microsaas

2 posts with the tag “microsaas”

Open SaaS v2.0 -- ShadCN UI, LLM-friendly, MoRs, and more.

Jul 29, 2025

What could make a free, open-source, full-featured SaaS boilerplate even better? Probably a fresh new look on top the hottest UI library out there, plus a slew of new features.

Well, that’s exactly what we’ve done with Open SaaS v2.0.

Oh, and we’re launching it on Product Hunt, so go show your support for open-source SaaS dopeness! 🙏

The most significant change is a complete redesign using Shadcn UI, providing a more modern, consistent, and customizable experience out of the box. This update also includes key framework upgrades, new integrations, and significant codebase improvements to help you build your SaaS faster than ever.

You’re welcome.

New Look with Shadcn UI

People really love Open SaaS, but we knew from the start that if there were a way to improve it, than it would be to offer a better look and feel.

So we’ve done just that.

🧐 Here’s what it looked like before:

🔥 And here’s what it looks like now:

You probably noticed that the design is cleaner, more consistent, and offers more interactive elements. But it’s also completely redesigned on top of Shadcn UI (which is also open source!), so you get a modern, composable, and highly customizable experience out of the box.

On top of that, we’ve also made the styles easily themable, and in the future we’ll be offering a slick way to find and use a great looking theme, as well as a range of different Landing Page templates for you to choose from. So stay tuned for that!

Now on to the new features!

⭐️ Star the Open SaaS repo and support open-source tools for builders, by builders!

New Features

Lemon Squeezy, Polar, and Paddle Merchants of Record

Merchants of Record (MoR) are great. They’re a layer on top of payment processors like Stripe that take the pain out of the legalities and tax compliance of being a merchant.

We’ve added support for Lemon Squeezy with Polar integration in the works as we speak! Choose the payment processor that best fits your SaaS if Stripe is too granular for your needs.

And while we’re working on Polar right now, next up we’ll be adding support for Paddle as a MoR to satisfy the needs of the broader international indiehacker community.

LLM-friendly Docs and Rules

One of the best use cases for LLM-assisted coding is to get precise answers to your questions about a codebase or library. You can pass it the docs, ask your questions, and get context-aware answers.

So we’ve added an LLM-friendly version of the Open SaaS docs, as well as the Wasp framework docs, to make it easier for you to use in your AI coding environments.

Just add the following urls to your AI coding environment such as Cursor, Copilot, etc, and mention it in your prompt to get precise answers to your Open SaaS and Wasp framework questions.

Open SaaS AI-friendly docs:

https://docs.opensaas.sh/llms-full.txt

Wasp framework AI-friendly docs:

https://wasp.sh/llms-full.txt

In addition, we’ve also got a full set of project-specific Cursor rules files that you can use to make sure your AI assistants stay on the right track. These can be adapted to use with Claude Code, Windsurf, and more.

End-to-End Testing with Playwright

One thing I hate about building a SaaS is that I’m constantly worried it might break after adding a new feature. To give you peace of mind, we’ve integrated a full suite of end-to-end tests using Playwright. These tests act like a robot user, clicking through your app to verify that everything from user sign-ups to critical payment flows is working exactly as it should.

But we didn’t just write tests for ourselves. We’ve provided the entire setup, including a CI/CD workflow file for GitHub Actions. This means you can automatically run these checks on every code change, ensuring you never accidentally break your production app. Ship with confidence, knowing your core features are easily protected, and use our test suite as a foundation for your own custom test cases.

More Refactors & Improvements

On top of the headlining features, we’ve been busy shipping a ton of other improvements to make your life easier. We’ve squashed bugs, upgraded major dependencies like Node.js and the Wasp framework, and completely refactored the codebase for better organization. We also threw in some handy new integrations like enhanced file uploads with progress bars and a cookie consent banner. Here’s a quick rundown of other key changes:

New Features & Integrations 🚀:
- Enhanced File Uploads: The file upload functionality has been improved with features like progress bars and validation. The S3 CORS configuration was tightened for improved security.
- Cookie Consent: A cookie consent banner has been implemented.
Major Dependency and Framework Upgrades 🛠️:
- Wasp Framework: There have been multiple upgrades to the Wasp framework, moving from version 0.13.0 up to 0.16.0 and beyond. This indicates active maintenance and adoption of new Wasp features.
- SDKs: The AWS and OpenAI SDKs have been updated to their latest versions.
- Node.js: The environment has been updated to Node.js version 20.
Codebase Refactoring and Organization 🗂️:
- Vertical Reorganization: A major refactoring effort was undertaken to organize the codebase “vertically”. Functionality for features like auth, payments, users, and file-upload are now grouped together, improving modularity.
- User Management: Significant refactoring was done on the user management and administration pages.
Documentation and Content 📚:
- A substantial number of commits are related to adding new blog posts, updating documentation, and creating other content. This reflects a strong focus on community engagement and developer resources.

Help Us, Help You!

We’re not done yet. We’re going to keep listening to our commonunity and improving Open SaaS.

So if you’ve got ideas on how to improve it, please create a GitHub issue or submit a pull request.

Got a cool landing page variation? Submit a PR! Found a bug? Create an issue!

Want to support us? Star the repo on GitHub!

⭐️ Star the Open SaaS repo and support open-source tools for builders, by builders!

More Landing Page Templates

We’re working on a ton of new landing page templates for you to choose from. We’ll be adding more templates in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out for updates.

Here's my SaaS Cost, Profit, and Marketing Breakdown

May 21, 2025

Vince

Dev Rel @ Wasp

Hey builders,

I wanted to share my journey building a micro SaaS, CoverLetterGPT, which earns $550/month in recurring revenue (MRR), while requiring minimal effort and maintenance. Here’s a breakdown of overall costs, profit, how I got customers, and why I believe small, simple SaaS apps are an underrated way to start as an indie maker.

At a glance

CoverLetterGPT is a GPT wrapper that generates personalized cover letters based on the user’s uploaded CV and job description. The function that seperates it from just using chatGPT is that users can edit cover letters inline with AI assistance, as well as manage all the different cover letters they’ve generated. It’s super simple, and it’s even open-source! I launched it in August 2023 and it’s been a steady source of passive income since.

Here are some quick numbers:

Built in 1 week
- using Open SaaS, a free, open-source React, NodeJS, SaaS boilerplate template with tons of features.
Runs on autopilot
- ~1hr/month of maintenance
~$550 MRR
Minimal customer support
- Only 3 Stripe disputes to date
Costs ~$16/month
- ~$12 for hosting
- ~$3 for OpenAI API fees
- $11.82/year for the .xyz domain
$0 paid ads
- Just SEO and Social Media/Reddit

Costs Breakdown

Cost Type	Monthly Cost	Notes
App Hosting	$12	Railway.com
OpenAI API	$3	~1,500 requests / 1.5m tokens
Domain	$0.98	$11.82/year via Porkbun
Stripe Fees	~$45	~3% + 30¢/transaction + ~2% currency conversion

As you can see, Stripe fees are the biggest “cost” in the end, becuase most of my customers are abroad, so I get hit with extra cross-border fees. But that’s just the cost of doing business. Plus, I don’t really see these fees, so they dont bother me much.

Meanwhile, using the OpenAI API isn’t as expensive as you might think, and the models keep getting cheaper and better. I’m currently using the gpt-4o-mini model for the standard plan, and gpt-4.1 for the pro plan.

At about 1,500 requests/month, which equals roughly 1.5m input and output tokens, this costs me around $3/month.

Besides that, my hosting bill is about $12/month on Railway, and I pay $11.82/year for the .xyz domain via Porkbun.

Revenue & Profit Breakdown

Metric	Value	Notes
Avg. Monthly Revenue	$615	Past 8 months, converted from €543
Total Net Revenue	$9,912	Since launch, after Stripe fees
Total Costs to Date	$345	$15/month × 23 months
Avg. Monthly Profit	$416	$9,567 ÷ 23 months
Total Profit to Date 🎉	$9,567	Net revenue minus costs

At current exchange rates, my average monthly recurring revenue of €543 over the past 8 months equals

an average of $615 MRR for the past 8 months

My total revenue, minus ~$45/month Stripe fees, disputes, and refunds, since launch has been €8756. At current exchange rates, this equals

$9,912 total net revenue

My costs since launch 23 months ago have been ~$15/month. So 15 * 23 equals

$345 monthly costs

This brings my total profit since launch to

$9,567 total profit or
$416/month average profit

That’s enough to afford a lease on a nice Jeep Wrangler.

Not bad for a side project that I built in 1 week!

Marketing Breakdown

Channel	Effort Level	Return	Result / Notes
Product Hunt	High	Medium	Initial launch, created marketing assets, got early traction
Reddit	Medium-High	High	Posted in dev/entrepreneur/job subreddits, boosted SEO, some bans risk
Indie Hackers	Easy	Medium	Shared open-source story, featured in newsletter, good feedback
Twitter	Hard	Low	Shared updates, videos, and journey.
TikTok	Medium (Ongoing)	High	Shared updates, videos, and journey, helps maintain MRR.
Paid Ads	None	—	Did not run any paid ads

By far the question I get asked the most by other curious builders is how I got customers. Many ask if I paid for ads, and I didn’t.

Here’s what I did do:

Initial Product Hunt Launch

A lot of people aren’t sure if Product Hunt is worth it these days (spoiler: it still is!), but I’d say launch there anyway.

I wasn’t sure where to go with my app after I first built it, so Product Hunt seemed like a good start. The benefit of launching there, regardless of how the launch performed on the platform, was that it forced me to do a few important things.

First, I had to create good marketing materials for the launch, like videos, images, and marketing copy.

Then, with the launch coming up, I felt that I had to start telling people about it. I mean, there’s no point in launching and then not trying to get some upvotes and support, right?

This all lead to giving me a jump start on spreading the word about the app. It did decently well on product hunt, and gained some initial traction, but with that material I also went to other platforms to share it.

Reddit Posts and Comments

Posting on Reddit can be tricky. If you’re too forward, it gets seen as spam and you can get banned.

Luckily, I left the app open-source because I wasn’t anticipating much success from it, and a good side effect of this was that I was able to openly post about it on developer and entrepreneur subreddits. To this day, I think this had a good effect on SEO, but I’m not certain.

Besides that, I found job search subreddits and left comments on posts where people were asking about using AI to generate cover letters.

Indie Hackers

I also posted about it in the IndieHackers community and got great feedback, mainly due to the fact that it was open-source and starting to get good signup numbers.

This led to a getting featured in their newsletter—again, thanks to the app being open-source—and this led to a lot more buzz.

Twitter & tiktok

I also took to twitter and tiktok to share fun videos about the app, my journey building it, and my thoughts about it.

Doing this periodically and consistently throughout the past couple years has probably helped keep MRR consistent

What I’ve learned

This experience has been pretty interesting. I’ve defintiely had a bit of luck and good timing on my side, but I’ve also learned a lot about building a SaaS, marketing, and what tends to be good and bad advice out there.

So here’s my take on things.

Small, Persistent Wins Are Worth It

Many developers think a SaaS has to be big, flashy, or wildly profitable to be worth building. I disagree. For me:

$550/month is fantastic as side income.
Revenue has been surprisingly stable.
It runs itself, requiring virtually no maintenance.
I can balance it easily alongside my full-time job.
It’s fun and doesn’t consume my free time.

I would encourage anyone who wants to build a SaaS to go for it, but to aim for small, achievable SaaS projects instead of trying to “hit it big” from the start.

Build & Launch Fast

The most important lesson I’ve learned: speed is everything. The faster you launch, the faster you’ll know if your idea works. Here’s what worked for me:

Avoid long, drawn-out failures: Build small, execute early.
Use the fastest tools available: I used Open SaaS because it gives me all the building blocks already set up (auth, Stripe payments, OpenAI API examples, email sending, etc), letting me focus on the business logic of the app.
Forget perfection: I didn’t worry about making it pretty or perfect—-it just had to work.

Keep It Simple

The beauty of a simple, “micro SaaS” is in its simplicity. Here’s why:

My app does one thing well: generating cover letters based on résumés and job descriptions and allows users to edit them inline with AI assistance.
There’s no need for a fancy landing page or marketing gimmicks. This is my 🌶 hot take. I mean, my landing page is my app! Users land on it and can instantly try it out.
Users get 3 trial credits-—enough to try the app and see value before paying.

One of the biggest perks of small SaaS is how low-maintenance it can be. With CoverLetterGPT, I rarely handle customer service thanks to its simplicity and the low, but consistent number of users (~100).

This means I spend my time on new ideas rather than maintaining old ones.

It’s All About Tradeoffs

While I could optimize and grow CoverLetterGPT further, I’ve chosen to keep it small and simple. For me:

Small wins are still wins.
I value having a side project that’s easy to manage alongside my full-time job.
I’d rather have less stress than chase higher profits.

Final Thoughts

If you’re considering building a SaaS, don’t overthink it. Start small, move fast, and treat it as an experiment. Forget the “rules” and focus on launching. Here’s what matters most:

Keep it simple: Build an app that solves one problem well.
Launch fast: Test your idea and iterate based on real feedback.
Minimize effort: Aim for maximum reward with minimal maintenance. If you’re spending months on it before people can try it, you’re probably working on the wrong initial idea.

For me, $550 MRR isn’t just “enough”—it’s amazing. It’s proof that small, focused apps can succeed, and they’re a great way to build confidence and skills as a maker.