Starting a new web app should be exciting. Instead, day one usually goes to plumbing: wiring metadata and Open Graph tags, adding security headers, generating a sitemap and robots file, building a half-decent landing page, setting up a 404. Hours gone before you write a line of product. create-lacspace-app exists to delete that day.

create-next-app gives you a blank page. This gives you a finished-looking app — and it does it remarkably fast.

We measured it — 0.12 seconds

We didn’t want to market a number we couldn’t back up, so we ran it. On Node 22, calling the CLI directly (so npx’s own start-up cost isn’t counted), create-lacspace-app 1.13.0 scaffolded a complete, 70-file production app in 0.12 seconds — the same result on all five runs, timed with the shell’s time.

Benchmark terminal: create-lacspace-app scaffolds 70 files in real 0.12s across 5 runs
Measured, not marketed: the scaffold itself is about a tenth of a second (5/5 runs).

How it compares to create-next-app

Same machine, same method (scaffold only, dependencies skipped, 5 runs). create-next-app is fast too — but it produces a blank page, while create-lacspace-app produces a finished one, and does it in about half the time.

create-next-app (0.24s, 18 files, blank) vs create-lacspace-app (0.12s, 70 files, finished, 8 templates)
Both are fast. One hands you a blank page; the other hands you a finished app and 8 templates to choose from.

To be clear about what this is not: create-lacspace-app doesn’t make Next.js itself faster — it builds on Next.js 15. And the total time to a running dev server is longer for both tools, because npm still installs Next.js and React afterwards (normal npm time). What you save is the setup: the boilerplate and the wiring are already done.

Eight templates — pick your kind of site

Eight create-lacspace-app templates: personal, business, ecommerce, saas, blog, docs, dashboard, restaurant
Eight production-ready templates — Next.js 15, App Router, Tailwind v4, dark and themeable.

Every template is a real, modern project you’d be happy to show a client on day one: personal, business, ecommerce, saas, blog, docs, dashboard and restaurant.

The boring-but-essential things, already done

What comes prewired: SEO + JSON-LD, dynamic OG images, security headers, robots + sitemap, styled 404, PWA manifest
Everything most starters skip — found, indexed, secure, and finished.
  • SEO — one @lacspace/seo defineSite() config drives your title, canonical, Open Graph, Twitter card and JSON-LD.
  • Dynamic OG images — every page auto-generates a social-share card at /og.
  • Security headers — HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options and more via @lacspace/headers.
  • robots.txt + sitemap.xml — generated from your config.
  • A styled 404, a PWA manifest, an .env.example, and a WELCOME.md walkthrough.

Get started

npm create lacspace-app@latest my-app
# or pick a template directly
npx create-lacspace-app my-app --template saas

Edit lib/site.ts and app/page.tsx and you’re off. It’s free under the Lacspace Free Licence, and the apps you generate are yours. Browse the whole toolkit at lacspace.com/packages and the docs at lacspace.com/docs.

Frequently asked questions

What is create-lacspace-app?

create-lacspace-app is a command-line scaffolder that generates a complete, production-ready Next.js 15 app from a polished template in one command. Unlike create-next-app, which gives you a blank page, it hands you a finished, styled app already wired with SEO metadata + JSON-LD, security headers, sitemap and robots — pick a template and you are running in seconds.

How fast is create-lacspace-app really?

In our own test (create-lacspace-app 1.13.0 on Node 22, running the CLI directly), it scaffolded a complete 70-file app in 0.12 seconds — consistently, across 5 runs, measured with the shell’s time command. In the same test create-next-app took about 0.24s (0.65s on a cold run) and produced 18 files: a blank starter. The total time to a running app is longer for both, because npm still has to install Next.js and React — but the Lacspace scaffolding itself is about a tenth of a second.

Is it faster than Next.js?

It is not a replacement for Next.js — it builds on Next.js 15. What it saves is your setup time: the boilerplate, the SEO and security wiring, and the design of a decent-looking starting page are already done, so you skip the day-one busywork and start on your actual product.

What templates are available?

Eight: personal (portfolio), business (agency), ecommerce (storefront), saas (landing + pricing), blog (editorial), docs (documentation), dashboard (admin shell) and restaurant (cafe + menu). Every one is a real Next.js 15 App Router + Tailwind v4 project — dark, modern, responsive and themeable.

How do I use it?

Run `npm create lacspace-app@latest my-app` (or `npx create-lacspace-app my-app --template saas`). It asks for a name and template, scaffolds the project, installs dependencies and initialises git. Flags let you pick the package manager, or skip install/git.

Is it free?

Yes — it is published under the Lacspace Free Licence (MIT-equivalent). Use it in personal and commercial projects at no cost; the apps you generate are yours.