4. Add-ons, License & Support

Duration: 3 minutes

Add-ons

In addition to our core packages (Base and CRUD), we have quite a few packages you can install or download, that treat common use cases. Some have been developed by our core team, some by our wonderful community. For example, we have plug&play interfaces to manage site-wide settings, the default Laravel users table, users, groups & permissions, content for custom pages, using page templates, news articles, categories and tags, etc.

Take a look at:

• all official add-ons
• all community add-ons

License

Starting with v5, Backpack has become open-core. The main features are now split into two packages:

• Backpack\CRUD is the core, released under the MIT License (free, open-source); FREE
• Backpack\PRO is a Backpack add-on, released under our EULA (paid, closed-source); PRO

Backpack\CRUD is perfect if you're building a simple admin panel - it's packed with features! It's also perfect if you're building an open-source project, the permissive license allows you to do whatever you want.

When your admin panel grows and your needs become more complex, you can purchase our Backpack\PRO add-on, which adds A LOT of features for complex use-cases (see list here)). Our documentation includes instructions on how to use both Backpack\CRUD and Backpack\PRO, with all the PRO features clearly labeled PRO

Support

With thousands of developers using Backpack, a lot of them non-commercial, and such a small price, we can't offer official support for the packages. We've been doing this since 2016, we actively maintain the packages, we try to squash any bugs ASAP and add new features all the time, but we unfortunately can't spend time on back-and-forth on implementation issues in your project. But. We do have good documentation and have been blessed with a great community, where people help each other out. If Backpack becomes your tool of preference, I highly recommend you join our gang. Help others get started, create cool stuff, or even influence the direction of Backpack:

• StackOverflow tag for support requests (If you need help creating something using Backpack, post your question on StackOverflow using the backpack-for-laravel tag. We've been blessed with a great community that is happy to help. Who doesn't like getting StackOverflow points?)
• Gitter Chatroom for quick questions (If you have an urgent matter that won't take much time to answer, use our 24/7 Gitter chatroom. Be considerate, everyone's probably working on their own project right now.)
• GitHub Issues for bugs (Found a bug? Great! Please search for it on GitHub first - someone might have already found it. If not, open an issue, we're happy to learn about it and make Backpack better. )
• /r/BackpackForLaravel subreddit for showing off your work, asking for opinions on implementation, sharing tips, packages, etc.

Thank you for sticking up with us for so long. This is the last Backpack lesson we can give you. Now you have absolutely no excuse not to start your first Backpack project :-) Here are a few links for if you still don't think you're ready:

• Go through the demo and play around
• Read this CRUD Crash Course and do the steps yourself
• Take a look at the CrudController API Cheat Sheet

CRUD Crash Course Demo Cheat Sheet