AppSetUpKit vs Expo Boilerplates: Free and Paid Starters Compared (2026)

An Expo boilerplate gives you app code: screens, navigation, and in the paid ones, sign-in and a paywall already built. AppSetUpKit gives you no app code at all. It's a $99 set of setup scripts and guides for the accounts around your app, such as the App Store Connect record, capabilities, Firebase config and Supabase auth providers. If you only need a starting codebase, or you've set these services up before, a free template like Ignite or Obytes is enough.

This page compares the free starters, four paid ones, and AppSetUpKit. Prices and features come from each project's own page or README as listed on November 3, 2026. They change often, so follow the links before you buy anything.

App code and account setup are separate jobs

Shipping an Expo app with sign-in and subscriptions takes two kinds of work:

• Code in your repo: navigation, a sign-in screen, session handling, a paywall, push token storage, an account deletion flow.
• Setup outside your repo: a bundle ID and App Store Connect record, the Sign in with Apple and Push capabilities, OAuth clients in Google Cloud, providers in Supabase or Convex, an APNs key, products in App Store Connect and RevenueCat.

Boilerplates handle the first kind. Most leave the second to you and a setup guide, because those steps happen in dashboards tied to your own Apple and Google accounts. AppSetUpKit works on the second kind and leaves the code to you or your coding agent. The guides on this blog (Sign in with Apple, Google Sign-In, RevenueCat, push notifications) cover both halves for free.

Free starters

create-expo-app

create-expo-app is Expo's own project generator. Its templates are default (a multi-screen app with Expo Router and TypeScript), blank, blank-typescript, tabs and bare-minimum. There's no backend, auth or payments. By default it also writes an AGENTS.md file that gives AI coding agents Expo-specific context. Right after an SDK release, npx create-expo-app@latest can still create a project on the previous SDK for a few weeks; pass --template default@sdk-58 to get SDK 58 now.

npx create-expo-app@latest my-app --template default@sdk-58

Ignite

Ignite by Infinite Red is MIT-licensed and has been maintained since 2016. Its README lists React Navigation 7, Reanimated 4, MMKV for persistence, apisauce as the REST client, Expo Localization for i18n, and Maestro for end-to-end tests, along with a themed component library and code generators for screens and components. The README's stack table lists Expo SDK 55, so check the repo for the current version. Ignite doesn't wire in a backend or payments.

npx ignite-cli@latest new MyApp

Obytes React Native template

The Obytes template is MIT-licensed. It ships Expo Router, a small TailwindCSS UI kit, React Query with axios, TanStack Form with zod, i18next, separate build configs per environment, and more than 10 GitHub Actions workflows for building and releasing. Its auth flow uses Zustand and MMKV to keep a token on the device, so you still connect it to a real auth provider yourself.

create-expo-stack

create-expo-stack (MIT) is an interactive CLI. You pick Expo Router or React Navigation, a styling library such as NativeWind or Unistyles, and optionally a Firebase or Supabase client. It's the closest free option to a stack chosen for you.

npx rn-new@latest

Paid starters

These four sell a finished app codebase with the integrations already written. Prices are as listed on November 3, 2026.

ShippedKit

ShippedKit lists a $99 one-time launch price with lifetime updates and unlimited projects. It's built on Expo, Supabase and RevenueCat: email, magic link, Apple and Google sign-in, delete account, a RevenueCat paywall with restore, AdMob ads hidden for subscribers, and push notifications with token storage in Supabase and a preferences screen. Its page lists Expo SDK 52, which is six SDKs behind the current one, so ask which version you'd get.

Shipnative

Shipnative lists a $99 Indie License (the next price shown is $149) for one seat and unlimited apps, with lifetime updates through GitHub. You choose Supabase or Convex as the backend. Its page lists RevenueCat, PostHog and Sentry, plus email and magic-link auth, push notifications, internationalization and widgets.

NativeExpress

NativeExpress costs $229 for one seat, $599 for up to five seats and $1,124 for up to ten, all one-time with commercial use and future versions. It lists Expo SDK 57 and React Native 0.86, Supabase Auth with Apple, Google and email sign-in, RevenueCat with Superwall paywalls, OneSignal push, PostHog and Sentry, and three AI features running on Supabase Edge Functions. It also ships Claude Code skills that configure each integration, which puts some of the account setup inside the product. Its FAQ says purchases can't be refunded.

VibeFast

VibeFast lists $99 as an early-bird price ($149 regular) with lifetime updates. It's an Expo plus Next.js codebase, so you get a web app alongside the mobile one, with auth, payments, AI features and push notifications listed.

What AppSetUpKit includes

AppSetUpKit is a $99 one-time download: a zip of scripts and Markdown guides that you run on your own machine with your own accounts.

• A setup wizard for Expo projects. It creates the project with create-expo-app (or picks up an existing folder with the same name) and runs eas init. Using your own App Store Connect API key, it registers the bundle ID, creates the App Store Connect record and turns on the Sign in with Apple and Push capabilities through Fastlane. It can create a Supabase project, or a Firebase project with iOS and Android apps and their config files, and it installs the sign-in, RevenueCat and notification packages.
• Provider scripts. supabase-auth-setup.sh turns on the Apple and Google providers through Supabase's Management API. convex-auth-setup.sh sets the Convex Auth environment variables for both. generate-apple-jwt.js creates the Apple client secret for web sign-in, and convex-push-setup.sh scaffolds push for Convex backends.
• Store metadata. fastlane-metadata-setup.sh uploads your name, subtitle, keywords and description to App Store Connect.
• A separate setup script for native Swift apps.
• Guides for App Store Connect, Google Play, RevenueCat, Supabase, Convex, Firebase and AdMob, an MCP setup guide, and an instructions file written for AI coding agents.

It doesn't include UI components, screens, auth hooks, a paywall, Edge Functions, analytics or CI workflows. Creating the RevenueCat project is a manual dashboard step that the guide walks you through.

Comparison table

Option	Price (Nov 3, 2026)	Terms	App code included	Account setup	Backend
create-expo-app	Free	MIT	Template screens and routing	No	None
Ignite	Free	MIT	Components, navigation, generators	No	None (REST client)
Obytes template	Free	MIT	UI kit, forms, local auth flow, CI	No	None
create-expo-stack	Free	MIT	Routing and styling of your choice	No	Optional Firebase or Supabase client
ShippedKit	$99 launch price	Unlimited projects	Auth, paywall, ads, push, delete account	Guides	Supabase
Shipnative	$99 (1 seat)	Unlimited apps	Auth, payments, push, analytics	Not listed	Supabase or Convex
NativeExpress	$229 to $1,124	By seats, no refunds	Auth, paywalls, push, analytics, AI features	Claude Code skills	Supabase
VibeFast	$99 early bird	Lifetime updates	Mobile and Next.js web, auth, payments, AI	Not listed	Not listed
AppSetUpKit	$99 one-time	Paid download	None	Scripts and guides	Sets up Supabase, Convex or Firebase

When to pick which

A free starter is enough when

• You want a clean codebase and you've already set up Sign in with Apple, OAuth clients and App Store Connect on an earlier app. The setup steps are all in Apple's, Expo's and Supabase's docs, and in the guides linked above.
• You're learning Expo. Start with create-expo-app so every line is one you added.
• You want strong opinions about structure: Ignite for generators and a component library, Obytes for Tailwind and ready-made GitHub Actions.

A paid starter makes sense when

• You want sign-in, subscriptions and account deletion already written and tested, and you're happy to adopt someone else's architecture.
• The price is less than the hours you'd spend writing those flows. Before you buy, check the Expo SDK version it ships on, the seat limit and the refund policy.

AppSetUpKit makes sense when

• You already have app code, from a template, your own work or an AI agent, and the slow part is the accounts: the App Store Connect record, capabilities, Firebase config files, Supabase or Convex providers, the Apple client secret.
• You'd rather keep your own architecture and have scripts do the dashboard work.

Skip it if you've done that setup before and don't mind doing it again by hand. The kit runs the same steps the free docs describe; what you pay for is not clicking through them.

Using a starter with the kit

Because AppSetUpKit doesn't touch your screens, its scripts work on a project made from any template. A typical order: generate the app with Ignite, Obytes or create-expo-app, run the kit's wizard and provider scripts to set up App Store Connect and your auth providers, then write the sign-in and paywall code with the guides on this blog or your coding agent. If you buy a paid starter that already includes Supabase sign-in, the kit's supabase-auth-setup.sh and App Store Connect steps still apply, since the starter can't create accounts for you.

Where AppSetUpKit fits

AppSetUpKit is the setup half of this comparison: scripts that create and configure the App Store Connect, Firebase, Supabase and Convex pieces with your own credentials, plus guides for the steps that stay manual. Pair it with whichever codebase you pick. See what's in the kit.