Quick Start

Local Setup

Get BetterStarter running locally in 30 seconds.

Docs are in beta — content is improving rapidly. Found something missing? Open an issue on GitHub or reach out on Twitter.

Prerequisites

Node.js 22+ and pnpm
A PostgreSQL database — see the Database guides to set one up

Steps

git clone https://github.com/azizali/betterstarter.git
cd betterstarter
pnpm install
cp .env.sample .env.local
pnpm dev

Your app is running at http://localhost:3000.

Required Environment Variables

Open .env.local and set these three:

APP_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/betterstarter
BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=   # run: npx @better-auth/cli secret

Everything else (Stripe, Google, Plunk) is optional for local dev. See Environment Variables.

Database Setup

Once DATABASE_URL is set, run migrations:

pnpm db:generate
pnpm db:migrate

Next Steps

Go Live — deploy to production
Google Auth — add OAuth sign-in
Stripe Payments — enable billing

Go Live

Deploy BetterStarter to production in 2 minutes.

On this page

Required Environment Variables