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.

21 Best Free Vue Templates 2026

24 Best E-Commerce Admin Dashboard Templates 2026

20 Best Free Email Templates (HTML + React) 2026

15 Best shadcn/ui SaaS Starter Kits 2026 (Free + Premium)

28 Best Free Next.js Admin Dashboard Templates 2026

27 Best React Admin Templates 2026 – Premium & Free

21 Best SaaS Landing Page Templates for 2026 (Free & Premium)

13 Best React Landing Page Templates for 2026

15 Best Free Astro 5 Templates for Developers (2026)

20 Best Tailwind CSS Portfolio Templates 2026

15 Best T3 Stack Templates & Starters 2026

12 Best Free Eleventy (11ty) Themes & Templates 2026

Our Blog