If you are here, most likely, you are puzzled about choosing the perfect set of tools, technologies, and programming languages for your web application or website, right? In this case, the framework to which we dedicated this article will likely be your top selection. However, is it as good as its dedicated online community says it is? Let's find out right now, and don’t forget to learn about our experience working with it.
What Is Laravel?
As you may know, Laravel is a free, open-source framework based on the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. It uses PHP and is distributed under the MIT license. The first version of this framework was presented to the public in 2011, and since then, its community of fans (as well as functionality) has been constantly growing.
One of the critical advantages of Laravel is the presence of many ready-made components that speed up the process of working on the backend and reduce the number of errors that backend engineers can make when manually writing program code.
In particular, many of them love this tool for convenient routing, built-in functionality for implementing authentication and authorization procedures, Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), Blade template engine for creating dynamic web pages, as well as rich support for packages and extensions. Thanks to these features, it is often used to create business applications, online stores, blogs, social networks, catalogs, etc.
What Are the Benefits Of Using Laravel in Web Application Development?
Let's examine the advantages of Laravel application development, which have made this framework one of the top choices for backend development.
| Benefit | In Detail |
| Accelerated development process | Thanks to its concise syntax and convenient MVC architectural pattern, this framework simplifies and speeds up the process of working on the backend of web applications. Additionally, this is facilitated by hundreds of built-in tools and libraries offering developers built-in components for additional customization. |
| Built-in object-relational mapping | The built-in ORM simplifies the organization of interactions with the database due to the default maintenance of connections, assistance in building queries, fast loading, and other features that speed up the execution of database-related tasks. |
| Advanced routing | Laravel's remote routing system has increased flexibility, allowing backend engineers to select optimal routes (including groups of routes, named ones, routes involving a middleware, etc.) and effectively manage HTTP requests with many endpoints. |
| Easy templating | This framework has a built-in Blade templating engine that makes it easy to build reusable and dynamic views through its advanced looping, conditional, and inheritance management capabilities, as well as template caching and end-to-end integration. |
| Fast database migration | Performing a database migration with Laravel is fast due to the simple syntax for modifying and creating new database tables. This allows developers to adapt existing web projects to new deployment environments without compromising data integrity. |
| Efficient testing and debugging | With the PHP Unit testing suite, this framework simplifies writing unit tests. It also supports all popular types of software testing, including console, HTTP, and functional testing. Automated logging and a built-in error handler are also available here. |
| Top-notch security | Instead of forcing developers to implement user authorization and authentication scripts from scratch, Laravel offers a number of built-in solutions that are easy to customize. The framework also provides middleware to implement rule-based access to various application sections. |
| Extended list of available integrations | Finally, if the set of built-in features is not enough, developers can always use the APIs and wrappers provided by Laravel to add new ones. Thus, they do not have to create software components that have already been effectively implemented by other developers before. |
What Are the Challenges of Using Laravel in Web Application Development?
Despite the impressive list of Laravel best framework features and benefits, it also has some disadvantages, too. Let's check them out briefly.
- Lack of scalability by default: while it handles small and medium-sized projects well, large data volumes or heavy workloads may require additional tuning to optimize performance.
- Possible performance degradation if misused: it simplifies many aspects of development, but an incorrect approach to designing the structure of web solutions can reduce performance and increase the difficulty of scaling them.
- Sometimes, there is a lack of development speed: if the development team does not have experience with Laravel, they may need to spend a little time mastering the framework, which, in turn, may affect the development speed as well.
- Redundancy of default features for small projects: it may not be the best solution for small projects since this framework has many built-in functions and components that may be superfluous.
- Insufficient speed for high-load projects: although Laravel is considered a high-performance framework, some high-load projects may require additional optimization to achieve the best performance.
As you can see, with the right approach to Laravel framework development, this framework becomes a universal soldier that can be applied to most web projects. Our team has mastered bypassing all of the above challenges, so you don’t have to worry that your solution will lag due to the presence of Laravel in its tech stack.
What Are the Famous Framework Combinations With Laravel?
Laravel combines well with other popular web development solutions such as:
- React.js for developing responsive user interfaces;
- Vue.js for creating advanced single-page applications with support for dynamic user interfaces;
- the Lumen microframework, which is Laravel-based and often used in the development of lightweight but fast projects such as APIs and microservices;
- Bootstrap, a frontend platform for creating responsive, mobile-friendly web pages;
- Docker is a containerization solution for creating, managing, and deploying portable applications running in various environments.
We often use these combinations of technologies in our Laravel website development to create competitive, scalable, and cost-effective solutions fully tailored to their owners’ business goals.
Our Expertise in Laravel Development
We currently use Laravel in about 70-80% of our projects, and here's why:
- Convenient project structure: it provides a clear and convenient project structure that allows us to navigate the program code and maintain the project;
- Easy routing: it has a powerful routing system that makes it easy to define URLs and how they should be processed;
- ORM: it offers Eloquent ORM, which allows projects to interact with the database using PHP objects;
- Templating: this framework has a built-in Blade system for quickly and efficiently working with HTML and templates;
- Simple and fast database migrations: with migrations in Laravel, tasks related to database management and their migration become easier;
- Security: it has a built-in system for authentication, authorization, and protection against attacks such as SQL injection, session hijacking, and cross-site script hijacking;
- The large number of available packages and extensions: this framework has a wide selection of extensions and packages that can be used to expand the project's functionality quickly.
Note that ultimately, the final choice of technology stack always depends on its complexity and the requirements of its owners. Now, let's take a quick look at one of our latest cases, which also involved Laravel web application development.
In particular, we were contacted by a client who needed a custom application for booking flight tickets and hotels, which would stand out from the alternatives by the presence of AI algorithms offering possible leisure options in new locations depending on how the users imagine their trips. I.e., the client expected to receive a full-fledged, smart assistant for users who want to organize their journeys from start to finish, from booking tickets and hotel rooms to choosing activities available in a specific region and specific days.
After a detailed analysis of the client's requirements, we settled on a technology stack consisting of Laravel, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL. With its help, we implemented the following functionality of the application:
- Airline ticket and hotel booking according to unique user’s needs and location specifics;
- User AI-driven surveying to select best-fit leisure options in the new location;
- Generation list of available leisure options using AI, according to the information provided by a specific user (both within an app and as a separate PDF).
A few months after our first contact with the project owner, we launched the first version of this app. As a result, the client received a stable influx of users, as expected initially. You can also learn about this case in more detail here:
Build Your Own Solutions with WEZOM
We undoubtedly love Laravel, but this is not our only possible choice for backend development – the thing is that our priority is to tailor the project technology stack to your business goals perfectly. Therefore, if it is important to you what technologies and tools will be used in your project because you are planning its subsequent scaling, feel free to contact us. We guarantee that we will maximize the life cycle of your web application and make the development process itself as resource-efficient as possible.