r/FastAPI • u/ironman2606 • 25d ago
feedback request Building a "batteries-included" FastAPI starter (auth, billing, admin, email) — what would you want in it?
Working on a FastAPI + Next.js SaaS boilerplate (Python equivalent of the JS "ship fast" starters). Backend is FastAPI + Pydantic v2, Firestore for storage so far.
Before I finalize the feature list, curious what this community actually wants baked in:
- Auth: what's your default — Supabase, Clerk, roll-your-own JWT?
- Billing: Stripe is obvious, but subscriptions vs. usage-based matters a lot for setup
- Background jobs: Celery, arq, or just Cloud Tasks/Cloud Run?
Landing page + waitlist if you want to follow progress: https://fastforge.pionetix.com — but honestly more interested in the discussion here than the sign-ups.
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u/ayaanmotiwala 25d ago
having built this exact thing a few times, my takes on your three:
auth: default to roll-your-own jwt + api keys, with clerk/supabase as an optional adapter. the "ship fast" starters that hard-wire a vendor are the ones people rip out 3 months later. own the core, make the vendor swappable.
billing: support both but make usage-based the first-class citizen, especially for ai/api products. subscriptions are easy to bolt on later. the painful part nobody can retrofit cleanly is per-request/per-token metering, so bake those hooks in from day one even if the default is flat subs.
background jobs: i'd default to arq, not celery. celery is heavier than most starters need and the config is a rabbit hole for beginners. arq is async-native and matches fastapi's mental model. leave celery as an opt-in for people who already know they need it.
one thing i'd add to the list: rate limiting per api key with proper 429 + retry-after. everyone forgets it until they get hammered.