next-shadcn-admin-dashboard: a free Next.js 16 admin template built on Shadcn UI

What Studio Admin actually gives you, and who it is for

This is a starter template, not a product. The repository is arhamkhnz/next-shadcn-admin-dashboard, the package is named studio-admin at version 2.2.0, and the licence is MIT. The README frames the project as a reaction to other templates: the author writes that most admin templates, free or paid, felt cluttered, outdated, or too rigid, and that this one was built as a cleaner alternative with theme toggling and layout controls.

The audience follows from that. You are a developer starting a Next.js 16 App Router application who needs an admin shell before the product work begins: sidebar, header, theme switching, tables, forms, charts, and a set of screens to copy from. The README lists Default, CRM, Finance, Analytics, Productivity, E-commerce, Academy, Logistics and Infrastructure dashboards, plus File Manager, Patient Monitoring, Chat, Email, Profile, Users Management, Roles Management, Kanban, Tasks, Invoice, Calendar and four authentication screens. Legacy variants of Default, CRM, Finance and Analytics are also listed.

What it is not is equally clear from the README. Role-Based Access Control with config-driven UI and multi-tenant support is marked as planned. If your project needs permissions on day one, you are looking at a template that gives you the Roles Management screen without the enforcement layer.

How the colocation architecture shapes the codebase

The README states the project follows a colocation-based architecture: each feature keeps its own pages, components and logic inside its route folder, while shared UI, hooks and configuration live at the top level. The author points to a separate repository, next-colocation-template, for a full breakdown with examples.

The practical consequence is that the top-level src tree holds the design system and the route folders hold the screens. When you add a feature, you add a folder rather than editing a global components directory. That keeps route-specific code from leaking into shared space, and it also means a screen you delete takes its dependencies with it.

The trade-off is duplication. Two dashboards that need a similar card will either import from the shared layer or grow their own version, and the README does not describe a policy for deciding which. The stack around this is visible in package.json: Next.js ^16.3.6, React ^19.3.0, Tailwind CSS v4 through @tailwindcss/postcss, Shadcn UI, Zod ^4.6.5, React Hook Form ^7.88.0, Zustand ^5.0.15, TanStack Table ^9.2.4, Recharts ^3.8.0 and Biome ^2.5.14. The template pulls in a wide dependency surface, including dnd-kit for drag and drop, FullCalendar for the calendar screen, d3-geo and topojson-client for map rendering, and cmdk for the command palette.

Installing it and running the dev server

The README gives one path for local use and one for Vercel. For local use, clone the repository, move into the folder, install dependencies and start the development server. The commands below are copied from the README.

git clone https://github.com/arhamkhnz/next-shadcn-admin-dashboard.git
cd next-shadcn-admin-dashboard
npm install
npm run dev

The README states the app runs at http://localhost:3000. The dev script in package.json is next dev, so that port is the Next.js default rather than something configured in the template.

For formatting and linting, the README points at Biome directly rather than the npm scripts:

npx @biomejs/biome check --write

package.json also exposes lint, format, check and check:fix as Biome wrappers, and a generate:presets script that runs ts-node -P tsconfig.scripts.json src/scripts/generate-theme-presets.ts. That script is the one to look at if you want to understand how theme presets are produced rather than edited by hand. The README notes the default dashboard uses the shadcn neutral theme and that additional presets are inspired by Tweakcn: Tangerine, Neo Brutalism and Soft Pop. It also states you can create more presets by following the same structure as the existing ones, which is the closest thing to documentation for that workflow.

The RBAC gap and other limits worth knowing before you fork

The most concrete limitation is stated in the feature list itself: Role-Based Access Control with config-driven UI and multi-tenant support is marked planned. A Roles Management screen exists in the screen list, but the README does not describe how roles are enforced, where the permission configuration lives, or what the multi-tenant model looks like. Treat the screen as UI, not as an authorization system.

The README is also silent on the backend. There is no database, no authentication provider and no API layer described. The four authentication screens are screens. If your project needs sessions, password reset flows or token handling, you are writing that yourself, and the template's contribution is the layout and form components.

The maintenance note is worth reading literally. The README states the project is updated frequently and warns that if you are working from a fork or an older clone you should pull the latest changes before syncing, because some updates may include breaking changes. That is an honest warning and also a cost: a fork drifts, and there is no changelog or release in the repository to tell you what changed between versions. The last push to the default branch was on 2026-09-22, so the repository is moving.

Finally, the archive branches. The README points to archive/next15 for the setup prior to the Next 16 and React Compiler upgrade, and to archive/next14-tailwindv3, which it describes as having a different colour theme and as not actively maintained, though the author tries to keep it updated with major changes. If you are not on Next.js 16, you are on a branch the README itself describes as legacy.

How it compares with hand-rolling Shadcn UI components

The real alternative is not another template. It is running the Shadcn UI CLI into a fresh Next.js app and building the admin shell yourself. That approach gives you exactly the components you use, no FullCalendar, no d3-geo, no dnd-kit unless you add them, and no theme preset system to learn.

What you lose is the assembled product. Studio Admin ships the composition: the dashboards already laid out, the sidebar behaviour, the layout controls, the theme presets, the auth screens and the table and form wiring. Rebuilding that from primitives is a week of layout work that produces nothing your users will notice.

The difference in approach matters for upgrades. A hand-rolled Shadcn setup tracks the upstream component registry directly. Studio Admin sits between you and that registry, so component updates arrive on the template's schedule, and the README's warning about breaking changes applies to you. If you want the fastest path to a working admin UI and you accept that you will read the source rather than the docs, the template wins. If you want a small dependency surface you fully control, it does not.

There are sibling projects in the same family, and the README names them: a Base UI version at next-shadcn-admin-dashboard-baseui, a React Aria version at arhamkhnz/next-shadcn-admin-dashboard-aria, and a TanStack Start version at tanstack-shadcn-admin-dashboard. The README also states Nuxt.js and Svelte versions are being worked on. If your team has a strong preference for Base UI or React Aria primitives over the default set, one of those repositories is the closer starting point.

Licence and the cost of keeping a fork current

The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use, modification and redistribution provided the copyright notice and permission notice are retained. The repository includes a LICENSE file at the top level. This is a description of the licence text, not legal advice; read LICENSE and your own counsel's guidance before you ship.

Upgrade cost is the part the README does not quantify. There are no releases in the repository, so version-to-version changes are not enumerated anywhere you can check before pulling. The README's own instruction is to pull the latest changes before syncing, and it warns that some updates may include breaking changes. In practice that means an upgrade is a diff review, not a version bump.

Two files reduce that cost. biome.json defines the formatting and lint rules, and the lint-staged entry in package.json runs biome check --write --no-errors-on-unmatched on staged JavaScript and TypeScript files, with Husky wired through the prepare script. If you keep Biome in your fork, style drift between your code and upstream stays small and diffs stay readable. If you replace Biome with ESLint and Prettier, every upstream pull will fight you.

The other file is AGENTS.md at the top level. The README does not describe it, but its presence alongside CONTRIBUTING.md suggests the repository is set up for AI-assisted contribution workflows. If your team uses coding agents, read it before you start; if not, it is inert.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt it if you want a Next.js 16 App Router admin shell with Shadcn UI components, several dashboard variants and auth screens already wired, and you are willing to read the source because RBAC and multi-tenant support are listed as planned rather than available. Skip it if you need authentication backed by a real provider, a database layer or a permission model out of the box, since the README documents screens and layouts rather than backend integration. Before committing, open src, confirm which of the listed screens exist in your clone, and check the archive/next15 and archive/next14-tailwindv3 branches if you are pinned to an older Next.js.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. arhamkhnz/next-shadcn-admin-dashboard on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: MIT
4. Project website
5. README