Custom page settings

Hi community,

I was wondering if it is possible to extend the page settings with custom fields.
How would I do that by implementing my own plugin?

Why am I asking this? We have various kinds of pages in our future community. And depending on the type of a page I want to display different things in the header bar.
So, what would be the best way to extend the page settings with a custom field?
I could use the meta fields, but that seems a bit dirty to me.

I am looking forward to read about your ideas.

Best,
Ben