Spotlight FilamentPHP is Awesome
Filament has quickly become one of the most powerful and customizable tools in the Laravel ecosystem, and for good reason. As the second most starred Laravel package, it provides an out-of-the-box solution for building admin panels, forms, and tables, all while being highly flexible. Whether you need a quick setup or deep customization, Filament gives you everything you need to create professional and functional panels with ease.
I first discovered Filament during its Version 2 release, and even then, it was clear that this package had a lot of potential. Fast-forward to today, and Filament is not just another tool—it’s become the second most-starred Laravel community package, right behind Livewire! That alone speaks volumes about its impact on the Laravel ecosystem. And with Version 4 already on the horizon, the excitement just keeps building.
Why I Chose Filament
Before Filament, I was working mainly with Laravel Livewire, which I still use and appreciate. However, when it came to building UIs, I wasn’t always thrilled. I’m not a frontend expert—I much prefer to focus on backend logic. So, I was often left using pre-built Tailwind components just to get things done. Filament changed all that. With its out-of-the-box solutions like the Form Builder and Table Builder, I was able to create fully functional, professional-looking admin panels without having to fight with the frontend. It offered a balance I hadn’t found elsewhere: powerful defaults, but with the freedom to tweak everything to my liking.
Form Builder and Table Builder
These two components are, hands down, the core strengths of Filament. The Form Builder makes handling form logic a breeze, whether I’m building complex forms with validation rules or simple input fields. It’s flexible enough to handle whatever I throw at it, but simple enough to avoid over-complicating things. Likewise, the Table Builder provides an easy way to display data, and the built-in features like sorting, filtering, searching and pagination are exactly what I need most of the time. No need to build these from scratch when Filament does it better.
What really impresses me is that I can stay productive with these tools while still having full control. For example, if I want to customize the way forms behave or how data is displayed in a table, I can do it easily with closures or custom methods. This level of customization is perfect for someone like me who wants flexibility but doesn’t want to spend hours on frontend work.
Panel Builder
One of the standout features for me is the Panel Builder. In most of my recent projects, I’ve used it to build admin panels. With Filament, it’s incredibly easy to set up a complete admin panel with navigation, authentication (login, registration), and more—all without having to piece it together myself. What’s more, it’s highly customizable, which means I can adjust the UI to fit the specific needs of my projects. But even when I don’t need heavy customization, Filament looks polished and professional right out of the box.
But even if you would like to have even more control over your app, you can simply just use all the available packages independently. That means if you have an existing app without the Panel Builder, you can just use the Form Builder or Table Builder outside the Panel Builder as normal but supercharged Livewire components.
Filament’s Theme Leap in Version 3
While Version 2 already did a great job, Version 3 has been a real leap forward in terms of user experience and design. The overall theme feels cleaner, and the way Filament handles things now just feels more polished. The components have been fine-tuned to be even more user friendly with things like the Infolist Builder, which provides a nicer way to just display or view data without real (disabled) input fields. It’s clear that the Filament team has put a lot of thought into the design and how developers interact with the package, and that shows in the product.
Creating Custom Components, Fields and Pages with Ease
Another aspect I’ve grown to love is how easy it is to create custom components or pages in Filament. You can build a Filament page and hook in custom Livewire logic, which gives you full control over what happens on that page. You can even blend in Filament’s Blade components to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout your project. This feature is a game-changer for me, allowing me to add custom functionality while still keeping everything cohesive.
I’ve used this feature countless times, whether it’s for creating a custom dashboard, special reporting pages, or any other unique requirement that doesn’t fit into the standard components. It’s this kind of flexibility that makes Filament stand out, and it’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to it for project after project.
Extending Filament with Plugins
Developers can easily build and integrate custom plugins to extend Filament's core functionality. Whether you need custom form fields like a Google Maps input or a more sophisticated editor like Tiptap Rich Text, you can find plugins that fit your exact needs.
Many of these plugins are available for free in the Filament Marketplace, directly on the Filament website. It’s not just limited to form fields—plugins for features like roles and permissions also exist, making Filament even more powerful for building complex, admin-heavy applications.
The community around Filament is incredibly active, constantly contributing new plugins, which means that you most likely will find everything you need.
And sooo much more...
Honestly I could go on for hours talking about features Filament provides, like Multi-tenancy, Notifications, Widgets, Actions, Clusters and so on. And those are just the official core features. There are even many great plugins written by the Filament maintainers themselves, like Curator (media manager and picker), Spotlight (CMD+K search), Activity Log, the list goes on. To explain them all in detail would require a separate blog post for each of them. But I wanted to at least mention them, and highly recommend checking them out if you're interested.
The Right Tool for Full-Stack or Backend-Focused Developers
What makes Filament truly stand out for me is how it allows me to focus on backend development without sacrificing the frontend. I can build out the business logic of my applications without worrying about crafting a perfect UI—Filament handles that seamlessly. When I need to make adjustments, its customization options are right there, without requiring me to dive deep into frontend code.
For my projects, it strikes the perfect balance: it’s ready to use, but also flexible enough to adapt to unique requirements. That’s why Filament remains my go-to for Laravel projects.
If you're wondering, what I'm talking about. Here are some links:
Filament's Homepage:
https://filamentphp.com