Start from a template
The hardest part of building an app is usually not the interface but the foundations: how sign-in works, how payments are connected, where data is stored. Templates are starter kits with these foundations already wired up, saving you about 80% of the repetitive work.
The three templates and how to choose
| Template | Already wired up for you | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Login template | Email & password sign-up and sign-in, secure sessions, password reset, user data tables; optional Google / GitHub sign-in | Communities, membership sites, internal tools |
| Payment template | Everything in the login template plus the payments skeleton: hosted checkout calls, webhook signature checks, and a webhook deduplication table. Bring your own payment account and keys; what you sell, pricing, and refunds are still for you and the AI to work out | SaaS, paid memberships, selling digital products |
| Backend template | Frontend + backend + database, no accounts and no payments | Company websites, portfolios, internal data dashboards |
When in doubt, remember one rule: charging money → Payment; accounts → Login; neither → Backend.
Steps to create from a template
- Click "Start from a template" on the home page
- Pick a template card
- Give your project a name
- Click Create
- Once you're in the workspace, add one sentence about what you want to build, e.g. "use this login template to make a reading-notes community where people can post notes and favorite others' notes"
Security basics the templates handle for you
| Item | Already taken care of by the platform |
|---|---|
| Passwords | Stored as salted hashes — never plaintext in the database |
| Sessions | Secure cookies with an expiry policy |
| Payments | Only the provider's hosted checkout is used — your code never touches credit card numbers |
| Secrets | Read from the runtime environment — never hard-coded |
These are exactly the things that are easiest to get wrong when building from scratch; with templates you don't have to think about them.
Don't want a template? That's fine
Templates just save you effort — they're not required. If what you're building needs neither accounts nor payments, go straight to the home page and start with one sentence — the fastest path, and the one we recommend for first-time users.
Already started? You can add modules later
If you're halfway through a project and realize you need login or payments, you don't have to redo anything. In the workspace, click "More" on the right, open "Integrations" under the "Development" group on the left, and you'll see "User sign-in" and "Payments" cards. Click "Connect with one click" and the AI wires the capability into your existing project.
You can choose from three payment providers:
| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| Stripe | Most full-featured; a good fit if you have a company |
| Polar | Great for individuals — you can collect payments without a company |
| Waffo | Works for individuals and additionally supports WeChat Pay |
Note: this capability isn't available for fully static projects without a backend (the panel will show "not available for this app"), because it needs a backend to store accounts and orders.