Getting Started
Install Adminator locally in under a minute. Clone the repo, install dependencies, run the dev server, and you have an 18-page admin dashboard running with hot reload.
Last updated May 21, 2026
Adminator is a free, MIT-licensed HTML admin dashboard template. Vanilla JavaScript, custom CSS, ~700 KB of production JS for all 18 pages. No jQuery, no Bootstrap, no framework.
This guide gets you from zero to a running dev server. Total time: under a minute on a modern machine.
Prerequisites
You’ll need:
- Node.js 18.12 or higher — download from nodejs.org or install via your preferred version manager
- npm 9+ — ships with Node.js, no separate install
Check your versions:
node --version # v18.12.0 or higher
npm --version # 9.0.0 or higher
That’s it. No global CLI to install, no build tools to set up, no Docker.
Install via git
The fastest way to get the source — clone the repo and install:
git clone https://github.com/puikinsh/Adminator-admin-dashboard.git adminator
cd adminator
npm install
The install pulls in Webpack 5, Chart.js, FullCalendar, jsvectormap, and the lint tooling (ESLint 9, Stylelint 17). On a fresh machine this takes ~30 seconds.
Install via npm
If you’d rather pull the published package — both source and pre-built dist/ ship in the npm tarball:
npm install adminator-admin-dashboard
The package exposes dist/ for direct use and src/ if you want to customize and rebuild.
Run the dev server
npm start
This boots Webpack Dev Server at http://localhost:4000 with hot module replacement. The dashboard page (index.html) loads with live reload on any change under src/ — including SCSS, JS, and HTML.
You can also use npm run dev if you prefer the webpack-dashboard TUI for a denser status view.
Production builds
Two flavors:
# Minified, production-ready — what you'd deploy
npm run release:minified
# Unminified — useful for inspecting compiled output
npm run release:unminified
Both write to dist/. The minified build outputs ~700 KB of JS total (split across runtime.js, 2026.js, and vendor chunks for Chart.js + FullCalendar).
Lint
Adminator ships with linting configured for both JavaScript and SCSS. The repo policy is 0 errors, 0 warnings before shipping:
npm run lint # JS + SCSS
npm run lint:js # JS only
npm run lint:scss # SCSS only
ESLint 9 (flat config) covers src/, webpack/, and root JS files. Stylelint 17 covers everything in src/**/*.scss.
What you get out of the box
A working dev server reveals 18 pages, all sharing the same shell (sidebar, topbar, footer):
- Dashboard — KPIs, themed Chart.js monthly chart, regional stats, todo list, weather widget
- Email — 3-pane inbox: folders, message list, reader pane, attachments
- Calendar — Real FullCalendar with Day, Week, Month, and Agenda views (24 seed events)
- Chat — 2-pane conversation list and message thread with typing indicator
- Compose — Rich-text email composer with attachments and scheduling
- Charts — 6 themed Chart.js examples (line, bar, doughnut, radar, area, stacked bar)
- Forms — Inputs, selects, switches, checkboxes, validation states
- UI Elements — Alerts, badges, progress, spinners, tabs, accordion, modal, tooltips
- Buttons — Solid, soft, outline, ghost variants across sizes
- Basic Table + Data Table (sortable, paginated, filterable)
- Google Maps + Vector Maps (jsvectormap world map with city markers)
- Blank, Sign In, Sign Up, 404, 500
Toggle dark mode from the topbar icon — Chart.js, FullCalendar, and the vector map all re-render with the new tokens via a MutationObserver on the data-theme attribute.
Next steps
You have a working template. From here:
- Read Architecture — how the single JS shell renders all 18 pages from one
NAVmanifest, and how the token-driven CSS-variable system works - Read Adding a page — three steps: drop the HTML, register the title, append to
NAV - Read Theming — every color, shadow, and radius lives in
_tokens.scss; edit one variable, every component updates - Read Charts and Calendar & maps — how the library integrations stay in sync with the design tokens
- Read Deployment — production builds, static hosts (Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, S3), and CDN configuration
- Read Migrating from v3 — v4 is a ground-up rewrite, treat it as a fresh template rather than an upgrade
Get help
- GitHub Issues — bug reports and feature requests
- CHANGELOG — release notes for every version since v4.0.0
- Live preview — try every page in your browser before you clone
Need more than Adminator?
Adminator is free and MIT-licensed — perfect for prototypes, side projects, and learning. When the project grows past that, DashboardPack is the next stop. The collection includes:
- TailPanel — React + TypeScript + Tailwind, 9 dashboard variants
- Admindek — Bootstrap 5, 100+ components, RTL, 10 color presets
- Adminty — Bootstrap 5, 160+ ready-made pages
- ArchitectUI — Bootstrap 5, 250+ components, 9 layouts
Each one ships with dedicated support, RTL where relevant, more components than a free template can justify maintaining, and framework variants Adminator doesn’t try to cover (React/TS, multi-layout systems, ICO/crypto). Browse all premium options on the landing page’s premium section.