Until recently, the term boilerplate didn’t really exist in the mainstream. Instead, we had templates, themes, and UI kits—remember those? Boilerplates, as they once existed, were typically associated with fullstack setups. These included backend components like authentication, database integrations, and other server-side logic. It was a very niche subset of the broader template industry, almost exclusively created by long-standing, ethical developers. These developers focused on selling to other developers, as it was understood that only people with technical know-how could really make use of such tools. After all, there’s no shortcut for learning the fundamentals of database tables, SQL, or how to write Ruby, Python, or JavaScript.
Meanwhile, the rest of the template industry was focused more on design-based and front-end offerings—WordPress themes, HTML templates, Tailwind components, and more. This is a vibrant and competitive market, with a long history going back decades. Now templates have always been somewhat adjacent to the indie hacker scene due to their relatively lower barrier to entry but they have never been defined by it. For the most part we relied on our own stores, marketplaces (like Theme Forest), SEO and affiliate marketing to sell our templates. Being a social media superstar wasn’t really seen as a great marketing channel.
I’ve been selling templates for around six years. I run several theme properties including Zerostatic Themes www.zerostatic.io and a marketplace Built At Lightspeed www.builtatlightspeed.com. So, having been deeply involved in the template space, I’ve had a front-row seat to the rise of the boilerplate trend and how it’s tarnished the broader template industry.
The shift, in my view, began with ShipFast by Marc Lou @marc_louvion. It was a boilerplate (essentially a fullstack starter) that struck me as having very little substance. The product made big promises to non-technical people, which is exactly the wrong expectation to set, even for a regular template—let alone a boilerplate. I had a feeling it was going to result in a lot of refunds and unhappy customers. Yet his sales were very strong, at least according to his fake MRR posts.
A lot of people, myself included, were frustrated that such a poor-quality product could sell so well. But anyone who’s been in the template game long enough knows that the best product doesn’t always win. Customers can’t really evaluate the quality of the code before buying—they often judge based on promises of clean code paired with emotional responses to the design. Successful template creators find a balance between quality and marketability if they want to have staying power.
At some point, we began to realize he wasn’t really selling a boilerplate at all. He was selling a dream. The product itself actually fell squarely into the “get rich quick” category.
Soon after, there was a flood of new boilerplates, each more derivative and half-baked than the last. It seemed like every new creator was just copying the one before them, believing that if they quickly shipped something, they could also post fake MRRs and snag a few sales. Many of these people likely bought Marc’s boilerplate, slapped a new name on it, and resold it. Some didn’t even bother with that much effort—they simply ripped off open-source projects and tried to pass them off as their own. Copying, stealing, and shipping low-quality code became normalized. I started receiving boilerplate submissions to Built At Lightspeed that were laughable—or tragic, depending on how you looked at them.
And this is where the problem became tangible for me. First, let me clarify something. I find the whole “get rich quick” industry distasteful—really shameful stuff. But as long as it wasn’t affecting my business, I could let it slide. The issue here was that this trend was starting to affect me, my peers, and the reputation of our entire industry.
People began conflating the established template industry with the “get rich quick” crowd. It’s an insult to the template creators who have been slogging away, building high-quality, detail-oriented work for years. It’s demeaning to have our work compared to this low-effort junk, and even worse, to now have to explain that we’re not grifters as well.
It also lowered the standards of many
Now that the boilerplate trend is starting to unravel, I’m relieved. What I—and hundreds of other template creators—do shouldn’t be lumped in with this mess. We’ve been here long before it, and we’ll be here long after.
