Instant NextJS Setups: Ship in 5 Minutes Template

Most likely everyone will agree with the statement:

It's really hard to set up a NextJS project from scratch in a way that's optimized for rapid development.

Well, it turns out you can skip the tedious setup process and start shipping production-ready NextJS apps in just 5 minutes...

...by using pre-configured "ship in 5 minutes" templates designed specifically for NextJS.

In this post, you're going to discover a selection of the top ship templates for NextJS - from blog and e-commerce starters to admin dashboard and landing page templates. You'll see how these templates allow you to focus on writing unique code rather than project configuration.

Introduction to NextJS Rapid Deployment

Ship in 5 minutes templates enable developers to go from idea to deployment incredibly fast by providing pre-built, production-ready NextJS codebases. Rather than starting from scratch, these templates have the routing, styling, and infrastructure already implemented so you can focus entirely on building unique features.

What Makes a Setup Truly Instant

For a setup to qualify as "instant", it needs to check a few key boxes:

• Page load time under 50ms
• 3 steps or less to get running locally
• Less than 5 minutes to customize and deploy

Achieving sub-second page loads means leveraging NextJS techniques like Static Site Generation (SSG) and Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) out of the box. Streamlining the number of steps required to start coding allows spinning up new ideas faster. And rapid customization/deployment empowers iterating continually.

The Shortcomings of Conventional Boilerplates

While traditional NextJS boilerplates can be useful starting points, many include complex configs or unnecessary code that slows developers down. Common issues include:

• Outdated dependencies needing upgrades
• No built-in testing/documentation capabilities
• Bloated file structures unrelated to core functionality
• Complicated build tooling like Webpack, Babel presets, etc.

These problems detract focus from building key user flows and often require significant refactoring down the line.

Embracing the Velocity of Ship Templates

Ship templates represent a new breed of NextJS starters zeroed in on simplicity and speed. They strip away everything not essential for blazing fast development while handling the critical stuff under the hood. Core principles include:

• Optimized performance with SSG/ISR
• Just the routing and styling you need
• CI/CD workflows for rapid iteration
• Easy customization to fit any concept

With these templates, you can ship production-grade apps in minutes rather than days. The result? Greater experimentation, faster validation, and more time spent crafting game-changing features.

Fast-Track Your Development: Top 5 Ship Templates

NextJS ship templates allow developers to launch full-fledged web applications in minutes instead of hours or days. These pre-configured starters come loaded with code, tools, and structure so you can bypass the tedious setup and focus on pumping out unique features.

I've compiled the top 5 ship templates below based on simplicity, customization potential, popularity, ratings, and ability to deploy in under 5 minutes.

Rapid-Deploy NextJS Blog Starter

This 1-click install blog template lets you spin up a fast, SEO-optimized blog in seconds. It's preloaded with remark and gray-matter so you can start publishing Markdown articles right away. The minimalist design is mobile-friendly out-of-the-box.

Other highlights include:

• Lightning-fast page speeds
• Responsive UI with Tailwind CSS
• SEO best practices baked in
• Easy customization and theming
• Live previews during development
• Continuous deployment workflow

Whether you're launching a developer blog, marketing site, or online magazine, this NextJS starter has all the foundations covered so you can ship in 5 minutes.

// Example code
import BlogPost from '@components/BlogPost'

export default function Home() {
  // Fetch blog posts
  const posts = getPosts() 
  
  return (
    <>
      {posts.map(post => (
        <BlogPost 
          title={post.title}
          author={post.author}
          content={post.content}
        />
      ))}
    </>
  )
}

E-commerce in a Blink: NextJS Storefront Starter

Get a production-ready online store up in under 300 seconds with this feature-packed NextJS e-commerce boilerplate. It comes pre-loaded with a catalog, shopping cart, and checkout flows so you can start selling immediately.

Just plug in your own products, tweak the UI, and deploy. Some highlights:

• Modern, mobile-friendly UI
• SEO-optimized
• Payment integration (Stripe)
• Inventory management
• Coupons and promotions
• User dashboard
• Review system

Whether you're an agency building stores for clients or a merchant selling your own products, this NextJS starter kit delivers an instant e-commerce solution.

// Product Display Example

export default function Product({ product }) {

  return (
    <div className="product">
      <img src={product.image}/>
      
      <div className="details">
        <h3>{product.name}</h3>
        <p>{product.description}</p>
        
        <button className="add-to-cart">
          Add to Cart
        </button>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

Dashboard Creation at Warp Speed: NextJS Admin Template

This admin dashboard template lets you scaffold full-fledged backends and polished UIs for internal tools in minutes instead of weeks.

It handles all the heavy lifting of building SaaS products like:

• User authentication
• Database setup
• API endpoints
• Admin UI scaffolding
• Role-based access control
• Responsive design
• Theming
• Deployment

The starter code lets you ship in 5 minutes so you can invest more time into specialized features. Some example use cases include:

• Internal business dashboards
• Client/customer portals
• Sales/marketing analytics
• Subscription management
• User generated content moderation

// Admin Dashboard Scaffolding

export default function AdminDashboard() {

  // Fetch summary stats
  const { users, revenue } = useStats()
  
  return (
    <div className="dashboard">
    
      <h1>Good morning, Admin!</h1>
      
      <div className="stats">
        <p>{users} users registered.</p> 
        <p>${revenue} in sales.</p>
      </div>
      
      // Rest of dashboard
      
    </div>
  )

}

Landing Pages on the Fly: NextJS Template

Creating optimized landing pages is a must for effective digital marketing, but can slow down growth if done from scratch.

This NextJS lead capture template lets you generate high-converting, SEO-optimized landing pages in under 5 minutes complete with:

• Attention-grabbing headers/messaging
• Mobile responsiveness
• Email subscribe forms
• Social proof elements
• Review generation CTAs
• And more...

It's the perfect shortcut for agencies and fast-growth startups looking to test marketing messages faster.

Some examples pages you can build with this starter:

• Webinar / event registration
• eBook / freebie giveaways
• Waitlists / coming soon
• App demo signups
• Contest entry

With pre-built templates and components, you can craft landing pages in seconds instead of hours.

// Landing Page Example 

export default function Landing() {

  function registerUser(email) {
    // Save email to database
  }

  return (
    <div className="landing">
    
      <h1>Get Early Access</h1>

      <p>Register below to get early access when we launch</p>
      
      <input placeholder="Email"/>
      
      <button onClick={registerUser}>
        Register
      </button>
      
      // Additional content
      
    </div>
  )
}

Show and Tell: NextJS Portfolio Template

For developers, designers, agencies, artists, and creators looking to showcase work, portfolios are a must. But custom coding one from scratch is time consuming when you could be building cool projects instead.

This developer portfolio ship template lets you create a polished online resume in minutes pre-loaded with:

• Responsive grid gallery
• Project case studies
• About and contact pages
• Theming/styling
• SEO best practices

Whether you're a coder looking to land gigs or a digital agency attracting clients, portfolios are essential. And this NextJS starter kit makes it simple to ship in 5 minutes so you can get back to doing what you do best - creating.

// Portfolio Page Example

export default function Portfolio() {

  const projects = [
    {
      title: "E-commerce Site",
      image: "store.png",
      description: "React & Firebase powered store",
    },
    {
      // ... other projects  
    },
  ]

  return (
    <div className="portfolio">
    
      <div className="projects">
      
        {projects.map(project => (
        
          <ProjectCard 
            title={project.title}
            image={project.image}
            description={project.description}
          />
          
        ))}
      
      </div>
    
    </div>
  )
}

function ProjectCard() {
  // Display project
}

So whether you're looking to spin up marketing sites, internal tools, storefronts, or portfolios, these pre-made NextJS ship templates eliminate tedious setup so you can go from idea to production faster.

The starters above represent some of the highest rated and most popular across the web for their balance of simplicity and customization potential. They allow you to ship in 5 minutes while still having control to enhance with your own flair.

I hope this roundup gives you a launchpad for rapidly shipping your next web project using NextJS! Let me know in the comments if you end up using any of the starters above.

The Competitive Edge of Using Ship Templates

Using ship templates for NextJS development can provide key advantages that give teams a competitive edge. By handling tedious project configuration, ship templates empower developers to invest more time into building unique features and custom code.

Project Initialization at Lightning Speed

Setting up a NextJS app from scratch involves many manual steps - installing dependencies, configuring build tools and linting, establishing folder structure and routing, amongst others. This process can take days for larger apps.

With a robust ship template, all this configuration is handled automatically. Simply clone the repo, install dependencies with npm install, and start building features. This cuts project spin up down from days to minutes.

Teams using ship templates can go from idea to deployed app exponentially faster. For a real-world example, see this case study showing a Fintech startup that shaved 2 months off their launch by using a NextJS ship template.

Invest Time Where It Matters: Custom Code Development

Eliminating tedious setup work means more time can be invested into coding value-add features that directly impact the user experience and business metrics.

Rather than racking your brain trying to configure and integrate various build tools, you can dive right into developing custom pages, components, styles, data models, business logic, and more.

Prioritizing unique code over commodity configuration gives teams the chance to stand out from the competition. And in the fast-paced realm of software, speed to market is everything.

The Consistency of Standardized Project Structures

Ship templates enforce a standardized and opinionated project structure. Though initially restrictive, over time this consistency pays dividends in maintainability.

With clear patterns established for organizing pages, styles, data access, etc, developers can intuitively navigate projects - even ones they didn't originally build. Onboarding new team members becomes exponentially easier.

Standardized structure also aids pattern reuse. Common components can be easily extracted into a shared library and reused across projects. This acceleration effect compounds over time as the component library grows.

Future-Proofing with Regularly Updated Ship Templates

Manually maintaining a starter template is time intensive and risky. As dependencies release new versions, things can break unexpectedly.

Centrally managed ship templates eliminate this maintenance burden entirely. The open source community handles upgrades, while you reap the rewards.

This future-proofing effect creates confidence that the project's technical foundation will remain solid over time. Developers can count on receiving a steady stream of upgrades including the latest dependencies, performance improvements, and new features.

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Conclusion

Ship templates provide NextJS teams with a clear competitive advantage - faster project spin up, more time focused on custom code, standardized structures that aid maintenance, and automatic future-proofing.

By leveraging ship templates rather than reinventing the wheel with each new app, teams amplify their productivity and minimize wasted efforts.

Tailoring Your NextJS Ship Template to Perfection

A practical guide to customizing a NextJS ship template after installation to match project needs.

Global Configuration Mastery

After setting up a NextJS ship template, one of the first things you'll want to do is configure the global settings to match your project's specifics. Here are some key steps:

• Update next.config.js with your site's title, description, URLs, etc for proper SEO optimization. Set the trailingSlash option to handle URLs without slashes.

• Add any analytics tracking code snippets like Google Analytics or Segment in pages/_app.js.

• Set default CSS variables in styles/globals.css for brand colors, fonts, etc that apply site-wide. Override ones from the template.

• Enable Internationalization (i18n) in next.config.js if building for multiple languages.

Tweaking these global config files ensures your brand, SEO, analytics, and styling shine through the starter template.

Crafting Unique Pages Within the Ship Framework

While the NextJS ship template provides starter pages out-of-the-box, you'll definitely want to customize them further for your use case. Here's how to modify pages while keeping the template structure intact:

• Pages use standard React component architecture - update JSX, state, effects to your needs
• Link to other pages with NextJS Link component vs href attributes
• Use Dynamic Routes for pages requiring variables like blog posts or products
• Employ NextJS Data Fetching methods to populate page content from APIs

This allows crafting pages aligned to your site's domains while reusing template conventions for header, footer, menus, etc across pages.

Interchanging Components with Ease

Swapping template UI components with custom implementations is straightforward:

• Components are stored in /components folder so create your versions there
• Follow template naming conventions and props contracts for easy interchanging
• For templates using UI libraries, override components in pages/_app.js

This facilitates restyling components to your brand by overriding templates defaults.

Expanding Horizons: Adding New Routes

Integrating entirely new pages and functionality requires planning routing carefully:

• Add pages under top-level /pages folder for automatic routing
• Dynamic routes match params like pages/blog/[slug].js
• Use NextJS Link on new pages for SPA-style transitions
• Preserve template header/footer components for consistent UI

With some forethought, expanding beyond template routes is easy for unlocking new functionality!

By judiciously configuring globals, tweaking pages, swapping components, and mapping new routes - you can customize a NextJS ship template to perfection for any project! The high-quality templates will have made excellent starting points, which you can now mold to fit your needs.

Seamless Updates for Your NextJS Ship Template

Keeping your NextJS ship template up-to-date with the latest features and fixes can be challenging, but following best practices around semantic versioning and clear release notes makes the process smooth sailing.

Adhering to Semantic Versioning

Reputable NextJS ship templates adhere to semantic versioning standards (semver). This means version numbers take the form X.Y.Z, where:

• X stands for major version with breaking changes
• Y represents minor version with new features, no breaking changes
• Z is for patch releases that contain only bug fixes

By following semver, template publishers allow you to understand the scope of changes and potential impact on your project when upgrading. For example, upgrading from 1.1.3 to 1.2.0 would bring new features that likely don't affect your custom code. But going from 1.1.3 to 2.0.0 indicates breaking changes that require code updates.

Keeping Track with Release Notes

Detailed release notes are key to smooth template upgrades. Quality NextJS ship templates like the Ship in 5 Minutes Template provide release notes with every new version detailing:

• New features or enhancements
• Bug fixes
• Breaking changes
• Migration guidance
• Changelog summaries

Reviewing these notes allows you to spot breaking changes needing code updates before upgrading. Fixes and new features help you understand what's changed under the hood.

Smooth Sailing: The Ship Template Upgrade Guide

Upgrading your Ship in 5 Minutes Template is easy following these best practices:

1. Review the release notes - Understand the changes, particularly any breaking updates or migration guidance.

2. Check compatibility - Ensure any integrated third-party modules are compatible with the new template release.

3. Update configuration - Based on release notes, make adjustments to next.config.js, environment variables, etc.

4. Run migration scripts - If provided, run any scripts to migrate databases, update schemas, port customizations, etc.

5. Install new template version - Back up current code then use create-next-app to install the latest template release.

6. Port over custom code - Integrate your custom components, pages, styles, and other code changes into the new template.

7. Thoroughly test - Validate all pages, integrations, flows, and functionality prior to launching upgraded template.

Following these best practices will lead to near-instant, low-effort upgrades letting you enjoy the latest template features without missing a beat! You'll be ready to ship that new feature in no time.

Navigating Towards Your Next Successful Project

With a vast ocean of frameworks and libraries to choose from, starting a new web project can feel daunting. However, ship in 5 minutes templates for NextJS provide a guiding star towards rapid development. Let's explore how these pre-configured starter kits can chart your course to launch ready in record time.

Chart Your Course: Choosing the Right Ship Template

The key is selecting a template that aligns with your destination. Determine your tech stack, UI preferences, and anticipated features.

For example, templates like NextJS Commerce cater towards ecommerce sites, while NextJS Blog scaffolds a blog or CMS. Options like NextJS Dashboard include styled components for admin panels.

Scan template READMEs to confirm included batteries like TypeScript, ESLint, or Cypress testing align with your needs. Also validate recent GitHub activity to choose maintained options.

With your ideal template identified, you can set sail assured smooth seas await.

Launch in Record Time: Integrating Your Ship Template

Thanks to intuitive project structure and config, integrating a ship template is simple. Follow these steps for rapid installation:

1. Run create-next-app and specify your chosen template
2. Install dependencies with npm install
3. Launch the dev server with npm run dev

In just minutes, you'll have a production-ready app up and running locally!

Leverage built-in scripts to handle compilation, hot module replacement, code linting, and more right out of the box. Ship templates eliminate tedious configuration, meaning you can launch your MVP faster.

Zeroing in on Innovation: Custom Code and Creativity

With your core application now built, shift focus towards what really matters - your unique value add.

Allocate time formerly lost wrangling webpack and Babel towards the innovative features that set your product apart. Add new pages, integrate bespoke APIs, customize styles and branding, tweak SEO settings, and deploy to production.

Ship templates clear the path towards differentiating functionality. Spend less time starting, and more time delighting users with cutting-edge experiences!

So weigh anchor and set your course with confidence. NextJS ship templates are your able navigator across the vast open waters of web development.

Related posts

• Fast Ship Your NextJS Project: Essential Starters
• ShipFast Techniques: Boosting Front-End Productivity
• NextJS Starter Templates: Code More, Type Less
• Nextjs SaaS Boilerplate: Your Shortcut to Rapid Deployment