# EasyStarter vs an Expo kit: which one to start from > What EasyStarter says it sells, what we could not confirm (prices, traction), and how to choose between a SaaS starter and an Expo games kit. > By Dave ยท 2026-11-11 > Source: https://otf-kit.dev/blog/easystarter-vs-expo-starter-kit If you are choosing a starter to build a mobile app with an AI coding tool, the first question is what the starter already does for you. EasyStarter and an Expo kit answer that question in different ways, and the difference decides which one saves you time. This comparison covers only what we could confirm on 11 November 2026. It uses EasyStarter's own homepage and pricing page, read that day, and our own kit code. Where a fact is not confirmed, we say so. ## What EasyStarter says it is EasyStarter's homepage says it helps you "Ship your SaaS on Web, iOS, and Android from one codebase," with auth, payments, storage, email and dashboards already connected. It also says the starter is "Built for AI editors," which speaks to the same buyer who uses Claude Code, Cursor or Codex. The purchase model, as the homepage describes it, is a one-time full-source starter called "Buy the source": one payment, the full Git repository, three platforms and lifetime updates. The pricing page offers a switch between a monthly and a lifetime plan. The homepage also has a free live demo and a free tier of Cloudflare services. Payments run through Stripe for the web checkout. Two details on the site do not fit a single product. It sells a separate Apple-only app starter it calls "EasyApp," and its SMS phone verification uses Alibaba Cloud for mainland China numbers. Both suggest the company also serves buyers in China. We have not checked that beyond the page text. ## What we could not confirm We could not confirm EasyStarter's prices. The raw HTML of its pricing page, read on 11 November 2026, contained no dollar figures, so the prices are probably loaded in the browser. We did not render the page and will not guess a number. Check the live pricing page before you decide on budget. We also could not confirm EasyStarter's buyer count, revenue, first customer, or any launch history. Our search on 11 November 2026 returned no third-party coverage of the product. Treat its traction as unknown. ## What an Expo kit covers Arcade Kit is an Expo SDK 58 template for a games storefront: home, browse, instant-play, store and game pages, with the player profile and theme controls. It runs on local data, so you can browse every screen with no backend and no sign-in. It ships one codebase for iOS, Android and web through Expo Router. Its catalog is Gamezop's, and the games' titles, descriptions and art belong to Gamezop. The kit's license covers the kit code and does not grant rights to the catalog content. Replace the catalog before you launch a product of your own. We built Arcade Kit for a specific job: a games or discovery app that needs a storefront you can reskin in an afternoon. It is not a SaaS starter. It has no billing, no team accounts and no multi-tenant data model. ## Where each one fits Choose EasyStarter if your product is a SaaS: accounts, a paid plan, a team dashboard and email, on web and mobile, and you want those services wired before you write a line. Read its license and check the current price on the live site first. Choose an Expo kit if your app is mobile-first and you want the screens and navigation of a specific product type done, with the data layer left for you to connect. Arcade Kit is the right starting point for a games or content app. Our other Expo kits cover fitness, booking and a marketplace, and each one is a single codebase like this one. The honest answer for most buyers is simple: start from the product you are building, not from the feature list. A SaaS starter with billing is the wrong base for a games app, and a games template is the wrong base for a subscription product. Write down the first three screens your users will open, then pick the starter that already has them. ## What to check before you buy any starter 1. Read the license. Find out whether the code is yours to ship in a paid product, and whether any third-party content, such as a catalog, comes with it. 2. Run the demo on a phone. A live demo tells you more about the screens than any screenshot. 3. Check what is connected and what is not. A starter that says "auth included" may still need you to create the provider accounts. 4. Check the current price on the live page, not in a comparison article, including this one. For the wider decision, read [how to choose a starter kit once](https://otf-kit.dev/blog/choose-starter-kit-without-rewrite) and [what a rewrite really costs](https://otf-kit.dev/blog/the-real-price-of-a-rewrite). 5. Confirm the platform list. "iOS, Android and web" can mean one codebase or three separate apps. ## The build path after you buy Whichever starter you pick, the mobile release is the slow part. Ask the seller what the path to a store build looks like. Expo's documentation covers the build and submit steps for iOS and Android, and a kit that targets a current Expo SDK saves you an upgrade before your first release. Check the SDK version on the kit page against the version you have installed. For a web-plus-mobile product, check that one codebase really serves both. A kit that ships separate apps for each platform costs more to keep in step than one that shares screens and data code. ## Try the kit yourself You can run the Arcade Kit demo on your phone or in a browser before you decide. The kit page lists what is included and what is not, and the Expo version it targets. [See the Arcade Kit and its live demo](https://otf-kit.dev/templates/arcade-kit?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=easystarter-comparison-20261111&utm_content=blog-easystarter-vs-expo-starter-kit) ## Sources - EasyStarter homepage, https://www.easystarter.dev/ (read 11 November 2026; homepage copy, "Buy the source," monthly and lifetime switch, free live demo, Stripe, "EasyApp," Alibaba Cloud SMS verification). - EasyStarter pricing page, https://www.easystarter.dev/pricing (read 11 November 2026; raw HTML had no price figures). - Search read, 11 November 2026: no third-party coverage of EasyStarter returned. - Arcade Kit page, https://otf-kit.dev/templates/arcade-kit (live, HTTP 200, 11 November 2026). - Arcade Kit code and README (Expo SDK 58, Expo Router, Gamezop catalog and licence note).