5 months, one developer, one CRM – what I learned building with Laravel + Livewire

Building a CRM Solo: Lessons from Five Months of Development with Laravel and Livewire

Embarking on the journey to develop an open-source customer relationship management system over the past five months has been both challenging and rewarding. As a solo developer, choosing the right tools and strategies was essential to bringing this project to fruition efficiently. Here’s an in-depth look at what I’ve learned throughout this process.

Advantages of Modern Tools and Frameworks

Filament’s Capabilities Are Impressive

Utilizing Filament significantly accelerated development. Tasks that could have taken weeks were completed within days, streamlining the implementation of administrative interfaces and reducing development time considerably.

Laravel + Livewire Are Ideal for Solo Development

This combination allows seamless integration without the complexity of maintaining separate APIs and front-end codebases. The synergy between these technologies simplifies building dynamic, reactive applications—perfect for independent developers aiming for robust functionality.

Enjoying Modern PHP

Contrary to common perceptions, modern PHP (with 99.6% typed code and static analysis via PHPStan Level 7) is both enjoyable and productive. Writing clean, type-safe PHP has made development smoother and more reliable.

Challenges Encountered

Scaling Custom Fields

Initially, adding custom fields appeared straightforward. However, once a record contained over 50 custom fields, page load times surged from approximately 250 milliseconds to two seconds. Optimizations—such as improved eager loading strategies and strategic caching—were necessary to maintain performance.

Targeting a Niche Audience

Designing for “everyone” often results in a product that appeals to no one. Narrowing the focus to small teams allowed us to create a more tailored and effective solution, ensuring the CRM met specific user needs.

Open Source Requires Dedication

Maintaining an open-source project is a substantial commitment. It’s not just about writing code; ongoing support, updates, and community engagement demand consistent effort and time investment.

Strategic Decisions That Made a Difference

Adherence to Laravel Conventions: Following established patterns sped up development and simplified future maintenance.
Early Integration of PHPStan: Implementing static analysis from the start caught numerous bugs, enhancing code quality from day one.
Leveraging Filament: Instead of building admin dashboards from scratch, adopting Filament delivered a professional interface rapidly.

The Reality of Developing an MVP

Completing a production-ready MVP in five months is both an accomplishment and a reflection of the work involved. While it’s a swift timeline to launch