LaraSpeed vs Wave
Wave is a free, open-source Laravel SaaS starter kit. LaraSpeed is a premium, production-ready solution. Here's an honest comparison of the tradeoffs between free and paid.
Quick Verdict
Wave is a solid free option for learning or quick prototypes. But for production SaaS apps, LaraSpeed saves you significant development time with three billing providers, a Filament admin panel, 100+ tests, multi-tenancy, CI/CD, and professional support. The $49–$199 investment easily pays for itself in saved development hours.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | LaraSpeed | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 – $349 | Free (open source) |
| Authentication (login, register, 2FA) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stripe billing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Paddle billing | ✓ | ✓ |
| LemonSqueezy billing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Abstract billing layer | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi-tenancy (teams) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Admin panel | Filament 3 | Basic |
| Test suite | 100+ Pest tests | ✗ |
| RESTful API | ✓ | Basic API |
| Onboarding flow | ✓ | ✗ |
| CI/CD pipeline | ✓ | ✗ |
| Blog / content system | ✗ | ✓ |
| User profiles | ✓ | ✓ |
| Professional support | Email support | Community only |
The Free vs Paid Tradeoff
Wave is free and open-source, which makes it attractive for side projects and learning. However, "free" comes with hidden costs: you'll spend weeks adding features that LaraSpeed includes out of the box. Multi-provider billing alone is a complex feature that can take 40+ hours to implement properly. Add in admin panels, testing, and multi-tenancy, and the time investment far exceeds LaraSpeed's one-time price.
Billing Providers
Wave is limited to Paddle only. This can be a dealbreaker if your business requires Stripe (the most popular payment processor) or if you need LemonSqueezy for merchant-of-record benefits. LaraSpeed supports all three with an abstract billing layer — switch between Stripe, Paddle, and LemonSqueezy with a single .env change.
Production Readiness
LaraSpeed is designed to be production-ready from day one. It includes 100+ tests, a CI/CD pipeline, proper error handling, and professional code structure. Wave is more of a starting template that you'll need to harden and extend significantly before going to production. For a serious SaaS business, the time saved with LaraSpeed pays for itself many times over.
When to Choose Wave
Wave is a good choice if you're learning Laravel SaaS development, building a prototype, or have zero budget. It gives you a basic starting point with auth, Paddle billing, and user profiles. For hobby projects where time-to-market isn't critical, Wave can work well.
Pricing Comparison
LaraSpeed
$49 – $349
One-time purchase
- ✓ Starter: $49 (Stripe billing, 6mo updates)
- ✓ Pro: $199 (all providers, lifetime updates)
- ✓ Team: $349 (extended license, consultation)
- ✓ 14-day money-back guarantee
Wave
Free
Open source (MIT license)
- ✓ No upfront cost
- ! Significant dev time to reach production quality
- ! Community support only
- ! Limited billing provider options
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