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 --prodto deploy without writing configuration files. - Local development server — Run
go run main.goto 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.
