By Jake Mcdonald, founder of ShipEmber · October 30, 2026 · About an 8-minute read

I'm Jake Mcdonald. I build software in Springfield, IL, and ShipEmber is the Next.js starter I wish I'd had the last few times I spun up a SaaS.

This isn't a manifesto. It's the short version of why the kit exists, what's in it, who should buy it, who shouldn't, and why I priced launch week at $49 instead of joining the $199–$349 pack.

The weeks you don't get back

Every serious side project starts the same way. You open a fresh Next.js app. Then you spend days on things that are not the product:

Auth that works in Server Components and Route Handlers, not only in a client provider.

Stripe Checkout in subscription mode, with a customer you reuse instead of creating four of them.

A webhook that reads the raw body, verifies the signature, and doesn't double-grant Pro when Stripe retries.

Plan state in your own database, because the success URL is not proof of payment.

A dashboard page that actually redirects Free…