CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template is an open-source admin dashboard template built on Bootstrap 5 and the CoreUI UI components library, explicitly optimized for AI-assisted development with context files for coding assistants.
What is CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template?
CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template is a free, MIT-licensed admin panel template created by Łukasz Holeczek and the CoreUI team. It provides a complete starter project — Pug templates, SCSS styles, JavaScript modules, and compiled HTML views — that you can use as the front-end foundation for an admin dashboard. The template runs as a static website locally with Node.js and npm: npm start serves it with hot reload at localhost:3000, and npm run build creates minified production files.
Key Features
- Component-rich CoreUI library — The template is built on the hand-crafted CoreUI UI components library; the project documents 50 component types (accordion, alert, card, modal, sidebar, table, and more), with some components like calendar, date picker, and rating reserved for the PRO version.
- AI-friendly development files — Includes
.cursorrules,ARCHITECTURE.md,DEVELOPMENT.md, and JSDoc-annotated JavaScript modules so AI assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot understand the project's Pug, Sass, and component conventions automatically. - Four official framework versions — The same design is available as free templates for Bootstrap, Angular, React.js, and Vue.js, all linked from the repository.
- Prebuilt views and page types — The
src/pug/viewsandsrc/viewsdirectories contain authentication pages, components pages, error pages, forms, icons, and an index page, organized with_layout,_mixins, and_partialsfolders. - Sass/SCSS styling — All styles live under
src/scss, giving you a single place to customize variables, mixins, and component styles. - CoreUI Icons included — The project highlights CoreUI Icons, a free set of 522 icons available in SVG, webfont, and raster formats.
- MIT license — Free for commercial and personal use, with maintainers funded by optional paid CoreUI PRO templates for Angular, Bootstrap, Next.js, React, and Vue.
Who is it for?
- Front-end developers — need a Bootstrap 5 admin dashboard with prebuilt views and components to customize instead of starting from an empty HTML file.
- Developers using AI coding assistants — want a project that includes context files so Cursor, Claude Code, or GitHub Copilot can generate code that matches the template's conventions without lengthy prompts.
- Agencies and freelancers — ship client admin panels, internal tools, or MVPs faster using the free template, then offer CoreUI PRO upgrades when a client needs more advanced components.
- Startups — set up the back-office area of a product with authentication and error pages already in place.
What can you do with CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template?
- Scaffold a custom admin interface: clone the repository, then replace the included views under
src/pug/viewswith your own pages while keeping the sidebar, header, and layout mixins. - Create authentication flows: start from the included authentication views to build login, register, and password-reset pages that share the same styling.
- Maintain consistent UI across a team: rely on the documented JSDoc, ESLint/Stylelint rules, and
.cursorrulesso every developer and AI assistant outputs code in the same style. - Generate new pages with an AI assistant: open the project in an AI-powered IDE, and the included
ARCHITECTURE.mdandDEVELOPMENT.mdgive the assistant the context needed to generate new Pug, SCSS, or JavaScript files.
How does CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template work?
Clone the GitHub repository, then run npm install in the project directory. Use npm start to serve the template with hot reload at localhost:3000, and npm run build to produce minified production assets in the build/ directory.
Pricing
CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template is free and open source under the MIT license. For expanded functionality, CoreUI sells paid PRO templates for Angular, Bootstrap, Next.js, React, and Vue, and offers a pricing page on coreui.io; no specific dollar amounts are mentioned on this repository page.
Alternatives
- AdminLTE — another widely used free Bootstrap admin template.
FAQ
Is CoreUI Free Bootstrap Admin Template free?
Yes. The project is licensed under the MIT license, so you can use it in personal and commercial projects at no cost. The CoreUI team funds ongoing development by selling CoreUI PRO versions with additional components and themes.
Which frameworks does CoreUI support?
CoreUI offers free admin templates for Bootstrap, Angular, React.js, and Vue.js, with the Bootstrap version covered in this repository. The same CoreUI components library powers all framework versions.
What is included in the download?
The repository contains a build/ folder, src/ with assets/ (brand, favicon, img), js/, pug/ (layout, mixins, partials, views), scss/, and compiled views/ for authentication, components, error pages, forms, and icons.
How do I run the template?
Clone the repo, run npm install, then npm start to serve with hot reload at localhost:3000. For production, run npm run build to generate minified output in build/.
Does the template work with AI tools?
Yes. It includes .cursorrules, ARCHITECTURE.md, and DEVELOPMENT.md plus JSDoc comments so AI coding assistants like Cursor, Claude Code, and GitHub Copilot can generate code that follows the project's conventions.
