Laravel Deleted Models Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• Soft Delete Alternative: Enables a "recycle bin" pattern for models where traditional soft deletes (deleted_at) are insufficient (e.g., compliance requirements, audit trails, or multi-level undo).
• Compliance & Auditability: Supports regulatory needs (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) by preserving deleted records in a separate table for forensic or recovery purposes.
• Feature Roadmap: Justifies adding "undelete" functionality to a product roadmap without custom development (e.g., for SaaS platforms, CMS, or collaborative tools).
• Build vs. Buy: Eliminates the need to build a custom soft-delete solution with archival logic, reducing dev time and technical debt.
• Use Cases:
  • User-generated content: Restore deleted posts/comments in forums or social platforms.
  • E-commerce: Recover accidentally deleted product listings or orders.
  • CRM/HR systems: Recover deleted customer or employee records with full history.
  • Data migration: Safely test deletions before permanent purging.

When to Consider This Package

• Adopt if:

  • Your app requires multi-level undo (beyond Laravel’s native soft deletes).
  • You need immutable audit trails for deleted records (e.g., legal/compliance).
  • Your team lacks bandwidth to build a custom archival system.
  • You’re using Laravel/Eloquent and want a zero-config solution.
  • Deleted models must be searchable/restorable without manual backups.

• Look elsewhere if:

  • You only need soft deletes (use Laravel’s built-in SoftDeletes trait).
  • Your app has strict storage constraints (this adds a deleted_models table).
  • You need fine-grained control over deletion triggers (e.g., conditional archival).
  • Your data is highly sensitive and requires encryption at rest (package doesn’t address this).
  • You’re using a non-Laravel framework (e.g., Symfony, Django).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "This package lets us offer a ‘recycle bin’ for user content—like Gmail’s trash folder—without custom engineering. For $0 cost, we can add restore functionality to [Product X], reducing support tickets from accidental deletions by 30% (based on [Competitor Y]’s metrics). It’s MIT-licensed, battle-tested, and integrates seamlessly with our Laravel stack. ROI: Faster feature delivery + happier users."

For Engineering: *"Spatie’s laravel-deleted-models gives us a drop-in solution for archiving deleted Eloquent models to a deleted_models table. Key benefits:

• Zero setup: Just add the package and use delete()/restore().
• Performance: Minimal overhead (copies data to a new table on delete).
• Extensible: Hook into events (e.g., Deleting, Restoring) for custom logic.
• Maintained: Actively updated (last release: March 2026) with 400+ stars. Tradeoff: Adds a table, but we can optimize storage later if needed. Alternative is building this ourselves (~2 dev weeks), which this package replaces."*

For Design/UX: "This enables us to design a ‘restore’ flow for deleted items (e.g., a ‘Trash’ tab in the UI). Example: Users delete a post → it goes to ‘Trash’ → they can restore it within 30 days. Reduces frustration and aligns with expectations from tools like Notion or Trello."