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LaunchTool

The fastest way to launch SEO-friendly tool websites

Launch your next web tool in minutes, not months. LaunchTool is a production-ready Next.js template that combines powerful tools with content marketing to drive organic growth.

MIT License Next.js TypeScript

Demo · Documentation · Report Bug


✨ What is LaunchTool?

A Next.js template designed for indie makers who want to build tool-first content sites that rank on Google and attract users organically.

Perfect for:

✅ Free online tools (converters, compressors, calculators) ✅ Lead generation tools for agencies ✅ SEO experiments and niche sites ✅ Side projects that need fast validation

NOT designed for:

❌ Complex SaaS with user accounts ❌ Data-heavy applications requiring databases ❌ Enterprise software

💡 Need auth & payments? Check out the SaaS migration guide for integrating Clerk + Stripe when you're ready to monetize.


🎯 The "Tool + Content" Strategy

This template implements a proven growth framework used by successful tool websites:

1. 🔧 Tool provides immediate value
   ↓
2. 📝 Content ranks on Google
   ↓
3. 🌍 i18n multiplies traffic 2-5x
   ↓
4. 💰 Users convert naturally

Real-world examples using this strategy:

  • TinyPNG - Image compression tool → $500k/month
  • SmallPDF - PDF tools → Acquired for $200M
  • RemoveBG - Background removal → Multi-million dollar exit

🚀 Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/zenvel/launchtool.git my-tool
cd my-tool

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Copy environment variables
cp .env.example .env.local

# Start development server
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000 - your tool site is ready!

Deploy to Vercel (free)

vercel --prod

Your tool is live in 5 minutes. 🎉


📦 What's Included

Core Features

  • Next.js 15 with App Router & Edge Runtime
  • React 19 with Server Components
  • TypeScript for type safety
  • Tailwind CSS 4 with 56+ shadcn/ui components
  • Dark/Light theme with next-themes

Content & SEO

  • MDX blog system powered by Fumadocs
  • i18n support (English + Chinese, easily extensible)
  • SEO optimized (meta tags, sitemap, structured data)
  • Blog templates (tutorials, comparisons, guides)
  • Math equations (KaTeX) & code highlighting

Tool Features

  • Client-side processing (privacy-first architecture)
  • File upload & drag-drop
  • Before/after comparison slider
  • Progress tracking
  • Download functionality

Developer Experience

  • pnpm for fast package management
  • ESLint & Prettier configured
  • CLI scripts for productivity
  • Hot reload in development
  • One-click deploy configs

📚 Documentation


🛠️ Built-in Examples

1. Image Compressor (included)

A fully functional image compression tool demonstrating:

  • Client-side file processing
  • Multiple format support (JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF)
  • Quality controls
  • Real-time preview
  • Batch processing

2. Coming Soon

We're adding more example tools:

  • Text converters (Markdown ↔ HTML)
  • Data formatters (JSON ↔ YAML)
  • Code beautifiers
  • File converters

🎨 Customization

1. Update site config

Edit config/site.config.ts:

export const siteConfig = {
  name: "YourTool",
  title: "YourTool - Do Something Amazing",
  description: "Your tool description",
  url: "https://yourdomain.com",
  // ... more settings
};

2. Customize branding

# Replace logo and favicon
cp your-logo.svg public/logo.svg
cp your-favicon.ico public/favicon.ico

# Update brand colors in tailwind.config.js
# Update OG images in public/og-image.png (1200x630px)

3. Create your first blog post

./scripts/new-post.sh "Your First Post Title" en

📖 For detailed customization, see TEMPLATE_GUIDE.md


🌍 Internationalization (i18n)

LaunchTool includes built-in support for multiple languages:

  • 🇺🇸 English (default)
  • 🇨🇳 Chinese (Simplified)

Adding a new language:

  1. Add locale in config/site.config.ts
  2. Create messages/{locale}.json
  3. Create content/blog/{locale}/ directory

See i18n Guide for details.


📊 SEO Strategy

LaunchTool implements SEO best practices out of the box:

On-Page SEO

  • ✅ Semantic HTML structure
  • ✅ Optimized meta tags (title, description, OG, Twitter)
  • ✅ Structured data (JSON-LD)
  • ✅ Auto-generated sitemap
  • ✅ Robots.txt configured

Content SEO

  • ✅ Blog system for long-tail keywords
  • ✅ Internal linking structure
  • ✅ Fast page loads (Edge Runtime)
  • ✅ Mobile-responsive design

Advanced SEO

  • ✅ i18n for multiple markets
  • ✅ Auto-generated Table of Contents
  • ✅ Breadcrumb navigation
  • ✅ Canonical URLs

📖 Deep dive: SEO Guide


🚢 Deployment

Vercel (Recommended)

vercel --prod

Cloudflare Pages

npm run build
npx wrangler pages publish out

Self-Hosting

npm run build
npm run start

📖 Full deployment guide: docs/deployment.md


🗺️ Roadmap

  • Core template with tool + content system
  • i18n support (EN + ZH)
  • SEO optimization
  • Blog system with MDX
  • More tool examples (text, data, code tools)
  • Video tutorial series
  • Community showcase
  • Optional SaaS modules (@launchtool/auth, @launchtool/payments)
  • CLI tool for scaffolding (npx create-launchtool-app)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide first.

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

TL;DR: Build whatever you want, no attribution required. ✨


🙏 Credits


💬 Support


🌟 Showcase

Built something awesome with LaunchTool? Add it to our showcase!


⭐ Star this repo if it helped you launch faster!

Made with ❤️ by the LaunchTool community

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