Both gstack and create-t3-app scaffold an interactive, typesafe Next.js app from one command. gstack keeps the same core idea and adds the parts most teams bolt on afterwards: shadcn/ui and a themeable starter UI, Better Auth and Drizzle as first-class choices, a Vitest suite with optional Playwright, a nonce-based production CSP, a bundle budget and generated AI agent rules describing the exact stack you chose.
| Feature | gstackNext.js scaffolder by Gupta Technologies | create-t3-appThe T3 stack CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive CLI scaffolding | Yes — prompts for stack, installs, initialises Git | Yes — same pattern |
| End-to-end typesafe API (tRPC) | Wired with tRPC, TanStack Query, Zod | Wired with tRPC, TanStack Query, Zod |
| Prisma or Drizzle choice | First-class choice at scaffold time | Prisma by default; Drizzle support exists |
| NextAuth.js or Better Auth | Both are first-class options | NextAuth.js by default |
| shadcn/ui pre-installed | Yes, with themeable starter UI | No |
| Theme selection from community registries | Yes — tweakcn registry support | No |
| Vitest + Testing Library scaffolded | Yes, with passing starter tests | No |
| Optional Playwright E2E setup | Available via --playwright | No |
| Nonce-based production CSP | Configured at scaffold time | No |
| Bundle size budget enforced | Yes, via size-limit | No |
| AI agent rules generated | .rules/, AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md | No |
| Headless --CI mode | Yes | Limited |
| npm, pnpm, yarn and bun support | Yes | Yes |
| Linter choice: Biome or ESLint + Prettier | Biome as the recommended default | ESLint + Prettier |
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
create-t3-app proved that developers want an interactive CLI for a typesafe Next.js stack. gstack starts there and bundles the decisions teams usually make in the first two weeks: a designed starter UI with shadcn/ui, Drizzle and Better Auth as first-class alternatives, a real test suite, a production Content-Security-Policy, bundle budgets and AI agent rules. The result is a running app that already has the parts most teams otherwise add manually.
If you want the smallest possible scaffold and you plan to make every UI, auth and testing decision yourself, create-t3-app is a lighter starting point. It is also the more widely known name, so teams already trained on the T3 stack may prefer its defaults. gstack is for teams that want those later decisions made for them at scaffold time.
gstack ships more defaults, which means more files to review and possibly more to remove if your project does not need them. create-t3-app is smaller out of the box but leaves more wiring to you. Both are free and open source.
Learn more about gstack — features, pricing, and how to get started.
No. gstack is a separate project that starts from the same idea — an interactive CLI for a typesafe Next.js stack — and makes a different set of default choices. It is not built on top of create-t3-app.
Not as a migration. gstack is a scaffolder: it runs once, writes files and leaves. You can generate a new app with gstack and move your source over, but there is no automated migration path.
gstack installs shadcn/ui and a themeable starter UI by default. create-t3-app does not include shadcn/ui, so you would add and configure it yourself.
Both gstack and create-t3-app scaffold an interactive, typesafe Next.js app from one command. gstack keeps the same core idea and adds the parts most teams bolt on afterwards: shadcn/ui and a themeable starter UI, Better Auth and Drizzle as first-class choices, a Vitest suite with optional Playwright, a nonce-based production CSP, a bundle budget and generated AI agent rules describing the exact stack you chose.
