Why LaunchKit Costs Less Than "Free"

The Free Illusion

"Why would I pay for a starter kit when I can use a free boilerplate?"

It's a reasonable question. And the answer is counterintuitive: because free is almost always more expensive.

Not in dollars. In time. In rebuilds. In delayed revenue. In opportunity cost.

What Free Boilerplates Include

Let's be fair about what you get for $0:

• Auth setup
• Database connection
• Basic project structure
• Maybe a simple Stripe integration

This is genuinely useful. It saves a few days of setup. No complaint there.

What Free Boilerplates Don't Include

Here's what you'll build yourself:

• Lead capture system: 20-30 hours
• CRM with pipeline stages: 40-60 hours
• Email service integration: 15-25 hours
• Booking/scheduling: 25-40 hours
• Complete Stripe integration: 40-60 hours (not "basic," complete)
• Admin dashboards: 30-50 hours
• Operational visibility: 20-30 hours

Total: 190-295 hours of development work.

The Real Math

Let's do the calculation:

Your time value: Even at a modest $50/hour (experienced developers often bill $100-200/hour), 200 hours = $10,000 in time cost.

Rebuild multiplier: Most founders don't get it right the first time. Multiply by 1.5-2x for debugging, refactoring, and fixing edge cases.

Actual cost of "free": $15,000-20,000 in time.

Cost of LaunchKit: $300-500 one-time.

"Free" costs 30-40x more than paying for a complete solution.

The Revenue Delay Cost

Time cost isn't even the biggest expense. Revenue delay is.

If your SaaS could generate $5,000/month once live, and a free boilerplate delays launch by 3 months while you build infrastructure:

Lost revenue: $15,000

Plus the compound effect of starting your customer acquisition 3 months later. Plus the learning you missed. Plus the momentum you lost.

Free just cost you $30,000+.

When Free Makes Sense

Free boilerplates are the right choice when:

• You're learning, not building a business
• This is a throwaway prototype
• Revenue isn't the goal
• You genuinely enjoy infrastructure work

For everyone else, free is a trap dressed up as frugality.

The Investment Mindset

LaunchKit isn't an expense. It's an investment that returns:

• 200+ hours of your time back
• Months of faster time to revenue
• Infrastructure that doesn't need rebuilding
• Systems designed by someone who's done this before

The cheapest option upfront is rarely the cheapest option total. The math only works if you pretend your time is worthless.