Shellui vs building it yourself

Every web app needs the same basics. Here is what you write by hand, and what Shellui already ships.

Building the basics yourself gives you full control. It also means you write, test, and secure the same screens in every project. Shellui is MIT licensed and self-hostable, so you keep control and skip the rewrite.

Side by side

You need Build it yourself With Shellui
App chrome Sidebar, settings, dialogs, toasts per app Drawn by the shell, called from the SDK
Sign-in Magic links, OAuth, SAML, sessions identity-service
Members Invites, roles, company settings Admin panel
Files Uploads, access rules, sharing storage-service
Email Sign-in mail, templates, providers email-service
Several apps Shared login and navigation by hand Each app loads in one shell
Desktop A separate wrapper project shellui build --app with Tauri 2

What you keep

  • Your framework. Each app keeps its own stack and deploy.
  • Your hosting. shellui build writes static files you host anywhere.
  • Your code. Everything is on GitHub under the MIT License. Fork it, read it, or run it on your own servers.

When building it yourself makes sense

  • You ship one small app and never plan a second one.
  • You need a sign-in flow that none of the supported methods cover.
  • Your app cannot run inside an iframe.

What security work you skip

Sign-in is where hand-rolled code goes wrong. Shellui stores only hashes of one-time tokens, keeps magic links out of logs and webhooks, and blocks magic links for staff accounts. Read the security page for the full list.

Try it