# Introduction

Cartalyst's Platform application provides a very flexible and extensible way of building your custom application.

It gives you a basic installation to get you quick-started with content management, themeable views, application extensions and much more.

Pretty much everything on Platform can be extended and overwritten so you can add your own functionality.

## Features {#features}

Platform is not just another CMS, it's a starting point for you to build your application providing the tools you need to get the job done as easy as possible.

- Laravel 4.1
- Authentication & Authorization
- User/Group management + permissions
- Social Authentication (OAuth, OAuth 2)
- Twitter Bootstrap 3.0 ready
- Frontend/Backend/Custom Themes
- Content Management
- Menu manager
- Settings
- Themes manager
- Dashboard
- Extension manager
- Localization
- Developer Tools (extension creator)
- Powerful Extension System
- Widgets