PRYZMA SaaS Starter vs ABP vs ASP.NET Zero
Three ways to start a B2B SaaS on .NET. They are not the same kind of product, so the right choice depends on your team more than on the feature count. Here is how they differ, and when each one wins.
Prices and features checked on 12 October 2026 from each vendor's public pages.
Pick by the kind of team you are
PRYZMA SaaS Starter
You want plain ASP.NET Core and EF Core that you can read in an afternoon and own completely: no framework to learn, .NET 10, Blazor, Stripe and Azure deployment ready. Best for a solo developer or small team shipping a first product on a budget.
ABP
You want a full application framework with its own module system, code generation (ABP Suite and ABP Studio), a large catalogue of ready modules and a microservice template, and you accept learning ABP's conventions in exchange.
ASP.NET Zero
You want a complete, feature-rich application base with an Angular, React or MVC front end, PayPal as well as Stripe, SMS two-factor authentication and a mobile app, and your budget starts around $3,000.
The facts
| PRYZMA SaaS Starter | ABP | ASP.NET Zero | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A starter solution: plain ASP.NET Core you copy and own | An application framework with tooling, modules and templates | A complete application base, built on ASP.NET Boilerplate |
| Entry price | $199 (1 developer) $449 (up to 10 developers)Launch prices, excl. VAT |
Free open-source Community edition $2,999 Team (3 developers) |
$2,999 Regular (up to 3 developers, 1 product) |
| Licence | Perpetual, one-time purchase, unlimited projects | Perpetual, unlimited projects and deployments | Perpetual; the number of products depends on the tier (1, 3 or 6) |
| Updates | 12 months included | 1 year of Pro feature updates on paid tiers | 1 year included; optional renewal at 50% of the licence price |
| Source code | All of it, from the first edition | Framework is open source; full source of Pro modules from the Business tier ($5,999) | Full source code in every tier |
| Web UI | Blazor (server-rendered) and a JSON API | Several UI options, with the LeptonX theme (Pro version on paid tiers) | Angular, React, or MVC & jQuery, with the Metronic theme |
| Multi-tenancy | Workspaces with Owner, Admin and Member roles, invitations, isolation on every query | SaaS module: basic in Community, Pro on paid tiers | Tenants and editions, multi-tenant or single-tenant mode |
| Subscription billing | Stripe: Checkout, Customer Portal, signed webhooks, plan limits | A Payment module is part of the catalogue | Recurring payments with Stripe and PayPal |
| Two-factor authentication | Authenticator app with recovery codes | Depends on the modules and tier you choose | E-mail, SMS and authenticator app |
| Tooling | .NET Aspire: one command starts the database, mail catcher and dashboard | ABP CLI, ABP Studio and ABP Suite (code generation); paid AI agent plans | AI rulesets, skills and workflows |
| Architecture | Modular monolith, one PostgreSQL schema per module, rules enforced by architecture tests | ABP's module system; microservice template from the Business tier | Layered architecture from ASP.NET Boilerplate |
| Cloud deployment | Azure Bicep and Azure Pipelines included: App Service, PostgreSQL, Key Vault, Application Insights | Your choice | Your choice |
Sources: abp.io/pricing, aspnetzero.com/pricing and aspnetzero.com/features, checked on 12 October 2026. Prices and features change: check the vendors' pages before you buy. ABP and ASP.NET Zero are trademarks of their respective owners; PRYZMA is not affiliated with them.
What you give up with each
With the PRYZMA SaaS Starter
No Angular or React front end, no PayPal, no SMS codes, no mobile app and no code generator. You get a smaller, readable foundation and build the rest with standard ASP.NET Core, which any .NET developer already knows.
With ABP
A framework with its own conventions sits between your code and ASP.NET Core. New developers learn ABP before they are productive, and your application follows the framework's upgrade path.
With ASP.NET Zero
A large code base to understand and maintain from day one, built on ASP.NET Boilerplate, and a price that starts around $3,000 with renewals for later updates.
Start from code you can read in an afternoon
.NET 10, multi-tenant workspaces, Stripe billing and Azure deployment, from $199 excl. VAT.