This wasn't a decision we took lightly. Our Kodekit-based platform has been rock-solid for years. But as we prepare to open source our work, we realized we needed a framework that would:
- Lower the barrier to entry for new contributors worldwide
- Accelerate development with a rich ecosystem of packages
- Provide modern tooling that developers expect
- Ensure long-term sustainability with strong community support
Laravel checks all these boxes and more. It's not about what Kodekit couldn't do-it's about making our platform accessible to thousands of developers who already know and love Laravel. Plus, with modern development tools like Claude Code at our disposal, we're coding faster than ever!
What This Means
For Our Existing Clients
All 125 businesses currently using our Marsvaardig Platform will be migrated to the new Laravel-based infrastructure. This isn't just a behind-the-scenes change-it's an upgrade that will bring:
- A completely new, modern user interface
- Faster feature development
- Better performance
- Access to a wider range of integrations
- Continued reliability with enhanced capabilities
For the Global Community
When we launch RetailBee as open source in 2026, developers worldwide will find:
- Familiar territory: Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks
- Rich ecosystem: Access to thousands of high-quality packages through Composer
- Modern development experience: Built-in support for modern frontend tooling, testing, and deployment
- Clear documentation: Laravel's extensive documentation and learning resources
Progress Update: 3 Weeks In
We're thrilled to report that our platform is already coming to life in Laravel! Here's what we've accomplished:
- ✅ Multi-tenant architecture implementation
- ✅ Core authentication and authorization system
- ✅ Database migration strategy
- ✅ Custom database-driven routing system for ultimate flexibility
- ✅ Integration with our existing frontend components
- ✅ Fresh new UI design using the TALL stack (Tailwind, Alpine.js, Livewire, Laravel)
- ✅ Accelerated development with Claude Code
Development Velocity
One thing that's really accelerating our progress? Claude Code! Vibe Coding rocks! Combined with Laravel's developer-friendly features, we're building at an unprecedented pace. It's the perfect match of AI-assisted development and a framework that gets out of your way.
The Journey Ahead
This is more than a technical migration-it's a transformation. We're taking everything we've learned from serving local entrepreneurs in Belgium and the Netherlands and preparing it for a global stage.
Over the coming months, we'll be:
- Migrating all existing client sites to the new Laravel platform
- Implementing new Laravel-powered capabilities
- Optimizing performance with Laravel's caching and queue systems
- Preparing comprehensive documentation for the open-source launch
- Building the RetailBee brand as the international face of our platform
Join Us on This Journey
This transition to Laravel isn't just a technical upgrade-it's our commitment to sharing our success with the world. What started as a platform for local entrepreneurs will soon be available to developers and businesses globally.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue building. If you're a Laravel developer interested in contributing or want early access to our codebase, get in touch!
Together, we're not just rebuilding our platform-we're preparing to share years of retail expertise with the world.
