Admin Panels for Websites | Manifest vs PB

Tl;DR

Is it possible to have something better than Streamlit and Pocketbase for the quickest data visualization and backend ever?

Intro

Ive been exploring few authentications method lately.

Some people claim that ads + proper onboarding + paywall is your source of revenue as a SaaS indie creator.

About to hit $1.2M annual revenue from my first app

am i dreaming?

just a few months ago i was looking at other apps’ revenue, wishing i’d hit $1M someday

so what helped the most?

if i had to pick one thing — it’s marketing.
not the channels or ad platforms, but the ability… pic.twitter.com/vtMFqVehLk
— sina sinry (@SinaSinry) August 2, 2025

And creating an admin panel is simple in theory.

But in practice… See this quick admin panel fastapi sqlite based from the last audio post

The ARR/MRR retention must be another topic, I guess

And suddendly, I have found an interesting solution (that its vibe-code friendly!): Manifest

On this post: I want to compare how Manifest compares to Pocketbase as selfhosted BaaS solution and as admin panel

Manifest

https://github.com/mnfst/manifest
- https://manifest.build/
- https://manifest.build/docs
  - https://manifest.build/docs/astro

MIT | A backend for modern workflow. 🦚 Code or vibe-code your backend in seconds with Manifest.

Why manifest

Manifest is an Open Source, portable backend that fits into 1 YAML file.

Easy for both humans and LLMs to generate and validate.

Host it on any server that can run NodeJS.

Manifest comes with essential features like auth and custom logic, and a built-in admin panel.

Manifest fits great in those type of projects:

🛠️ Rapid prototyping: POCs and MVPs | Turning any entity into an authenticated user is as simple as adding a authenticable: true line to your backend file.
🧩 Micro services: notification, payment, logging, file services…
🏭 CRUD-heavy apps: mobile apps, directories, PIMs, E-shops
🌐 Headless CMS: dynamic corporate websites, portfolios, blogs…

Manifest 101

This sounds great for quick PoCs:

Streamlit PoC Post

Streamlit PyGWalker Rendered Map with locations…

Streamlit PoC

Source Code on Github. Streamlit Rendering Plotly, MermaidJS, QR, ChartJS, ApexCharts, PyGWalker with OSM geolocation data…

But how to get started with Manifest?

npx create-manifest@latest  --windsurf

Manifest UseCases

Headless CMS

Via Flask, you can make a quick webapp to allow users to edit specific fields of your SSG Themes…

Or as I did recently with NextJS

Conclusions

Manifest vs PocketBase

Ive discovered PB this year and its uses cases have been great so far.

Manifest | Portable Backend as YAML | Docker Config 🐋 ↗ PocketBase | Docker Config 🐋 ↗

Including the providing authentication for statically deployed SSGs via CF Workers and SMTP email integration.

FAQ

Other OSS Admin Panels

https://github.com/ColorlibHQ/AdminLTE

MT | AdminLTE - Free admin dashboard template based on Bootstrap 5

https://github.com/incluud/accessible-astro-dashboard

MIT | An Accessible Admin Dashboard Theme for Astro with a login page and a dashboard overview. Includes accessibility features such as landmarks, better focus-outline and skip-links navigation.

https://github.com/SoftwareBrothers/adminjs
- https://adminjs.co/

Open-Source Admin Panel for your Node.js Application

MIT | Free and Open-source Tailwind CSS Dashboard Admin Template that comes with all essential dashboard UI components, pages and elements

https://open-admin.org/
- https://github.com/open-admin-org/open-admin

MIT | open-admin forked from z-song/laravel-ladmin (PHP). Removing jquery, now based on Bootstrap5, vanilla JS

Customizable admin dashboard template based on Angular 10+

How to get Started with SQL