Solfreaks AdminForge builds the screens your own team works in: admin panels, back-offices and dashboards that sit on top of your app or database. Orders, users, refunds, stock, content moderation, reports, anything someone currently does with a spreadsheet or by asking a developer to change the database.
A spreadsheet works until two people edit it at once. A direct database edit works until someone forgets the WHERE clause. An admin panel replaces both with screens that check what people type, record who changed what, and only show each person the parts they're allowed to touch.
What goes into the panel
- Roles and permissions so a support agent, an accountant and an owner each see and change only what their job needs.
- Record screens to create, view, edit and archive each type of record, with validation that stops bad data at the door.
- Search and saved filters so the person who checks pending orders every morning gets there in one click.
- Reports and charts for the numbers the business reviews weekly, built from your real data instead of a generic template.
- CSV and Excel export and import, because someone will always want the data in a spreadsheet, and bulk imports save days when you move off one.
- An audit log that records who changed which record, when, and what the old value was.
- Notifications by email or inside the panel when something needs attention, such as a failed payment or a stuck order.
Built for people who sit in it all day
Someone using your panel may spend eight hours a day in it, so small things matter more than visual flair. Dense but readable tables, filters that remember themselves, forms you can finish without a mouse, bulk actions, and no pointless confirmation dialogs. We ask to watch your staff work before designing a screen, and it nearly always changes the plan. For larger panels our UI/UX design team gets involved early.
For most projects we use Laravel with Filament, which gets a solid panel running quickly and stays easy for the next developer to read. We pick React-admin or Next.js when the interface needs more custom behaviour or your team already works in React. The tool matters less than the security around it. Admin areas are the most valuable target in your system, so they get two-factor login, least-privilege roles, logging of sensitive actions and no shared login that everyone knows.
How a panel project runs
- Watch the work. We spend time with the people who'll use the panel, ideally a full day, and see what they do now. With a follow-up call this usually fills the first week.
- Map data, roles and screens. We agree the record types, who may do what and a list of screens. If your app has no suitable API yet, we build the backend the panel needs.
- One working slice. Within roughly two weeks, one real area such as orders runs on test data, so staff can try it and complain early.
- Fortnightly releases. The remaining areas follow in steps, and the staff who'll live in the panel test each one. They spot things we won't.
- Move the data and switch over. We import from your spreadsheets or old tables, run old and new side by side for a short time, then retire the old way. Training and written notes close the project.
When a panel makes sense, and when it doesn't
It makes sense for businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets, app owners whose developers still change live data by hand, and marketplace, delivery, school or clinic operations where staff manage users, bookings and content every day. It also helps when five people produce five different versions of the same report.
Skip it if all you need is one table that three people edit weekly. A ready-made tool such as Airtable or a well-built form will cost far less, and we'll say so on the first call. A full ERP covering accounts, HR and stock in one go is a different and much larger project than this.
What a panel costs and when it's ready
Price is driven by the number of record types and screens, the number of roles, how involved the reports are, integrations with payment gateways, couriers or WhatsApp, migration from old systems, and whether an API already exists. We offer fixed scope for a defined panel, or a monthly arrangement for adding to it over time.
A focused panel for one app usually takes three to six weeks. Larger systems with several roles, heavy reporting and data migration more often take two to four months. If the panel is part of a bigger product, the same team can cover it within SaaS MVP development. The quote follows a short discovery call.
Who builds your panel
You'll talk to the people building the panel, not to an account manager, because we're a small team. We work from Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad, and Pakistan time overlaps well with the Gulf and the UK workday. We have apps published on Google Play, and the engineers behind those apps also write the APIs they talk to. The code, the hosting accounts and the data stay yours. To see whether a panel is worth it for you, tell us what you need.
Open-source tools and references
A few public projects that come up a lot in this kind of work. They belong to other people and teams. We link to them because they are worth a look, not because anyone pays us to.
- filamentphp/filamentAdmin panel toolkit for Laravel.
- marmelab/react-adminFramework for building admin interfaces on top of REST and GraphQL APIs.
- apache/supersetOpen-source data exploration and dashboard platform.
Frequently asked questions
Can you build the panel on our existing database?
Often yes. We start by reading the schema and the data, because old databases tend to hold surprises such as duplicate records, missing keys and columns nobody remembers. We can connect the panel directly to the database, or put a small API in front of it, which is safer because the panel then can't skip your business rules. We recommend one after seeing what's there.
Filament, React-admin or Next.js: how do you choose?
Laravel with Filament is our default for ordinary back-offices because it's quick to build and easy for the next developer to read. React-admin suits teams already working in React with an API in place. Next.js makes sense when the admin area shares components with a customer-facing web app. We explain the trade-off in plain terms and choose whatever is cheapest to maintain.
How do you stop staff from seeing or changing things they shouldn't?
Permissions are checked on the server, because hiding a button in the interface protects nothing on its own. Each role gets only the actions its job needs, sensitive actions can ask for two-factor confirmation, and the audit log records who did what. We also avoid shared logins, since a shared account makes the log useless. We agree the role list with you before building, because it's easier to get right on paper.
What do you need from us before you start?
Time with the people who'll use the panel, access to the current spreadsheets or database (a copy is fine), and one person on your side who can decide how things should work. Examples of the reports you rely on help a lot. Without a decision-maker, panels tend to grow in six directions at once, so we ask for that early.
Who looks after the panel after launch?
You can maintain it yourselves, since the code and documentation are yours, or put it on one of our app maintenance plans for updates, fixes and small improvements. Dependencies need updating even when features stay the same, and an unmaintained admin area is a security risk. We'll tell you plainly what a reasonable level of care looks like for your system.
Talk it through with us
Tell us what you are building and where it hurts. You get a straight answer, a plan and a price, and if we are not the right people we will say so.
