GlassKit Stack vs building from scratch
What the $99 GlassKit Stack actually replaces: the auth, payments, backend, and companion-site wiring every commercial Meta Ray-Ban Display app needs before its own features.
TL;DR: Building the glasses app is the fun 20%. A product also needs auth, payments, a database, email, and a companion website, roughly two weeks of wiring that looks identical for every project. The GlassKit Stack ships that layer finished for $99 one-time (Agency $399), so you start at the feature work. Setup is about 20-30 minutes.
The two weeks nobody puts on the demo reel
From-scratch on this platform means solving, in order:
- The platform layer. 600 × 600 additive display, D-pad focus, no back API. (Solvable for free with GlassKit UI; the Stack includes the same primitives.)
- The keyboard problem. Meta Ray-Ban Display Web Apps have no text input, so sign-up, billing, and settings need a companion website. That's a second app.
- Identity across both. The account created on the website has to be the session the glasses app sees. That's shared auth against a shared backend, the subtlest wiring in the project.
- Money, email, data. Checkout and customer portal, transactional email, a real-time database, and the webhooks between them.
None of this is your product. All of it gates your product.
Side by side
| From scratch | GlassKit Stack | |
|---|---|---|
| Glasses app foundation | You wire viewport, focus, sensors | Typed Vite + React app on the 600 × 600 + D-pad library |
| Companion site | You build a second app | Next.js site: marketing, sign-up, billing, dashboard, docs |
| Auth across surfaces | You design it | Clerk, shared session from companion to glasses via pairing |
| Backend | You choose, schema, deploy | Convex, wired to both apps |
| Payments | You integrate | Opt-in add-on, wired end to end |
| Transactional email | You integrate | Opt-in add-on (Resend) |
| AI features | You integrate | Opt-in add-on + six forkable AI demos |
| Setup time | 1-2 weeks of wiring | ~20-30 minutes, AI-driven (point Claude Code / Cursor at AGENTS.md) |
| Cost | Your time | $99 Maker / $399 Agency, one-time, lifetime updates |
What "opt-in add-ons" means
The base monorepo runs with just the free services. Payments, email, and AI are add-ons you enable when the product needs them, so you don't configure five dashboards to ship a v1. When you do enable them, they arrive wired: webhooks, entitlements, and env plumbing included.
The Studio bridge
The Stack has an app slot: a starter glasses app that GlassKit Studio's "Eject to Stack" replaces with your generated app. Prototype by prompt, then graduate to production code with accounts and billing, no rewrite. Every Stack purchase also includes 2,500 Studio credits.
When from-scratch is right
If you're learning the platform, or your app will never take money or hold accounts, build it free on GlassKit UI and skip the Stack. The Stack earns its price exactly when your app becomes a business.
Pricing, plainly
One-time purchase, delivered as a private GitHub repo, lifetime updates, no subscription:
- Maker, $99: the full monorepo, add-ons, demos, app slot, license for unlimited personal products, private Discord, 2,500 Studio credits.
- Agency, $399: everything in Maker plus white-label rights and a license for unlimited client projects.
Full refund any time before accepting the repository invitation. See pricing for details.
Related reading
GlassKit vs Meta's official toolkit
An honest comparison of GlassKit and Meta's official Web Apps toolkit for building Meta Ray-Ban Display apps: what each one is, what each costs, and which to choose.
Free React components and hooks for Meta Ray-Ban Display apps
GlassKit UI (@glasskit-ui/react) is the free, MIT-licensed React library for Meta Ray-Ban Display Web Apps: GlassViewport, the useDpad focus system, useNavigator, and typed sensor hooks.