Gin Starter

Gin Starter is a minimal Go web application boilerplate that deploys a Gin-based API to Vercel with zero configuration.

What is Gin Starter?

Gin Starter is a starter template for building Go HTTP APIs with the Gin web framework and deploying them on Vercel. It takes a basic Gin project as input and produces a deployable web service running on Vercel's serverless platform. The template is maintained by Vercel and is part of their official examples collection.

Key Features

• Zero-config deployment — Click the Deploy with Vercel button or run vercel --prod to deploy without writing configuration files.
• Local development server — Run go run main.go to start a development server at http://localhost:3000.
• Get started quickly — The project builds with go build; only Go installation is required.
• Git integration — Push to your repository and Vercel's git integration automatically deploys changes.
• Official example repository — Source code lives in Vercel's examples directory on GitHub (github.com/vercel/vercel/tree/main/examples/gin).
• Live demo — A working instance is available at https://vercel-plus-gin.vercel.app/.

Who is it for?

• Go developers who want a ready-to-run Gin API without hand-writing Vercel deployment configuration.
• Backend engineers learning to deploy Go services on serverless platforms — the template shows the minimal setup needed.
• Open-source maintainers who need a simple starting point for a Gin-based project with example code.

What can you do with Gin Starter?

• API prototyping: spin up a Gin server locally with go run main.go, test endpoints, and push to Vercel for production hosting.
• Learning deployment: explore how a Go application is structured for Vercel by examining the example repository.
• Starting new projects: clone the template as a baseline for your own Gin middleware, routes, and handlers.

How does Gin Starter work?

The template includes a main.go file that starts a Gin server on port 3000. To deploy, install the Vercel CLI with npm install -g vercel and run vercel --prod, or push to a repository connected through Vercel's git integration. No extra configuration files are required.

FAQ

Is Gin Starter free?

Yes — the template itself is open source and free to use. Vercel's hosting platform has a free tier, though production usage may incur costs depending on your plan.

Do I need a framework other than Go?

No. The template is built entirely with Go and the Gin web framework. The only external tool is the Vercel CLI for deployment.

How do I see changes locally?

Run go run main.go and visit http://localhost:3000. After editing code, restart the server to view changes, as there is no hot reload mentioned in the template.

Can I deploy without the Vercel CLI?

Yes. Connect your repository to Vercel using the git integration, then every git push triggers a deployment.