Launch a SaaS Starter: A Backend in a Box on Your Own PostgreSQL

Every product needs the same first afternoon of plumbing. Provision a database. Stand up an admin tool. Build sign-in and token issuance, or wire in a third party that holds your users hostage. Find somewhere to put uploads. Point a domain at it and get a certificate. None of it is the product you set out to build, and all of it has to exist before the product can.

The Launch a SaaS starter stack collapses that into one button. You get a SaaS backend in a box: your own PostgreSQL with a Directus studio over it, end-user auth, object storage, and a custom domain, wired together and EU-resident, in minutes.

saas-starter stack composition & launch

RUNNING Stack wired · SaaS backend live · EU

Stack Templatesaas-starterlaunch ⇉PostgreSQLDATABASE_URL → appFilesS3 creds → appDirectusadmin + REST / GraphQLEnd-user AuthOIDC issuerfront →Edge DomainTLS · auto certserve →SaaS BackendEU-resident

Template · launchPostgreSQLFiles bucketDirectus (SaaS backend)End-user auth (OIDC)Custom edge domainwiring (env injected)

What you launch

Pick Launch a SaaS starter from the catalog and the platform stands up three things and connects them:

• Your own PostgreSQL. A managed PostgreSQL 17 database that is the durable home for your product data. Real tables you can query, back up, and connect other tools to, not a black box.
• Directus, attached to it. Directus turns that database into a backend: a polished admin studio for your team plus instant REST and GraphQL APIs over every collection. Model a projects collection and it is a live endpoint the moment you save.
• End-user auth. FoundryDB auth-as-a-service runs as an OIDC issuer your own frontend signs customers into. You do not build login, sessions, or token issuance, and your identities stay in services you own.
• An object-storage bucket. A Files bucket attached to the app, so assets and user uploads land in it automatically instead of in ephemeral container storage.
• A custom edge domain. A clean HTTPS hostname with a certificate the platform provisions for you, serving the whole thing from the moment the stack is Running.

The app already knows the database address, the bucket credentials, and the auth issuer. Connection strings and S3 keys are injected during launch, the OIDC issuer is stood up for you, and the certificate is issued automatically. By the time the stack reaches Running there is nothing left to wire.

More than a CMS

This is the cms stack grown up. That stack is the Directus-on-PostgreSQL core: a database and a studio. The saas-starter stack adds the three things a real product needs around that core.

A Files bucket, so uploads have a durable home. End-user auth as an OIDC issuer, so your frontend has sign-in without you building identity from scratch. And a custom edge domain with an auto certificate, so the backend is served on a real HTTPS hostname instead of a default app URL. If you only need an editable content backend, launch cms. If you are building a product with customers, files, and a front end, this is the one.

Trust, built into the launch

Like every stack, the saas-starter launch carries the platform guarantees in the flow itself.

A hard cost preview before you launch. You see exactly what the stack costs, the database plus the bucket plus the app, broken down per resource, before anything is provisioned. You accept a number, then the launch runs.

Atomic rollback. A stack is several resources coming up together. If any step fails, the whole launch rolls back cleanly. You end up with the finished backend or with nothing, never with an orphaned database or bucket quietly costing you money.

EU data residency. The database, the bucket, the Directus app, the auth issuer, and the traffic between them all stay within the platform's European footprint. Residency is where the platform runs, not a setting you remember to flip.

Launch one

# 1. Preview the cost
curl -X POST https://api.foundrydb.com/stacks/preview \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUNDRYDB_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"template_name": "saas-starter"}'

# 2. Accept the previewed total and launch
curl -X POST https://api.foundrydb.com/stacks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUNDRYDB_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "my-saas", "template_name": "saas-starter", "accepted_monthly_cost": 61.00}'

Poll the stack until it is Running, open the endpoint_url on your custom domain, and you are signing in to the studio. Or do the whole thing from the Stacks catalog in the console with one click. Costs above are illustrative; the preview endpoint always returns the current figure.

For the full walkthrough, including first-admin login, defining a collection, hitting the auto-generated API, pointing your frontend at the auth issuer, uploading to the bucket, and tearing the stack down atomically, read the Launch a SaaS Starter tutorial.

Stop assembling a backend out of five services and a weekend. Launch the finished thing, on PostgreSQL you own, in Europe, today.