeaways

Supastarter supports 5 payment providers — Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Creem, and Dodo Payments. ShipFast and Makerkit support Stripe + Lemon Squeezy.
Per-organization billing is Supastarter's edge — charge per team, not per user. ShipFast has user-only billing.
All three handle basic subscriptions — plans, pricing pages, checkout, customer portal. The differences appear in edge cases.
Webhook handling varies significantly. Supastarter handles 12+ Stripe webhook events. ShipFast handles ~5. Missing webhooks means missing payment state changes.
Tax calculation is the hardest part — Supastarter and Makerkit support Stripe Tax. ShipFast leaves tax to you.
Makerkit's billing architecture is cleanest — isolated in its own package, easy to customize or replace.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Subscription Management

Feature	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
Create subscription	✅	✅	✅
Cancel subscription	✅	✅	✅
Upgrade/downgrade	⚠️ Basic	✅ With proration	✅ With proration
Pause subscription	❌	✅	✅
Resume subscription	❌	✅	✅
Free trial (no card)	✅	✅	✅
Free trial (with card)	✅	✅	✅
Subscription quantities	❌	✅	✅
Multiple subscriptions	❌	❌	⚠️ Manual

Pricing and Checkout

Feature	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
Pricing page	✅ Pre-built	✅ Pre-built	✅ Pre-built
Monthly/annual toggle	✅	✅	✅
Custom pricing tiers	✅ Config-based	✅ Config-based	✅ Config-based
Stripe Checkout	✅	✅	✅
Embedded checkout	❌	✅	✅
Coupons/promo codes	⚠️ Manual	✅	✅
Multi-currency	❌	⚠️ Via Stripe	✅
Tax calculation	❌	✅ Stripe Tax	✅ Stripe Tax

Webhook Handling

Event	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
`checkout.session.completed`	✅	✅	✅
`customer.subscription.created`	✅	✅	✅
`customer.subscription.updated`	✅	✅	✅
`customer.subscription.deleted`	✅	✅	✅
`invoice.payment_succeeded`	⚠️	✅	✅
`invoice.payment_failed`	❌	✅	✅
`customer.subscription.trial_will_end`	❌	✅	✅
`invoice.upcoming`	❌	❌	✅
`customer.updated`	❌	✅	✅
`payment_intent.payment_failed`	❌	❌	✅
`charge.refunded`	❌	❌	✅
`customer.subscription.paused`	❌	✅	✅

Missing webhook events means your application doesn't know about payment failures, upcoming invoices, or subscription state changes. ShipFast covers the basics. Supastarter covers edge cases that matter in production.

Customer Portal

Feature	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
Stripe Customer Portal	✅ Redirect	✅ Redirect	✅ Redirect
In-app billing UI	⚠️ Basic	✅ Custom	✅ Custom
Invoice history	❌	✅	✅
Payment method update	✅ Via portal	✅ Via portal	✅ Via portal
Usage display	❌	❌	⚠️ Manual

Billing Architecture

Feature	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
Billing per user	✅	✅	✅
Billing per organization	❌	✅	✅
Per-seat pricing	❌	⚠️ Manual	✅
Usage-based billing	❌	❌	⚠️ Manual
Multiple payment providers	⚠️ Stripe only	✅ Stripe + Lemon Squeezy	✅ 5 providers
Provider switching	❌	✅ Config change	✅ Config change

How Each Handles Common Billing Scenarios

Scenario 1: User Upgrades Mid-Cycle

ShipFast: Redirects to Stripe Customer Portal. Stripe handles proration. Your app receives a webhook when the subscription updates. Basic but functional.

Makerkit: Custom in-app upgrade flow. Calls Stripe's subscription.update() with proration_behavior: 'create_prorations'. Shows the prorated amount before confirming. Updates local subscription state via webhook.

Supastarter: Similar to Makerkit but also handles organization-level upgrades. If a team admin upgrades, all team members gain access to the new plan immediately.

Scenario 2: Payment Fails

ShipFast: No built-in handling. The subscription enters Stripe's "past_due" state, but the app doesn't know unless you manually check. Users keep full access until Stripe cancels.

Makerkit: Handles invoice.payment_failed webhook. Shows a banner in the app prompting the user to update their payment method. Optionally restricts feature access during past_due state.

Supastarter: Same as Makerkit, plus sends email notifications about failed payments and handles the customer.subscription.trial_will_end event to send trial ending reminders.

Scenario 3: Team Billing with Per-Seat Pricing

ShipFast: Not supported. You'd need to build team management, organization-level billing, and seat counting from scratch.

Makerkit: Organizations are built-in. Per-seat pricing requires manual implementation but the architecture supports it — add/remove members triggers a subscription quantity update.

Supastarter: Per-organization billing is native. Adding a team member can automatically update the subscription quantity. Removing a member adjusts the next invoice.

Alternative Payment Providers

Lemon Squeezy Support

Feature	ShipFast	Makerkit	Supastarter
Lemon Squeezy	❌	✅ Full	✅ Full
Tax handling	N/A	✅ Automatic (LS handles)	✅ Automatic
Global payments	N/A	✅ 135+ countries	✅ 135+ countries
Merchant of record	N/A	✅ LS handles	✅ LS handles

Lemon Squeezy acts as the Merchant of Record — they handle global tax compliance, VAT, and currency conversion. For solo founders selling globally, this eliminates the need for Stripe Tax configuration.