Be part of JetBrains PHPverse 2026 on June 9 – a free online event bringing PHP devs worldwide together.

Ronaldo100's avatar

What is the best STARTER KIT for me?

Hello! :)

Admittedly, I am a bit afraid of this question, as I don't mean to start a "religious war" about "what is best".

However, I still need to know, so please bear with me.

There are so-called "Starter Kits" for Laravel:

https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/starter-kits

It seems like "Breeze" is the most recommended one for beginners (correct me if I'm wrong).

However, I am not looking for the "easy way out", I am looking for the best solution for my needs in the long run.

I don't want to look back in 12 months time and be like: "Damn, why did I go with X when I fact I should have gone with Y".

So, please kindly help me make an informed decision.

As far as I can understand things with my limited knowledge I've acquired over the past couple of months, I believe that I want to use "Livewire".

There are also other really amazing solutions, but Livewire just seems to be tailored specifically towards Laravel so I think that's what I want.

As for the rest:

Tailwind.... I am NOT bashing it, and MAYBE we will become friends one day... but for now, I am more the "plain vanilla CSS" kind of person.

Or, if anything, then bootstrap.

I could live with bootstrap.

But Tailwind... again, maybe Tailwind and I will become friends one day, but for now, I just don't get it.

So, I think I would like to go with:

*) Laravel
*) Bootstrap or plain vanilla CSS
*) Livewire
*) plain vanilla Javascript

Maybe, just maybe, we could throw "AlpineJS" in the mix, but I am still not sure of the benefits.

Can't I just achieve the same with plain, vanilla Javascript?

Long story short:

QUESTION:

Which Starter Kit do I want??

"Jetstream" uses "Livewire" (which is good), but, it does NOT use "Bootstrap".

What do I want?

Thank you!

Yours

Ronaldo

2 likes
6 replies
rodrigo.pedra's avatar

It seems like "Breeze" is the most recommended one for beginners

Yes, you are right in this one.

I don't want to look back in 12 months time and be like: "Damn, why did I go with X when I fact I should have gone with Y".

If a chosen stack worked fine for 12 months, a need to change is not a planning failure but a refactoring. If it works all and met the needs for so long it was the best choice at the time.

And maybe adding complexity 12 months ago you didn't need on these 12 months would be wasted effort.

"Jetstream" uses "Livewire" (which is good), but, it does NOT use "Bootstrap".

You can easily replace/customize the views included in JetStream with bootstrap tailored ones. The docs even states views are exported during installation so you can customize them.

The views / pages published by Jetstream contain every feature supported by Jetstream and you are free to customize them as needed. Think of Jetstream as a starting point for your application. Once you have installed Jetstream, you are free to customize anything you like.

reference: https://jetstream.laravel.com/2.x/concept-overview.html#views-pages

But in your case, even if using Livewire, I would go with Breeze. It is simpler to understand and to customize.

Choose JetStream when you absolutely required 2fa, built-in user profile, team management, and other more advanced features it provides and that are not present in Breeze.

Choose Breeze when all your need is authentication logic and fewer views to customize.

1 like
Ronaldo100's avatar

Thank you very much @rodrigo.pedra for your exhaustive and well-written answer! :)

I appreciate the effort you've put into this!

Choose JetStream when you absolutely required 2fa, built-in user profile, team management, and other more advanced features it provides and that are not present in Breeze.

Well, 2fa and a built-in user profile definitely sounds like something I need and want!

Also, I need user roles (like: "user", "admin" and "super-admin")

This somehow overlaps with the other posting (the other thread) where you and me just exchanged messages where I asked about "click click" solutions to "drag and drop" something together.

My problem is: For my whole life, I have only coded "from scratch" without any frameworks.

I thought that learning Laravel would be extremely simple, but I came to realize, that it's very powerful and I have to remember a LOT of things and... I am and old dog, I am open to shortcuts in life :)

2 likes
ryangurnick's avatar

I think that if you are going to work with laravel quite a bit Jetstream is probably the way to go, and it comes bundled with livewire.

I do understand what you mean with regard to tailwind, and my recommendation for dealing with that is to just get comfortable deleting things you do not want to include. For example when you are renovating a house there are times when you might need to jackhammer into the foundation to build what you want. Do the same with Jetstream, breeze or any other scaffold/foundation provided to you.

Personally, and this is just how I feel (not being a designer myself), I would try to avoid writing vanilla CSS as it becomes difficult to maintain for longer term projects, but more so use bootstrap, tailwind, or any other css framework in the same way I described above... rip out what you don't want and use what you like.

@ronaldo100, what type of application are you going to start with, and/or what are your learning goals with regard to this post, as that will help guide recommendations.

Its quite hard to give recommendations on starter frameworks without some context on what you are attempting to achieve and some baseline on your current knowledge.

2 likes
Ronaldo100's avatar

Dear @ryangurnick :)

Thank you very much for your response!

what type of application are you going to start with, and/or what are your learning goals with regard to this post, as that will help guide recommendations.

Mostly I create web-based applications for companies that they can use for their specific needs.

But, in one word, it's just CRUD.

Of course, the "flavour" changes depending on the company... but at the end of the day, it's CRUD.

Example: A company has 120+ trucks at 7 different locations and a total of 160 drivers and they need a software to keep track of all clients and drivers and tours, etc.

As we're already talking about it, please also have a look at this, this thread is somehow about almost the same:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/cheating-can-you-click-click-drag-and-drop-a-project-or-define-it-via-a-config

Maybe I shouldn't have split it into two postings.

1 like
karakhanyans's avatar

@ronaldo100

You can try the starter kit that I made: Larafast - https://larafast.com It's extended version of Jetstream: It has pre-defined Admin, Payment Systems, and Beautiful UI themes with components, available with VueJS and Livewire. It also supports teams, and user auth ( social auth ) and many more.

ajaypatel9016's avatar

A new suggestion here: JetShip Laravel Starter Kit might be a good option. It is based on the TALL Stack and comes with Interactive Admin panels for streamlined development. Also, it uses Socialite for social logins and supports Lemon Squezzy and Stripe for payment.

Please or to participate in this conversation.