Caisson vs TurboStarter
TurboStarter spans web, mobile, and browser-extension from one codebase. Caisson is the audit-ready backend those surfaces need. Here is the honest line.
Which should you use?
Pick TurboStarter if you need one codebase across web, mobile, and a browser extension: it is the cross-platform kit, with a Hono API, six payment providers, passkeys, and organizations. Pick Caisson when the backend behind those apps handles regulated data and must pass an audit: it ships fail-closed Postgres RLS with isolation tests, a WORM + hash-chained audit trail, per-tenant field encryption, and SOC 2 / HIPAA / EU AI Act evidence packs. TurboStarter maximizes surface breadth across platforms; Caisson maximizes compliance depth on the server.
What TurboStarter is
Cross-platform (web + mobile + extension) SaaS boilerplate. Facts below were read from www.turbostarter.dev on 2026-07-07.
- Web, mobile, and browser-extension apps from a unified codebase, with a Hono API.
- Auth (email/password, magic link, social, 2FA, passkeys), billing across Stripe / Lemon Squeezy / Polar / Dodo / RevenueCat / Superwall, organizations/teams with RBAC, i18n.
- A CLI to scaffold and deploy, AI integration, and AI-editor rules/skills/agents.
- One-time pricing from $299 with lifetime access, verified 2026-07-07.
An honest comparison
Where TurboStarter has a capability, it is marked. Caisson is the compliance and tenant-isolation substrate; TurboStarter wins the rows it wins.
| Detail | Caisson | TurboStarter |
|---|---|---|
| Web app | ||
| Mobile + browser-extension apps | — | |
| Auth (passkeys, 2FA, social) | ||
| Organizations / RBAC | ||
| Fail-closed Postgres RLS + automated cross-tenant isolation tests | — | |
| WORM evidence store + append-only hash-chained audit trail | — | |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA / EU AI Act evidence packs + OSCAL export | — | |
| Per-tenant field encryption (envelope, per-tenant key) | — | |
| Detached evidence signing (Ed25519 + RFC-3161) | — |
What TurboStarter is genuinely better at
A comparison that only flatters one side isn't worth reading. Here is what this kit does well.
TurboStarter is the only kit here that ships web, mobile, and a browser extension together with shared packages. If your product spans those surfaces, that unification is a genuine, hard-to-replicate advantage.
Six billing integrations including RevenueCat and Superwall means it covers mobile in-app purchase and paywall flows most web-only kits don't touch.
Where Caisson draws the line
The compliance and tenant-isolation substrate a launch kit leaves to you.
TurboStarter's strength is breadth of client surfaces; it does not ship database-enforced isolation with tests, a WORM audit trail, field encryption, or evidence packs. Those live on the server that all those surfaces talk to, which is where Caisson operates.
Caisson is a web-and-server compliance substrate; it does not ship a mobile or extension client. It is the regulated backend, not the multi-platform frontend kit.
Which should you pick?
Your product spans web, mobile, and a browser extension and you want them from one codebase with unified billing.
The backend behind your apps handles regulated data and needs database-enforced isolation, audit evidence, and field encryption.
Build the multi-platform client surfaces on TurboStarter and put Caisson's compliance packages on the Postgres backend they share.
One-time, own the source.
Caisson is a one-time perpetual license — the price never recurs, and it includes 12 months of updates from your purchase date, renewable per entitlement afterward at 40% of list per year. The Base substrate is Apache-2.0; the compliance modules are commercial.
Compliance bundle
$1,649, one-time. Fail-closed RLS, WORM, the audit chain, evidence packs, and the framework and signing carves — the whole substrate this comparison is about.
À la carte
Take a single module from $49 — audit-worm, field-crypto, or compliance-core on their own, onto your existing Postgres app.
Everything bundle
$2,259 covers every bundle and every à-la-carte module, plus the open base, in one purchase.
Common questions.
Can TurboStarter and Caisson work together?
Does TurboStarter include audit logging or evidence packs?
Does Caisson ship a mobile or browser-extension app like TurboStarter?
Ship the compliant backend.
Explore the Compliance bundle, browse every module in the marketplace, or read another comparison.