driesvints

driesvints/blade-icons

PHP MIT Web Dev

A package to easily make use of SVG icons in your Laravel Blade views.

2.5k stars
163 forks
recent
GitHub +1 / week

2.5k

Stars

163

Forks

0

Open issues

30

Contributors

1.10.1 30 Jun 2026

AI Analysis

Blade Icons provides an elegant Laravel integration for using SVG icons in Blade views, offering both component and directive syntax. It serves Laravel developers who need streamlined icon management in their applications, and has spawned an ecosystem of third-party icon set packages built on top of it. This is a specialized tool for the Laravel ecosystem, not a general-purpose icon library.

Web Dev Library Discovery value: 3/10
Documentation 8/10
Activity 9/10
Community 8/10
Code quality 8/10

Inferred from signals mentioned in the README (tests, CI, type safety) — not a review of the actual code.

Overall score 8/10

AI's overall editorial judgment — not an average of the bars above, can weigh other factors too.

laravel-icons blade-templating svg-components laravel-ecosystem icon-management
Actively maintained Well documented MIT licensed Niche/specialized use case Beginner friendly Production ready
Deep Analysis · Based on README and public signals
1w ago

Laravel-native SVG icon system with strong ecosystem adoption among PHP developers

Blade Icons is a Laravel package that simplifies SVG icon usage in Blade templates via component syntax or directives. Built for Laravel developers, it converts raw SVG files into reusable Blade components. Real-world adoption appears concentrated within the Laravel ecosystem; the README documents 50+ community-maintained icon set packages built on top of it, suggesting meaningful production use. Maintained actively as of June 2026.

Origin

Created in 2016 as 'Blade SVG' by Adam Wathan, the project has evolved into a community-maintained package (now maintained by Dries Vints). It remains a deliberate choice for Laravel projects rather than a universal icon system, positioning itself within the Laravel-specific tooling ecosystem.

Growth

The project reached 2,465 stars and has remained relatively stable. Growth appears driven not by increasing star velocity (0 stars gained in last 7 days) but by consistent adoption within Laravel projects and the creation of a rich community package ecosystem (50+ icon set derivatives). Stability rather than explosive growth characterizes its maturity phase.

In production

Adoption not formally quantified, but indicators include: 2,465 GitHub stars (moderate for PHP ecosystem), 50+ documented community icon packages built on top of this foundation (suggesting meaningful extension activity), Packagist presence with download metrics available. The breadth of community packages (Bootstrap Icons, Feather Icons, Font Awesome, Carbon Icons, etc.) indicates developers are investing in building on this base, which typically signals real-world production use.

Code analysis
Architecture

Based on README, the package appears to use Laravel's component system to map SVG files to Blade components. It likely provides configuration for icon directories and supports both component syntax (`<x-icon-camera />`) and directive syntax (`@svg('camera')`). Implementation details are not visible from README alone.

Tests

GitHub Actions workflows indicate automated testing and coding standards checks are in place (Tests badge and Coding Standards workflow referenced), but specific coverage metrics are not documented in README.

Maintenance

Last push on 2026-06-30 indicates active maintenance as of two days before evaluation date. Passing CI/CD pipelines visible from badges. The project has remained actively maintained over a 10-year lifespan, suggesting stability and long-term viability for its target audience.

Honest verdict

ADOPT IF: You are building a Laravel application and need a clean way to manage SVG icons with reusable components; you want community icon sets (50+ available) integrated easily; you prefer component-based syntax over raw SVG includes. AVOID IF: You need framework-agnostic icon management for multi-framework projects; you are not using Laravel; you require icon systems designed for frontend frameworks (React, Vue) as primary targets. MONITOR IF: You are evaluating whether the PHP ecosystem will consolidate around this package (appears to be the de facto standard for Laravel icon management, but no competing alternative is visible to assess lock-in).

Independent dimensions

Mainstream potential

4/10

Technical importance

5/10

Adoption evidence

6/10

Risks
  • Adoption concentrated within Laravel ecosystem only — value proposition disappears outside Laravel projects.
  • Dependency on Laravel's component syntax — breaking changes in Laravel could require updates (low risk given Laravel's stability practices).
  • Maintenance dependent on volunteer maintainer (Dries Vints); single-person bottleneck risk, though 10-year track record mitigates this.
  • Slow growth in stars (0 in last 7 days) may reflect market saturation within Laravel ecosystem rather than lack of adoption, but this cannot be confirmed from available data.
  • Icon package ecosystem (50+ packages) creates fragmentation; users must choose between multiple providers for same icon set (e.g., multiple Bootstrap Icon implementations).
Prediction

Likely to remain the standard icon management pattern for Laravel projects through 2027+. Star growth will remain modest as Laravel's developer base is mature and stable. Community ecosystem of icon packages will continue expanding. No indication of decline or replacement. The project will probably remain actively maintained but grow by adoption within Laravel workflows rather than viral growth.

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Languages

PHP
100%

Information

Language
PHP
License
MIT
Last updated
1w ago
Created
120mo ago
Analyzed with
anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5

Stars over time

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Contributors over time

Top 100 contributors only — repos with more will plateau at 100.

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Open issues

No open issues — clean slate.

Open pull requests

No open pull requests.

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vs. alternatives
lucide-icons/lucide

23K stars across multiple frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Web Components). Language-agnostic icon system. Blade Icons is Laravel-specific and smaller; Lucide dominates frontend ecosystem. Non-competing audiences.

twbs/icons (Bootstrap Icons)

8K stars, framework-agnostic icon set. Blade Icons can wrap Bootstrap Icons via blade-bootstrap-icons package. Different layer: Bootstrap Icons is a design asset; Blade Icons is a Laravel integration layer.

Direct SVG usage in Blade

Blade Icons abstracts away SVG file management and component registration. Without it, developers manually handle `<svg>` includes. Blade Icons reduces boilerplate and enables package-based icon distribution.

Font-based icon systems (Font Awesome, etc.)

Blade Icons specifically targets SVG-based workflows. Font-based systems offer different tradeoffs (smaller file size for certain use cases, browser compatibility). Blade Icons assumes SVG-first approach.

Other Laravel UI packages

Blade UI Kit ecosystem (same maintainer) includes related packages like blade-ui-kit/blade-tailwind-ui. Blade Icons occupies the icon management niche within Laravel. Not direct competition with other PHP icon packages due to lack of established alternatives.