Building an Open-Source CRM with Laravel and Livewire: Lessons Learned Over Five Months

Embarking on the journey of developing an open-source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system from scratch is both exciting and challenging. Over the past five months, I dedicated myself to building a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with a solo development effort, leveraging Laravel and Livewire. Here, I share the key insights, lessons, and reflections from this experience to help fellow developers embarking on similar projects.

What Worked Well: Key Highlights

1. Leveraging Filament for Rapid Development

One of the standout tools in my tech stack was Filament. Its capabilities transformed what could have taken weeks into mere days. Filament streamlines the creation of admin panels, saving substantial development time without sacrificing quality.

2. Laravel + Livewire: An Ideal Duo for Solo Developers

This combination proved to be powerful and efficient. By integrating Laravel with Livewire, I avoided the complexity of managing separate API and frontend layers. This setup allowed me to build dynamic, reactive interfaces directly within PHP, simplifying the development process significantly.

3. Enjoying Modern PHP

Modern PHP, especially when using PHPStan at level 7 and maintaining a 99.6% type coverage, made writing code both enjoyable and reliable. Adopting strict typing and static analysis tools enhanced code clarity and helped catch bugs early.

Challenges Faced: Learning Curves and Trade-offs

1. Handling Custom Fields at Scale

Initially, adding custom fields to records seemed straightforward. However, as the number of custom fields exceeded 50 per record, page load times increased from about 250ms to over 2 seconds. Addressing this required optimizing data retrieval through improved eager loading strategies and implementing caching mechanisms.

2. Designing for a Target Audience

Building “for everyone” often translates to building for no one. Recognizing this, I pivoted my focus to small teams, tailoring features and interfaces to meet their specific needs rather than trying to accommodate all user types.

3. Open Source Is a Long-Term Commitment

Open-source projects demand ongoing maintenance, bug fixes, and feature updates. I quickly realized that contributing code is just the beginning; sustaining the project requires consistent effort and community engagement.

Tech Decisions That Paid Off

• Adhering to Laravel Conventions: While sometimes viewed as mundane, sticking to Laravel’s conventions accelerated development and simplified