Laravel Spark Review 2026: Taylor Otwell's Official SaaS Starter

TL;DR

Laravel Spark is the best billing scaffold for Laravel SaaS — built by Taylor Otwell (Laravel's creator), well-maintained, and includes per-seat billing, team management, and Stripe/Paddle support. At $99/year, it's a subscription not a one-time purchase. For PHP teams building subscription SaaS, it's the standard choice.

What You Get

Price: $99/year (Spark Stripe) or $99/year (Spark Paddle)

Core features:

• Laravel integration (Blade or Livewire frontend)
• Billing: Stripe OR Paddle
• Subscriptions: Monthly/yearly plans
• Per-seat billing (team-based pricing)
• Free trials
• Promo codes
• Invoices and billing history
• Team management (invite, roles, permissions)
• Customer portal

What it's NOT: A full application boilerplate. Spark handles billing and teams; you build the rest of your app on top of Laravel.

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Laravel Spark vs Full Boilerplates

This is the critical distinction: Spark is a billing package, not a complete boilerplate.

Laravel Spark adds to your Laravel app:
├── /billing         ← Subscription management UI
├── /teams           ← Team/organization management
└── /invoices        ← Invoice history and downloads

Your app builds on top:
├── /dashboard       ← Your product
├── /settings        ← Your product
└── /features        ← Your product

Compare to Wave (the free alternative that IS a full boilerplate): Wave includes blog, admin, themes, and a complete application foundation. Spark is purpose-built for billing.

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The Billing Implementation

Spark's billing is mature and handles edge cases:

// Monthly vs yearly subscription
Route::get('/pricing', function () {
    return view('pricing', [
        'plans' => Spark::plans(),
    ]);
});

// Check plan access in controllers
public function dashboard(Request $request)
{
    if ($request->user()->subscribed('default')) {
        // User has active subscription
    }

    if ($request->user()->subscribedToProduct('pro')) {
        // User is on pro plan
    }
}

// Blade directive for feature gating
@spark_can('view-advanced-analytics')
    <x-analytics-dashboard />
@endcan

// Per-seat billing — charge by team member count
// Spark handles this automatically
$user->teams()->first()->subscription('default')
    ->incrementAndInvoice();  // Charge for new seat

// Proration when upgrading mid-cycle
$user->subscription('default')->swap('price_pro_monthly');
// Stripe handles proration automatically

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Team Support

Spark's team management is well-implemented:

// Invite team member
$team->invite($email, 'member');

// Check permissions
if ($user->hasTeamRole($team, 'admin')) {
    // Admin-only action
}

// Team ownership transfer
$team->transferOwnership($newOwner);

// Member removal with billing update (per-seat)
$team->removeUser($member);
// Spark automatically decrements seat count

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Stripe vs Paddle Version

Laravel Spark comes in two flavors:

Feature	Spark Stripe	Spark Paddle
Tax compliance	You handle	Paddle handles (MoR)
Transaction fee	~2.9% + $0.30	~5% + $0.50
International	Manual VAT	Included
Developer control	Maximum	Less
Best for	US-focused SaaS	International SaaS

Paddle version is ideal for international sales where tax compliance is painful.

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What's Missing

1. No Admin Panel

Spark doesn't ship an admin dashboard. You see billing data through Stripe/Paddle's dashboards, not an app-level admin.

2. No Full Application Foundation

You need to build or use a separate boilerplate for the application structure. Wave fills this gap (free), but Wave + Spark doubles the packages to maintain.

3. Vue/React Frontend Only

Spark's billing UI requires either Vue or React — no Blade-only option for teams preferring pure server-rendered PHP.

4. Annual Subscription Model

$99/year is affordable, but it's a recurring cost. If you abandon the project, your billing UI may fall behind Laravel releases.

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Wave: The Free Alternative

Wave (thedevdojo.com/wave) is a free Laravel SaaS boilerplate that includes its own subscription management:

Feature	Laravel Spark	Wave
Price	$99/year	Free
Billing	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Admin panel	❌	✅
Blog	❌	✅
Themes	❌	✅
Active maintenance	✅ (Taylor)	✅

Spark for billing quality; Wave for a complete application foundation.

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Who Should Buy Laravel Spark

Good fit:

• PHP/Laravel teams building subscription SaaS
• Products where billing complexity is a core concern
• International products (Spark Paddle for Merchant of Record)
• Teams adding billing to an existing Laravel app

Bad fit:

• JavaScript-first teams (use ShipFast/Supastarter)
• Projects needing a complete application boilerplate (Wave includes more for free)
• Solo founders who want one-time purchase

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Final Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Laravel Spark is the standard for PHP SaaS billing — maintained by Laravel's creator, well-tested, and handles the billing complexity you don't want to build. The annual subscription model is a reasonable price for the maintenance and updates. If you're building a Laravel SaaS, the question isn't whether to use Spark — it's whether to use Spark's billing vs Wave's more complete (but less polished) billing implementation.

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Compare Laravel Spark with other Laravel starters on StarterPick.