LaunchKit - Open Source VS Material Dashboard - compare differences & reviews?

A popular suite of developer tools, now 100% open source.

A free bootstrap admin built on top of Material Kit

Open Source
LaunchKit is open source, allowing for full transparency and customizability. Developers can inspect the underlying code, contribute to the project, and adapt it to their specific needs.
Cost-effective
Since it is open source, LaunchKit can be used for free, which is ideal for startups and small businesses with limited budgets.
Community Support
The open-source nature encourages a community of contributors and users who can provide support, share knowledge, and potentially contribute improvements and bug fixes.
Flexibility
Users can customize and extend the platform to fit their unique requirements, adding or modifying features as needed.
No Vendor Lock-in
Being open-source helps avoid vendor lock-in, giving users the freedom to deploy on any infrastructure they choose.

Maintenance Responsibility
Users are responsible for maintaining and updating the software themselves, which can require considerable time and technical expertise.
Documentation
Open-source projects may have incomplete or outdated documentation, making it harder to get up to speed and properly implement features.
Support
Lack of official customer support might be a drawback for businesses that require reliable assistance, particularly in critical situations.
Complexity
Customization and extending the platform can add complexity, requiring a higher level of technical skill to implement and troubleshoot.
Scalability
As with many open-source projects, ensuring the platform scales efficiently may require significant additional effort and resources.

User-friendly Design
Material Dashboard adopts the Material Design principles, which offer a clean and intuitive user interface, making it easier for users to navigate and interact with the dashboard elements.
Responsive Layout
The dashboard is fully responsive, ensuring it performs well and looks good across various devices and screen sizes, enhancing the usability for mobile users.
Rich Feature Set
Material Dashboard comes with a wide range of components and plugins such as charts, forms, and tables, which can cater to different application needs and improve functionality.
Customizability
It provides customization options allowing developers to easily tweak styles and components to fit the specific requirements of their projects.
Open Source
Being open-source, Material Dashboard is freely available and can be used for commercial projects without any licensing costs, with a supportive community for assistance.

Dependency on Material Design
Since the dashboard heavily relies on Material Design, any updates or changes to these guidelines may require significant adjustments in the dashboard layout and components.
Potential Overhead
For smaller projects, the plethora of features and components might be overkill, introducing unnecessary complexity and overhead in the development process.
Learning Curve
New users might experience a learning curve in understanding and effectively utilizing all the features and components provided, particularly if they are unfamiliar with Material Design.
Limited Native Themes
While highly customizable, the dashboard offers limited native themes, which might require additional effort to create a unique aesthetic without extensive custom styling.
Performance Concerns
Including numerous third-party plugins and features might lead to performance issues if not managed properly, potentially affecting the loading times and responsiveness of the application.