You have a Laravel app and you need an admin. Laravel Nova is the official, paid choice from the Laravel team. Lara Dashboard is a free, open-source Laravel CMS with an admin built in. They look similar in a screenshot. They solve different problems.
Here is the quick answer to Laravel Nova vs Lara Dashboard. Pick Nova when you already have a Laravel app and want polished admin screens over your Eloquent models, and you are happy to pay per project. Pick Lara Dashboard when you want the app itself to start with content, media, users, roles, modules and an MCP server, under the MIT licence. The rest of this post shows where each one wins and where each one costs you.
A quick disclosure. We build Lara Dashboard. We still recommend Nova in plenty of cases, and this guide says which ones.
Nova is a resource admin; Lara Dashboard is a working CMS
Laravel Nova is an admin panel package you install into your own Laravel app. You write a resource class for each Eloquent model. Nova turns it into list, detail, create and edit screens. Its front end is Vue 3 and Inertia, so you write PHP for most things and Vue when you build custom tools or fields.
Lara Dashboard is the app. You install it as your Laravel project and it already has posts, pages, categories, tags, a media library, menus, users, roles and permissions, translations, a visual page builder called LaraBuilder, and a module system. The admin is built with Blade, Livewire 4, Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS. You can read more in what Lara Dashboard is.
So the real question is not "which admin is better". It is "do I need an admin for my app, or an app that already has an admin?" We unpack that split in our post on admin panels vs admin templates.
Laravel Nova vs Lara Dashboard at a glance
The table uses Nova's official site and docs and the Lara Dashboard repository, as of November 2026. Both projects ship often, so check the linked pages before you decide.
| Area | Laravel Nova | Lara Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Admin panel package for your app | Laravel CMS and admin you install as the app |
| Licence | Commercial, per project | MIT, open source |
| Price (Nov 2026) | $99 single project, $299 unlimited; renewals $79 and $249 a year | Free core; some paid modules |
| Front end | Vue 3 and Inertia | Blade, Livewire 4, Alpine.js, Tailwind CSS |
| Posts, pages, media | Not included; you build them | Included |
| Roles and permissions | Laravel policies; role screens via packages | Role and permission screens on spatie/laravel-permission |
| Extending | Custom tools, cards, fields; community packages | Self-contained modules and a marketplace |
| AI agent access | No MCP server in core; community packages | Built-in MCP server with tokens and OAuth |
Licensing and cost are the first real fork
As of November 2026, the Nova site lists two licences. A single licence is $99 for one project. An unlimited licence is $299 and adds email support. Each includes one year of updates. Renewals cost $79 and $249 a year.
The Nova FAQ sets the rules. A project is one installed Nova instance, with local and staging servers plus one production allowed. Your clients need their own licences, even if you hold an unlimited one. Multi-tenant setups with several Nova copies count as several projects. When a licence lapses, you keep using the version you have but stop getting updates.
None of that is unfair. It is a well-run commercial product, and $99 is small next to developer time. But it matters for agencies. If you build ten client sites a year, every client needs a Nova licence and a renewal decision.
Lara Dashboard's core is MIT licensed. You can install it on as many projects as you like, for yourself or for clients, with no licence keys. Some modules on our marketplace are paid, such as the CRM. You only buy those if you need them.
Content and editors favour Lara Dashboard
Nova is built for people who manage records. It has strong tools for that: actions that run on one or many records, filters, lenses for custom queries, metrics, and Scout-powered search. It does not ship a blog, a page builder or a media library screen. You can add those with packages or your own code.
Lara Dashboard assumes non-developers will log in early. Editors can write posts, build landing pages with LaraBuilder blocks, upload media and manage menus on day one. The admin interface ships in more than 30 languages. Media runs on spatie/laravel-medialibrary, and the public API is documented with Scramble at
/docs/api.If your project is a SaaS with a marketing site, a client portal with help pages, or a WordPress replacement, that gap is weeks of work. If your admin is only for staff editing orders, it does not matter at all.
Custom admin screens favour Nova
This is where Nova shines. A resource file gives you rich fields, all Eloquent relationship types, inline related records, dependent and conditional fields, and tab panels from Nova 5. Queued actions handle bulk jobs well. Authorization follows your Laravel policies down to fields and actions.
Lara Dashboard takes a code-generation approach.
php artisan module:make-crud creates a model, controller, service, form request, datatable and views inside a module. The result is plain Laravel and Livewire code that you own and edit. That is more files than a Nova resource, but nothing is hidden behind a package API.Our honest view: for a dense internal back office with dozens of related models, Nova's resource API is faster to write and nicer to use. For features that also need their own routes, permissions, settings and front-end pages, a Lara Dashboard module keeps all of it in one folder. Our guide to CRUD generators for Laravel admin panels covers that trade-off in depth.
Roles, permissions and support tools
Nova leans on Laravel itself. Access to the panel is controlled by a gate, and each resource, field and action follows your policies. That is clean if your team already writes policies. A screen where non-developers edit roles needs a community package or custom code.
Lara Dashboard ships role and permission screens out of the box, built on spatie/laravel-permission. Modules register their own permissions. There is also a "login as" feature for support staff, behind its own
user.login_as permission, and an action log. See our guide to role-based access control in Laravel for the setup.Extending: Nova tools vs Lara Dashboard modules
In Nova you extend with custom tools, cards, fields and filters. The Nova CLI generates them, and they are usually Vue components plus PHP. Many community packages exist. The FAQ confirms that code you write for Nova is yours to sell.
In Lara Dashboard you extend with modules built on nwidart/laravel-modules. Each module carries its own models, migrations, routes, views, assets and Composer dependencies. You can turn modules on and off in the admin, upload one as a ZIP, or sell your own on the marketplace. Hooks and filters let a module change core behaviour without a fork. Read more in building modular Laravel applications.
AI agents can run a Lara Dashboard site today
Lara Dashboard includes an MCP server at
/mcp. It is off by default. When you turn it on, Claude, Cursor or another client can list and draft posts, upload media, assign terms, read logs and use module tools, all within the connected user's permissions. Since v1.5.0, Claude.ai can connect by URL with OAuth and PKCE. The content AI features support OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and local Ollama models.Nova's docs do not describe a built-in MCP server as of November 2026. Some community packages add one, and you can build your own with the laravel/mcp package, which is the same package Lara Dashboard uses. The difference is that ours ships in the core and is already wired to content, media and permissions. Our post on Lara Dashboard MCP for Cursor and Claude shows the setup.
When not to use Lara Dashboard
Lara Dashboard is the wrong pick in some cases. Be honest with yourself about these.
- You already have a mature Laravel app and only need staff screens over its models.
- Your team writes Vue and wants admin tools in Vue.
- You want official support and a product backed by the Laravel company.
- The admin is internal only, with no blog, pages or editors.
- You do not want a CMS's tables, settings and menus inside your app.
In those cases Nova, or Filament if you want free and Livewire, keeps your stack smaller. We compared that option in Lara Dashboard vs Filament.
Nova has trade-offs too. You pay per project, you rebuild CMS features yourself, and custom tools mean working in Vue as well as PHP.
Self-check: Nova or Lara Dashboard?
Answer these with your team. Count how many point each way.
- Is the Laravel app already built? Yes points to Nova.
- Will editors or marketers publish content? Yes points to Lara Dashboard.
- Are you an agency shipping many client sites? Yes points to Lara Dashboard on cost.
- Is the admin mostly dense record editing for staff? Yes points to Nova.
- Do you need role screens non-developers can use? Yes points to Lara Dashboard.
- Do you want AI agents to run content and support? Yes points to Lara Dashboard.
- Does your team prefer Vue over Livewire? Yes points to Nova.
A clear majority usually settles it. If it is a tie, build the same small feature in both during a one-day spike.
Verdict
Laravel Nova is a polished, paid admin for apps you have already built. It is a great fit for internal back offices, and the price is fair for a single product. Lara Dashboard is a free, open-source Laravel CMS that gives you content, media, roles, modules and MCP from day one, so you spend your time on product features. If that second description sounds like your next build, try Lara Dashboard on the live demo and see how much of the admin already exists. For a wider view of the field, see the best Laravel admin panels in 2026.
FAQ
Is Laravel Nova free?
No. As of November 2026, Nova costs $99 for a single project or $299 for unlimited projects, each with one year of updates. Renewals are $79 and $249 a year.
Is Lara Dashboard built on Nova?
No. Lara Dashboard does not depend on Nova or Filament. It uses Laravel 13, Livewire 4, Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS. You can check its
composer.json in the GitHub repository.Can I use Nova for client projects?
Yes, but Nova's FAQ says each client needs their own licence. An unlimited licence covers your own projects, not your clients'.
Does Nova include a CMS?
Not out of the box. Nova manages Eloquent records. Posts, pages, a page builder and a media library screen need packages or your own code.
Can I add Nova to a Lara Dashboard app?
Technically yes, since both are Laravel. We would not recommend it. Two admins means two navigation styles, two permission models and two upgrade paths. Pick one primary admin.
Which is better for a Laravel SaaS?
It depends on the admin's job. For staff screens over billing and accounts, Nova is strong. For a SaaS that also needs a blog, landing pages, role screens and modules, Lara Dashboard saves setup time. Our Laravel SaaS starter checklist can help you decide.
