LaunchKit vs ShipFast: Which SaaS Starter Is Right for You?

The One-Line Difference

ShipFast helps you ship code faster. LaunchKit helps you reach revenue sooner.

Both are legitimate goals. But they lead to very different products, and choosing the wrong one costs months.

What ShipFast Optimises For

ShipFast lives up to its name. It's designed for maximum velocity in the earliest stages of building:

• Speed: Get a working app running in hours
• Dev flow: Clean developer experience and modern stack
• AI-assisted building: Optimised for Cursor and AI coding tools
• Simplicity: Minimal decisions, maximum momentum

If your goal is to validate an idea as quickly as possible with minimal investment, ShipFast delivers exactly what it promises.

What LaunchKit Optimises For

LaunchKit assumes speed is already solved. AI tools have made writing code fast. What they haven't solved is:

• Infrastructure: Lead capture, CRM, booking, payments — the systems that turn visitors into customers
• Monetisation: Pricing logic, subscription handling, upgrade paths — the plumbing that makes money flow
• Customer lifecycle: From first touch to long-term retention — the journey that defines a business
• Scale readiness: Architecture that doesn't need rewriting when you get traction

LaunchKit treats SaaS as a business system, not a coding project.

Philosophy Comparison

The difference isn't feature lists. It's philosophy.

ShipFast believes: The fastest path to validation is shipping something — anything — to see if people care.

LaunchKit believes: Speed without infrastructure creates false validation. You learn people want your product, then spend months rebuilding before you can actually sell it.

Neither is wrong. But one matches your situation better than the other.

Who Should Choose ShipFast

• You're exploring multiple ideas and want to test quickly
• This is a hackathon project or weekend experiment
• You're learning and want a clean codebase to study
• Revenue is "eventually" not "next month"
• You enjoy building infrastructure and want to do it yourself

Who Should Choose LaunchKit

• You have a specific product idea you're committed to
• Revenue validation is the goal, not just user interest
• You've been burned by rebuilding infrastructure before
• You want to sell within weeks, not months
• You'd rather pay once than rebuild forever

The Real Cost Comparison

ShipFast is cheaper upfront. LaunchKit includes more.

But the real cost isn't the price tag. It's what you spend after purchase.

With ShipFast, you'll add CRM, booking, lead capture, and operational systems yourself. That's 4-8 weeks of work, plus ongoing maintenance.

With LaunchKit, those systems exist. You configure them. The time from purchase to first paying customer is measured in days, not months.

The Verdict

If you want to build fast and figure out the business later: ShipFast.

If you want to validate revenue and avoid the rebuild: LaunchKit.

Both are good products. Choose based on your actual goal — not the one that sounds more impressive.