Question 1

Is AdminLTE free for commercial projects?

Accepted Answer

Yes. AdminLTE is released under the MIT License, which allows free use in personal and commercial projects without attribution requirements. You can use it in client projects, SaaS products, and internal tools. Premium templates from DashboardPack are sold separately under commercial licenses with extended support and additional components.

Question 2

What is the difference between AdminLTE 3 and AdminLTE 4?

Accepted Answer

AdminLTE 3 is built on Bootstrap 4 and has been the stable production version since 2019 with over 8 million downloads. AdminLTE 4 upgrades to Bootstrap 5.3 with improved accessibility, RTL language support, CSS custom properties for easier theming, and a modernized component library. AdminLTE 4 also drops the jQuery dependency entirely. Both versions are actively maintained, but new projects should start with v4.

Question 3

Which frameworks does AdminLTE support?

Accepted Answer

AdminLTE works with React, Next.js, Vue.js, Laravel, Svelte, Astro, and any framework that supports HTML templates. The core is pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, so it integrates with any build system or backend language. Premium versions include framework-specific builds with pre-configured routing, state management, and authentication scaffolding.

Question 4

How do I customize the AdminLTE sidebar and navigation?

Accepted Answer

The sidebar is configured through HTML markup with Bootstrap utility classes. You can add menu items, nested dropdown submenus, notification badges, and user profile panels by editing the sidebar HTML structure. Sass variables control the sidebar width, background color, text colors, and hover transitions. AdminLTE includes 6 pre-built color skins you can switch between with a single CSS class.

Question 5

Can I use AdminLTE with Tailwind CSS instead of Bootstrap?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Several premium AdminLTE dashboard templates are built entirely with Tailwind CSS, replacing Bootstrap with utility-first styling. These Tailwind builds include dark mode support, responsive layouts, and all standard dashboard components rebuilt with Tailwind classes. The free AdminLTE version uses Bootstrap, but you can progressively adopt Tailwind alongside it using Tailwind's prefix configuration option.

Question 6

How many plugins are included with AdminLTE?

Accepted Answer

AdminLTE includes 18+ plugins out of the box: Chart.js for data visualization, DataTables for sortable and searchable tables, Select2 for enhanced dropdowns, Summernote for rich text editing, Toastr for notification toasts, SweetAlert2 for modal dialogs, FullCalendar for event scheduling, and more. Three plugins (CardWidget, DirectChat, and TodoList) are custom-built specifically for AdminLTE and not available elsewhere.

Best Admin Dashboard Color Schemes: A Developer’s Guide to Dashboard Design

15 Best Laravel Templates (Free & Premium) 2026

12 Best Dashboard Design Examples 2026

Admin Dashboard Design: Principles, Layouts & Examples (2026)

25 Best Astro Website Templates 2026

10 Best LMS & Education Dashboard Templates 2026

5 Best Real Estate Dashboard Templates 2026

7 Best shadcn/ui Pricing Page Templates 2026

8 Best shadcn/ui Form Templates 2026

8 Best shadcn/ui Portfolio Templates 2026

8 Best shadcn/ui Marketing Templates 2026

8 Best shadcn/ui Onboarding Templates 2026

Our Blog