At March's Sydney Drupal user group, I did a lightning talk on Page Manager and Panels in Drupal 8. In the talk, I demonstrate both modules and show you how to create a custom homepage with a few clicks. You can watch the whole talk in the video above.

Panels in Drupal 8 has changed considerably. The UI for building pages is now offered by Page Manager, with Page Manager UI installed, and not Panels itself. The UI also changed, but I think it's much easier to use than in Drupal 7, but that's my opinion.