CreatiFlow: My Journey Building an AI-Powered Image Editing SaaS with Next.js 14, Cloudinary, and Stripe

#nextjs #saas #webdev #ai

Hey Dev Community!

In the last few years, the world of software has been rocked by two massive trends: the unstoppable rise of AI and the dominance of the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model. AI is no longer a futuristic concept; it's a practical tool that's democratizing complex skills. At the same time, SaaS has changed how we access software, making powerful applications available to anyone with a browser.

As a developer, I've been fascinated by the intersection of these two worlds. I wanted to build something that wasn't just a cool tech demo but a genuinely useful product that leverages AI to solve a real-world problem. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce my latest project: CreatiFlow.

What is CreatiFlow?

CreatiFlow is a fully-featured, AI-powered image editing application built as a SaaS platform. Think of it as a magic wand for your photos. It takes complex editing tasks that would typically require expensive software and years of experience like removing objects, filling in missing parts of an image, or enhancing old photos and makes them accessible with a single click.

The goal was to create an intuitive, powerful, and seamless experience for everyone, from content creators to developers who just need a quick edit for their project.

Key Features

CreatiFlow offers several AI-powered image transformation capabilities:

Generative Fill: Add, remove, or expand content seamlessly
Object Removal: Clean up photos by removing unwanted objects
Image Restoration: Repair and enhance old or damaged photos
Background Removal: Extract subjects from their backgrounds
Recoloring: Change colors in images while maintaining realism

Each transformation feature uses credits, which users can purchase through the application's payment system.

Technology Stack:

System Architecture:

CreatiFlow follows a modern Next.js-based architecture with server-side rendering and server actions for data manipulation. The system integrates several external services and maintains a clear separation of concerns across its components.

Key System Components

CreatiFlow consists of the following major system components that work together to provide the application's functionality

Front End Structure:

CreatiFlow's frontend is built using Next.js with its App Router architecture. The application follows a component-based approach with hierarchical routing and layout systems. The codebase uses modern React practices including client and server components, route groups, and layout composition.

Routing Organization:

Database Structure:

CreatiFlow uses MongoDB as its database with Mongoose ODM for object modeling. The application has three primary data models that form the backbone of its data layer.

Image Transformation Workflow:

The transformation workflow represents the core functionality of CreatiFlow, allowing users to apply various AI-powered transformations to their images. The workflow encompasses several key steps:

Image upload
Transformation configuration
Transformation preview
Saving transformed images
Viewing transformation details

Conclusion:

Building CreatiFlow has been an incredible learning experience. It was a deep dive into building a full-stack, production-ready SaaS application that integrates multiple third-party services to deliver a cohesive and powerful user experience. It reinforced the power of modern web development frameworks like Next.js and the incredible potential of AI APIs like Cloudinary.

I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out and excited for its potential.
I’d love for you to give it a try and let me know what you think! All feedback is welcome.