Dirstarter vs Mkdirs (2026): Two Next.js directory boilerplates

Dirstarter vs Mkdirs is a comparison between two Next.js directory boilerplates with different foundations. Mkdirs stores your content in Sanity, a hosted headless CMS, and is now free and open source. Dirstarter stores everything in your own PostgreSQL database, ships a custom admin dashboard, and costs a one-time payment. Both give you the code, and both can run a paid directory.

A quick disclosure: I'm Piotr, and I build Dirstarter. I run OpenAlternative on it. I've listed Mkdirs in my directory boilerplate roundup for a long time, and I think it's a solid project. Every Mkdirs fact below comes from its website, docs, or GitHub repo as of October 2026.

Pick Dirstarter if:

• You want your data in a Postgres database you control, with no CMS limits.
• You want the current Next.js version and active updates.
• You need built-in ads, listing claims, multiple languages, or an MCP server.
• You want support from the person who maintains the code.

Pick Mkdirs if:

• You want a free, open-source starting point.
• You like Sanity Studio and want non-technical editors to manage content.
• You'd rather not run a database at all.

Dirstarter vs Mkdirs at a glanceCopy Anchor Link

The biggest row is data storage. It decides how you manage content, what you pay at scale, and how hard a migration is later.

Headless CMS vs a database with an admin panelCopy Anchor Link

In Mkdirs, Sanity holds almost everything: items, categories, tags, collections, blog posts, pages, and also users, auth tokens, and orders. You manage content in Sanity Studio, which is a good editor with rich text, image handling, and drafts. There's no database to provision, and Sanity hosts the images.

The tradeoff is that your app data lives in a CMS built for content. Sanity's free plan includes 10,000 documents and 250,000 API requests a month. Users, tokens, and orders count as documents too. The Growth plan is $15 per seat per month, with pay-as-you-go above its quotas. Queries use GROQ, Sanity's query language, instead of SQL.

Dirstarter uses Prisma with PostgreSQL. You own the database, run SQL against it, and back it up however you like. The admin dashboard is part of the app, so it handles directory tasks like scheduling, reviewing submissions, and managing owners. You need a database host, but free plans cover most directories.

Pricing comparedCopy Anchor Link

Mkdirs is free. The code is on GitHub under Apache 2.0, which allows commercial use. The license doesn't cover the Mkdirs name or logo. Your costs are hosting plus Sanity if you outgrow the free plan.

Dirstarter is a one-time payment, from $150 for Basic and $200 for Pro at list price (current pricing). Both include unlimited directories and lifetime updates. Pro adds priority support, Discord access, and AI skills that teach coding agents the codebase.

Hosting is similar for both. A monetized site shouldn't run on Vercel's Hobby plan, which is for non-commercial use, so plan for Pro at $20/month. Dirstarter also needs Postgres. Neon's free plan includes up to 100 projects with 1 GB of storage each.

3-year cost for one directoryCopy Anchor Link

Mkdirs: $0 + Vercel Pro ($20 × 36 = $720) + Sanity free plan = $720.

Dirstarter Pro: $200 + Vercel Pro ($20 × 36 = $720) + Neon free plan = $920.

3-year cost for three directoriesCopy Anchor Link

Mkdirs: $0 + one Vercel Pro team ($720) + three free Sanity projects = $720.

Dirstarter Pro: $200 + one Vercel Pro team ($720) + three free Neon projects = $920.

Mkdirs is $200 cheaper in both cases. That gap changes if a directory outgrows Sanity's free plan. One editor seat on Growth adds $15 × 36 = $540 over three years. Vercel usage above the included credit adds to both totals.

Where Mkdirs is the better choiceCopy Anchor Link

It costs nothing. If you're testing an idea and every dollar counts, a free, Apache-licensed codebase is hard to beat.

Sanity Studio is a great editor. If a non-technical partner or a team of writers manages listings and blog posts, Studio gives them a polished interface with drafts and rich text. Sanity's free plan includes 20 user seats.

There's no database to run. Content and images live in Sanity, so you skip provisioning Postgres and file storage.

It has more deployment guides. The docs cover Vercel, Docker, and Dokploy. Dirstarter's docs focus on Vercel.

It has a newsletter built in. Mkdirs handles subscribe and unsubscribe flows with Resend.

It works with several AI providers. The repo includes Vercel AI SDK packages for OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, and xAI, so you can pick the model behind the AI-assisted submission form. Dirstarter routes its AI calls through Vercel AI Gateway, which also lets you switch models, but the setup is different.

The code is easy to read if you know Sanity. Schemas for items, categories, tags, collections, and blog posts sit in one folder, and Sanity generates TypeScript types from them. A developer who has built a Sanity site before will find their way around quickly.

Where Dirstarter is the better choiceCopy Anchor Link

It's on a current stack. Dirstarter runs on Next.js 16 with Cache Components and Better Auth. The open-source Mkdirs repo is on Next.js 14.2 with a beta Auth.js release. You'll eventually have to upgrade either way, and doing that across two major Next.js versions is a project of its own.

It's actively maintained. The public Mkdirs repo was published in August 2026, and it hasn't had a commit since that release as of this writing. Dirstarter ships regular updates, and every buyer gets them for life.

You own your data in a standard database. Postgres has no document caps, no per-seat pricing, and no proprietary query language. When you want to export, analyze, or move your data, it's plain SQL.

It has more ways to make money. Featured listings, ad placements, affiliate links, and listing claims are all built in. The monetization docs cover each one, and the OpenAlternative case study shows how they add up to about $6,500/month on a real directory.

It's ready for AI agents. Dirstarter runs an MCP server, so assistants like Claude and ChatGPT can search your listings. You can manage the directory from an agent too. AI automation scrapes each listing's website, writes the description, picks categories, and takes a screenshot.

It supports multiple languages. Dirstarter uses next-intl, so you can run a directory in several languages. I found no i18n setup in the Mkdirs repo.

You get support. A paid license comes with email support, and Pro adds priority support and a private Discord. Mkdirs has a community Discord.

Switching from Mkdirs to DirstarterCopy Anchor Link

Start with sanity dataset export, which writes every document to an NDJSON file. Map items, categories, tags, and collections to Dirstarter's Prisma models, then import them with a script or through the admin MCP server. Users and orders take more care: plan for users to reset their passwords, and re-create active sponsored listings by hand. Finally, compare URL paths. Mkdirs uses /item/[slug], so add 301 redirects to your new listing URLs in your Next.js config.

My verdictCopy Anchor Link

Dirstarter vs Mkdirs is closer than most comparisons, because both give you real code. If you want a free starting point and like Sanity Studio, Mkdirs is a reasonable choice. Plan for the Next.js upgrade and the Sanity limits up front.

If you're building a directory as a business, I'd pick Dirstarter. It costs $200 more over three years, and that buys you a current stack, your own Postgres database, more monetization features, and a maintainer who ships updates. You can see what people have built in the showcase, or read the Dirstarter vs Directify comparison if you're also considering a hosted builder.