I like to start with a boilerplate, usually a Yeoman generator, I'm always trying new ones.

I do that because if I take the time to decide each tool I'll use (always looking for the best on the market) I feel like I will never start the project itself.

The last generator that I used is generator-gulp-angular which is pretty nice, eventhough in my opinion it would be smarter to start with an Angular 2 one. I'm currently waiting a new project so I can try MERN and something with React Native.

Saw the invite too late. @lucasbento and @fibric gave wonderful answers, both providing strong cases of why one should or shouldn't use a SaaS boilerplate. @fibric mentioned "Feature-as-a-Service", which I'm too really keen on (a great article about the topic can be found here). Using FaaS, it's up to me or my team to choose which "feature" will work best, giving us the much needed freedom we all strive to.

I saw this invite very late. Thanks for inviting me to take part in this discussion.

I am biased and don't like the SaaS idea very much. I like, the newly created term Feature as a Service (FaaS) by algolia.com, much more. Because now it's up on me or us to pick the features we need and combine them to anything great.

Typical SaaS solutions tend to allow only changing brands. That's why I tell to now build SaaS solutions neither by picking boilerplates or generators or going from scratch.

If the decision is unmovable I would go from scratch. Pick a backend language, pick data storage(s), build API in the backend talking to the storages. Now pick a frontend language collection and build the UI and connect it to the API. Multiply the backend and stress test it to see if it scales, adjust accordingly and go live.

I like to go with a clean slate with just a CSS reset stylesheet added to the project.

However, if you're working with SASS you should take a look at bourbon.io which is a great mixins library.

And most people like to start with a grid system, here's a nice discussion on Sass based grid systems (hashnode.com/post/what-are-the-best-sass-based-grid-systems-cij1tj1h200a0lv5347vco54g).

hope it helps! 😊

Keystone.js is cool. Otherwise I like to use boilerplates from github. If anyone is new to open source building starting point boilerplates is a great idea! You can build off what other people have done.