What Makes Laravel Framework the Best Choice for your next Web Project

If you’re in the process of revamping your website and are wondering what is the best framework to use, then this is a quick guide on why you should choose Laravel for your next project.

Over 1,384,504 websites worldwide are built using Laravel (Builtwith, 2021) and this number is continuously growing every day.

 

Laravel is a web app development framework with expressive and elegant syntax that makes the entire web development process faster, easier, and enjoyable for developers by eliminating all the pain-points associated with handling complex PHP code.

It eases some of the commonly executed tasks like routing, authentication, sessions, caching, and others so that developers can focus on building business-related features of the app.

Laravel framework was created by Taylor Otwell with the sole intention to help website developers make complex coding simple, faster, and better.

Before we go into the benefits of using Laravel, you should know that Laravel isn’t the only PHP framework out there. In fact, you could use CodeIgniter, Symfony Framework, among others. However, Laravel is definitely one of the most popular PHP frameworks to use – take a look at its interest over time(as suggested by Google Trends):

Laravel is one of the only PHP frameworks whose interest has gone up in the past 5 years, making it a popular choice for many website developers and businesses around the world.

Top 5 Features that Make Laravel Popular

PHP frameworks’ market is a bit crowded because of several competitors fighting for limelight and attention. However, the robust Laravel features list is something that makes it stand out.

Blade Template Engine

Laravel uses Blade template engine, which is simple but very powerful compared to other PHP templating engines. It adds zero overhead to your web app and doesn’t restrict you from using plain PHP code in views. Along with some convenient shortcuts for general PHP functions, it also provides features like template inheritance and displaying data that adds flexibility to the web development process.

Eloquent ORM

Eloquent ORM in Laravel provides web developers with a simple Active Record implementation that makes their interaction with databases easy and less time-consuming. It lets them write database queries using PHP syntax, and they don’t need to write or know SQL for updating or modifying databases.

Laravel MVC Architecture

Laravel is an MVC based PHP framework that ensures a tight separation between presentation layers and business logic. Being based on MVC, the framework provides many features like high performance, increased security, and scalability.

Here’s how the Laravel MVC works.

 

Open Source and Wide Community

Though many PHP frameworks come with a price tag, Laravel is an open-source framework for web developers. Also, it has a powerful community that supports the framework to make it more advanced and flexible.

Object-Oriented Libraries

Laravel PHP framework is packed with many built-in object-oriented libraries that are full of amazing features for developers.

Along with these fantastic Laravel framework features, various reasons make organizations ready to go ahead with Laravel development services. These very reasons, or rather the benefits of Laravel Framework, are listed below.

Benefits of Laravel Framework

Many people ask why Laravel is so popular? The only answer to it is because they like the peace of mind while developing web apps, and Laravel provides much more than that. No doubt, its ease-of-use, and quality have helped it gain immense popularity but using this popular framework also paves the way for many other benefits.

Issues with other PHP frameworks have been well spotted, resolved, and incredibly well-tested in the case of Laravel. When it comes to testing, note that the PHP Laravel framework has integrated testing into it, making sure your web application is bug-free.

Now, you must be wondering why your next website should be built in Laravel and what are the advantages of the Laravel framework over others? To get you started, here are reasons why I suggest you should consider Laravel for your next project:

It’s quick and simple

Being the number one PHP framework means that Laravel is already a framework with which most web developers are familiar; not to mention the range of built-in templates which make development simpler and easier for developers. This means an expert Laravel developer could even build a 5 or 6 page website in a day or two. A fast development time means lower costs and quicker results for the business.

Security is key

Security is the number one concern for most businesses. With Laravel, advanced security features are easy to configure on most websites to enhance security and protect sites from hackers and cybercriminals. To get a little technical, Laravel uses a Bcrypt hashing algorithm which means it never saves any passwords in the database (if correctly used). Comparing it to other PHP frameworks, Laravel also has great user authentication and restricted access features that are easy to create. This keeps you and your customer’s data safe and secure.

Better website performance

Unlike many other frameworks out there, Laravel supports caching for your website out-of-the-box which is great for boosting your site speed. To further enhance your website’s performance, Laravel makes other speed optimization techniques, such as memory use reduction and database indexing easy to implement. This makes Laravel an excellent choice for your business if site speed and SEO friendliness are some of your requirements.

Great for Traffic-Handling

As your business grows, so will the volume of traffic to your site. A website built in Laravel can handle website requests much quicker than most other frameworks. Laravel uses a unique message queue system, which means you can put off certain website tasks such as sending emails until a later time. Being able to control time-consuming tasks means your website can process tasks quicker. And this not only keeps your website’s server healthy, but can also lower your hosting costs in the long term.

Really Flexible

Laravel has the power to build a fully-fledged eCommerce site or a simple and professional B2B site. Due to its extensive pre-installed authorization libraries, it has the ability to create and support a variety of advanced features for your site, such as password reset and encryption. There are also a ton of third-party packages available to give your website a range of features and functionalities, such as Socialite which enables users to sign into your site using their social media profiles should you wish to integrate that option.

Easy third-party integrations

Almost every site needs to be integrated with a third-party application of some sort. This may include a payment system like Stripe or Paypal, or a marketing tool that your company uses. Whatever the integration, Laravel makes integrating third-party apps easy with its clean APIs for integration. So whether your website needs a payment system in place or an automated tool to manage your marketing, Laravel is a strong contender.

Simple Website Maintenance

Generally speaking websites built in Laravel are easy to maintain overtime. So let’s imagine, a few years down the line you want some new features added to your site (already built in Laravel), a new developer can easily pick up from where your previous developers have left the site. Due to Laravel’s standout features, like clean code, MVC architecture (which separates logic and presentation), and OOP principles, maintaining a Laravel site over time is very straight forward.

The cost of a Laravel Site

Compared to some frameworks out there, Laravel is a open-source framework. This means it is free to use in any project you like at no cost at all. Of course there is always the cost of hiring a good laravel developer to build your site (especially if you know very little about coding). Development costs are further reduced as the time to build and maintain is less than some competing frameworks, allowing a Laravel project to be more cost effective in the long run.

Automated and Unit Testing Feature

One of the significant advantages of the Laravel Framework is its extraordinary testing support. Without testing a web app thoroughly, you can not ensure that it’s bug-free and in accordance with the initial requirements alone.

To make sure that your web app performs well, Laravel Framework provides automation testing support, making it less time consuming to test an app. It offers simple ways for imitating users’ basic behavior (For example, making requests, analyzing outputs, clicking forms) that help you do expressive testing of your app.

The unit testing feature of Laravel lets you test each component or module of your app to ensure that the integrated application performs well when all the modules add up. This results in high-performing web apps with optimized web code.

Automated Task Execution and Scheduling

Every web application needs a task scheduling mechanism to automate tasks when it is necessary. For example, sending emails to subscribers, notifications to app users, or only for cleanup of the database to make web apps faster.

In the past, web developers used to generate a Cron entry for each task they wanted to schedule. However, with Laravel, you can avoid this headache by using its automatic command scheduler. It allows you to quickly and expressively define your command schedule within the Laravel framework itself, and a single Cron entry is required on your server to execute the task.

Besides making your web app high-performing and faster, this feature of the Laravel framework also helps you save on the hosting cost.

 

Summary

In summary, Laravel is a brilliant choice for both developers and companies worldwide. If you’re looking to update your website, or simply build a new one, then contact our team to find the best framework for your website.

 

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