Laravel Restricted Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Feature Flagging for User Segments: Implement a lightweight "restricted mode" for users (e.g., free-tier customers, trial users, or compliance-bound accounts) to gate functionality without complex role-based logic.
• Compliance/Regulatory Controls: Enforce restricted access for users under legal constraints (e.g., GDPR data minimization, age-restricted content).
• A/B Testing or Feature Gating: Temporarily disable features for specific user groups without code changes (e.g., "soft-launch" mode).
• Roadmap Prioritization: Quickly deprioritize or disable features for low-priority user segments without refactoring.
• Build vs. Buy: Avoid building custom middleware/guards for restricted access; leverage this package’s simplicity for low-complexity use cases.
• Use Cases:
  • Free-tier vs. paid-tier feature differentiation.
  • Sandbox environments for testing.
  • Emergency "maintenance mode" for non-admin users.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • You need a simple, toggle-based restriction system (no complex permissions).
  • Your team lacks time/resources to build custom middleware or guards.
  • You’re using Laravel 5.8+ (due to Laravel UI v2/3 dependency).
  • Restrictions are user-specific (not role/IP/device-based).
  • You prioritize MIT-licensed, open-source solutions with minimal overhead.

• Look Elsewhere if:

  • You need granular permissions (e.g., attribute-level access control) → Use Laravel’s built-in Gate/Policy system.
  • You require IP/device-based restrictions → Use middleware like throttle or trustedproxy.
  • You need audit logging for restricted actions → Pair with a logging package (e.g., spatie/laravel-logging).
  • Your project uses Laravel <5.8 or Laravel Breeze/Jetstream (incompatible with Laravel UI v2/3).
  • You need scalable enterprise-grade restrictions → Consider commercial solutions like Sentinel or Spatie’s Permission.

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package lets us quickly toggle restricted functionality for specific user groups—like free-tier users or compliance-bound accounts—without engineering heavy lifting. It’s a lightweight, MIT-licensed solution that reduces dev time for feature gating, A/B testing, or emergency access controls. Ideal for low-risk, high-impact scenarios where we need to deprioritize features without refactoring."

For Engineering: *"Leverage laravel-restricted to:

• Add restricted mode in <1 hour (vs. building middleware from scratch).
• Gate features via a simple Restricted trait/middleware (e.g., @restricted annotations).
• Avoid bloating the auth system with custom logic for temporary restrictions. Tradeoff: Limited to user-level restrictions (no IP/device logic). Pair with Spatie’s Permission package if you need granularity later."*

For Design/UX: *"This won’t affect UI directly, but it enables us to:

• Hide or disable non-critical features for restricted users (e.g., gray out ‘upgrade’ buttons).
• Test feature rollouts safely without breaking the core experience."*