Needless is to say; the PHP framework is the most preferred source among web developers, or simply web app developers. Laravel is among the most prominent technologies meant for web app development. And, one of the foremost reasons behind this is the MVC architecture.

This is why Laravel has made it possible for web app developers to develop much superior and personalized web applications. It is one of the simplest frameworks as well, at the same time being significantly feature enriched.

This is the reason that it manages to deliver flawlessly written syntax most simply, despite delivering high-end output.

According to the recent survey report by W3Techs, PHP is used by 79.0% of all websites. These results contrast starkly with what so many in the IT community insist on – that PHP is dying.

And it is difficult to imagine any popular programming language without a framework built on top of it. Python goes with Django, Node.js goes with Express, and the perfect match for PHP is Laravel.

• What is the Laravel framework?
• Top 8 Reasons Why Laravel is The Best PHP Framework For 2022
• Is Laravel The Most Popular PHP Framework?
• What Are Some Benefits of Laravel Over Other PHP Frameworks?
• Why we Use PHP Laravel Framework?
• Is Laravel Still Relevant in 2022?
• Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?
• Why is Laravel Better Than Other Frameworks?
• Why do we Use Laravel in PHP?
• What Can You do With PHP Laravel?
• Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?
• Which PHP Framework is Best for Beginners?
• Is Laravel Easier Than PHP?
• Should I Learn PHP Before Laravel?
• How Much do Laravel Developers Make?
• What Does a Laravel Developer do?
• What Are The Needed Skills of a Laravel Developer?
• Is Laravel More Secure Than PHP?
• What is The Difference Between Laravel And PHP?
• What is Advantage of Laravel?

What is the Laravel framework?

Why use a PHP framework like Laravel, you must be wondering. But first things first – in order to get everything right, let’s define what a framework is in programming terms and how it is useful.

In the realm of software development, a framework is a piece of reusable software that’s been developed to help developers create their applications. It provides specific functionality that one is free to use in their program to expand capabilities and boost performance.

Read Also: How to Hire a PHP Developer in 2022

Thus, the intention of a software framework like Laravel is to prevent developers from reinventing the wheel by offering them ready-made solutions. These solutions vary in complexity from providing assistance in easing routine tasks like routing, authentication, sessions, and caching to presenting powerful tools needed for massive and robust applications development.

Laravel is exactly what the definition of a framework suggests. It was released in 2011 as an open-source framework for web app development that follows the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern. Laravel has brought a range of benefits on the table and, since then, it has constantly been gaining traction.

As of 2020, Laravel was the most widely acknowledged PHP framework among GitHub users with 60k+ stars. Meanwhile, a PHP framework that ranks second in popularity, Symfony, has only a third as many stars there even though it had been released 4 years earlier.

Not to mention CodeIgniter, whose repository has been starred only 18k times and other progressively less popular PHP frameworks. Thus, the current status of Laravel suggests it has developed to become a go-to framework for web developers all over the world.

Be it Laravel, Symfony, or CakePHP, the employment of a framework consistently allows shifting the focus on the business logic of an app rather than putting all the effort into coding. It increases the speed of development, allows for more stability, offers improved security features, and significantly eases the burden of code maintenance.

However, despite the fact that Laravel still has its pros and cons, it is the number one PHP framework for many developers. Nothing comes from nothing. And there are many different functions built into Laravel that will save your time and energy and take care of a range of low-level details providing an elegant MVC architectural pattern.

Top 8 Reasons Why Laravel is The Best PHP Framework For 2022

Laravel stays ahead in the competition. Various distinguishing aspects are making Laravel stand out. For example, it provides thorough client authentication, which CodeIgniter misses. Authorization is another aspect as well one might take into account. All these aspects make Laravel a much simpler option in comparison with CodeIgniter.

These are the 8 benefits of Laravel that allow calling it the best PHP framework for 2022:

1. The Model-View-Controller architectural pattern support

The first and one of the most fundamental advantages that justify the much higher popularity of Laravel compared to other PHP frameworks is that it follows the best development practices. The application of the Model-View-Controller-based software design pattern is a good case in point.

The model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern, in the first place, ensures clarity between logic (Model) and presentation (View) through the lens of the Controller, which results in overall performance improvement, better documentation readability, and more.

Generally speaking, the MVC architecture allows for exceptional support and performance. By default, Laravel comes with the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern. So, it offers developers an extremely convenient way to build both large- and small-scale business applications out-of-the-box.

Using MVC architecture, they can write a more simple and clearly structured code that is convenient to work with. This is a benefit that cannot be underestimated, especially when a project is complex and involves large volumes of code-writing.

The model-view-controller pattern includes many built-in functions. The most outstanding ones are a complete authentication system, pagination, Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping), streamlined database migration, and pagination.

As a result, for example, MVC allows quickly finding files in their logical directories even when you work on a large software project or easily interacting with databases with the help of Eloquent ORM. With MVC, a PHP software engineer can gain control over how a particular web app presents itself in the real world and then improve it accordingly.

2. Object-oriented libraries

The Laravel framework not only allows structuring code according to the principles of MVC. This framework also has an expressive, beautiful syntax that makes Laravel object-oriented.

Working with this PHP framework, developers also get 20+ pre-installed modular and object-oriented libraries and secondary tools for developing robust web applications. Empowered by them, software developers can adopt the most up-to-date principles of the PHP language to facilitate responsive and modular web app development.

Some of Laravel’s individual modules are so unique that they cannot be found in most other PHP frameworks. Thus, for instance, Laravel’s authentication library allows ensuring security to databases with the help of features like encryption and CSRF protection.

On the other hand, there are a number of libraries that are supported both in Laravel and Symfony. This, as well as the fact that they both follow the MVC design pattern, allows for compatibility of the code written using either of the frameworks. This code can thus be created following the best PHP development practices and, after that, be easily modified and maintained.

3. The command-line interface

In the context of software development, CLI (command-line interface) programs provide interactive access to functions and services for developers to more easily complete certain programming and maintenance tasks.

These programs handle commands in plain text and thus provide service to install, update, and generally make development processes more robust. Artisan is the Command Line Interface and a global command-line tool for Laravel.

By including CLI in the framework, the creators of Laravel, sure enough, didn’t reinvent the wheel. Many practical solutions are either based on or pattern themselves after the already existing ones.

In the case of software frameworks, some best practices are adopted from other frameworks. Artisan CLI in Laravel is an example of such successful transferring, as fundamentally, Artisan is driven by the Symfony Console component.

Among the common use cases of Artisan, one can single out the management of database migrations, authentication and authorization, publishing of package assets, starting of the Laravel development server, the establishment of scaffoldings for a variety of front-end frameworks, adding of records to a database through seeding, and generation of code for new controllers, models, and migrations.

Of course, there are many more helpful commands for building a Laravel application. But what is more important is that developers can implement their own custom commands and thus further extend Laravel’s functionality. Luckily, there is an exhaustive tutorial on how to do that on the official website of the framework.

By such means, the Artisan command-line interface allows making the development process simpler, easier, and faster. It eliminates the need to repetitively execute those tedious coding tasks that are otherwise performed manually.

4. Laravel’s templating engine

Blade templating engine is another reason to call Laravel one of the best PHP frameworks. In simple terms, Blade allows using inbuilt lightweight templates to create class-based components that can be reused anywhere in your PHP application. The primary aim in doing so is to create amazing layouts as a result of taking advantage of dynamic content seeding.

Programming tasks oftentimes require the use of a template engine as a tool that processes the code in the source templates and directs the output of the processing to a corresponding text file or stream.

As Blade deals with views, the corresponding .blade.php file is typically stored in the resources/views directory. Laravel’s in-built templating engine does the job of producing views by compiling the templates into plain PHP code and caching them for improved performance.

Unlike other popular PHP templating engines, Blade can combine templates with a data model without adding overhead to the app. This process is also known as template inheritance. In addition, Blade equips Laravel developers with a set of control structures such as conditional ‘if’ statements, loops, and comments. These are counterparts, internally mapped to PHP.

It all makes Blade so powerful that by merely using pre-designed packages, one can acquire the top-notch website design with the genuinely outstanding layouts ahead of schedule.

5. Effective ORM and database management

The Laravel framework uses an ORM (Object Relational Mapping) called Eloquent, which is, in fact, a huge advantage to keep in mind when deciding what PHP framework to opt for. It is a built-in implementation that is also the best ORM among all other PHP frameworks.

In the first place, Eloquent ORM makes app databases less challenging to interact with. It functions as a convenient, fluent abstract interface facilitating database queries execution. Also, database migration is one of the most in-demand features of the Laravel framework, so many will rest satisfied with how well it optimizes queries execution and how accurately it defines relationships among different entities.

This ORM allows developers to interact with database objects and relationships using beautiful and expressive syntax. Although there is a possibility to maintain a smooth interaction with app database objects using simple PHP syntax without having to code lengthy SQL queries, it also works flawlessly with PostgreSQL and MySQL.

In addition, Eloquent will empower a development team to take advantage of Laravel’s ActiveRecord implementation, which basically means that there will be a more natural way of building and customizing Models in Laravel.

Eloquent is generally aimed at simple relation mapping between tables for complex cases. As a result, a team is enabled to modify the given database schema, share it among one another, and manipulate it across all the database systems.

Last but not least, the Eloquent ORM’s official documentation is comprehensive, so that one won’t get completely lost trying to find their way around.

6. Adequate support for effective unit testing

Unit tests are much less problematic to run against your PHP code with Laravel. The framework supports a testing feature out of the box. It contains tests that detect and prevent regressions in the framework and, notably, unit tests can be executed through the provided Artisan command-line utility that we’ve discussed above.

Essentially, Laravel comes with a specific set of features that allow performing unit tests through PHPUnit, a well-established unit testing package for PHP. After the phpunit.xml file is automatically set up for performing unit testing, Laravel runs tests on the directories called Feature and Unit.

The former is for larger codebases containing several objects, while the latter is for small portions of code. By performing unit testing through the PHP Unit, Laravel developers can explicitly evaluate specific web app features.

With Laravel, developers don’t have to rely on third-party tools to effectively execute Feature and Unit testing as they both are natively supported and therefore, can be constantly kept under observation, which is important for software quality control.

Not only has Laravel official packages that are useful for integrating different features in the application but also developers can define custom test methods according to specific testing requirements. They are free to set up functions that can help create more advanced unit tests.

With Laravel time-consuming unit tests writing becomes less of a hurdle. Laravel’s testing features that are appropriately used make PHP apps bug-free and highly performant.

Given the fact that Laravel can run multiple unit tests simultaneously to make sure all your new changes are adequately tested. Considering all said, we may conclude that testing with Laravel will cost you less compared to other PHP frameworks, and its unit testing features will empower web developers to build scalable business apps faster and, therefore, within a budget.

7. Routing in the Laravel framework

Basically, every time a server receives a request, a specific action is triggered to handle it. This process is known as routing. And to tell the truth, routing in Laravel is amazing.

First of all, Laravel’s code for routing is quite intuitive. It is clean and simple, especially when compared to the code used in other frameworks for The route can be initiated in the application with a sufficient level of flexibility and control to match the URL. This adds to the expressiveness and simplicity of how routes are defined.

One can also name routes, group routes, bind route models to automatically inject model instances or request parameters, create resources for CRUD pages, and attach filters. Besides, Laravel supports HTTP middleware that is critical when it comes to adding additional layers to the HTTP route.

Using this middleware, one can optimize the communication between the web server and a PHP application without involving other third-party tools.

8. Security is Laravel’s primary concern

User authentication, password management, user log-in and sign-up, data encryption, and route protection are all the focus of Laravel’s security measures.

As web app security remains one of the major worries that businesses face, the creators of the technologies that are usually used for the development of such apps respond to this concern ungrudgingly with some useful security functionality. Thus, for example, Laravel has a number of built-in features that help development teams fight against online threats.

Laravel makes it possible to protect the integrity of the code and the application. It prevents outsiders from unauthorized access by generating a CSRF (cross-site request forgery) token each time a login request is received.

Also, Laravel comes with a built-in encryption mechanism. Namely, it uses the Hash facade that provides a secure way for creating and storing passwords via bcrypt hashing algorithm application.

In order to provide businesses with an extreme level of protection, helping them to avoid injection attacks, Laravel uses predefined SQL statements, thus keeping websites and web apps free from injection attacks.

Is Laravel The Most Popular PHP Framework?

Laravel is billed as “The PHP Framework for Web Artisans.” It was developed by Taylor Otwell, who wanted a framework with elements that CodeIgniter didn’t have, such as user authentication.

Pros of Laravel

It’s easy to get started with Laravel Homestead, a done-for-you virtual development environment.

Laravel Homestead is an official, pre-packaged Vagrant box that provides you a wonderful development environment without requiring you to install PHP, a web server, and any other server software on your local machine. No more worrying about messing up your operating system!

If you’re a Mac user, you also have the choice of using Laravel Valet as your development environment. Incidentally, Laravel Valet supports Symfony, CakePHP 3, Slim, and Zend, as well as WordPress.

Laravel uses a templating engine called Blade. One advantage it has over other templating engines is that you can use PHP within Blade, which you cannot do with the others.

Packalyst, a collection of Laravel packages, has more than 15,000 packages you can use in your projects.

Laravel provides a range of security features and methods, covering the following:

• Authentication
• Authorization
• Email verification
• Encryption
• Hashing
• Password reset

Laravel’s Eloquent ORM and Fluent Query Builder guard against SQL injection attacks as they use PDO parameter binding. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection, which uses a hidden CSRF form token, is also enabled by default.

The Artisan Console command-line tool that Laravel has speeds up development by allowing developers to automate repetitive tasks and generate skeleton code fast.

The Laravel ecosystem has several useful tools such as Mix for compiling CSS and JS assets, and Socialite for OAuth authentication.

Laravel benefits from a large community of developers (like WordPress). You can find them at:

1. Laracasts: a learning portal with courses, blog, podcast, and forum.
2. Laravel.io: a community portal with over 45,000 users.
3. The Laravel subreddit: home to 50,000 Laravel artisans.

Who Uses Laravel?

• Vogue archive – fashion
• Ascot – racecourse
• Camping World RV & Outdoors – retail
• Restaurants.com – search engine for restaurants
• Barchart – stocks and shares
• Visit Maine – tourism
• Fischer Homes – construction
• Explore Georgia – tourism

What Are Some Benefits of Laravel Over Other PHP Frameworks?

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.

Now, you must be wondering why your next website should be built in Laravel and what are the benefits of the Laravel framework over others?

1. 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 makes 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.

2. 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 cyber criminals.

To get a little technical, Laravel uses a Bcrypt hashing algorithm which means it never saves any passwords in the database. Comparing it to other PHP frameworks, Laravel also has great user authentication and restricted access features are easy to create. This keeps you and your customer’s data safe and secure.

3. 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 really easy to implement. This makes Laravel an excellent choice for your business if site speed and SEO friendliness are some of your requirements.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Simple Website Maintenance

Generally speaking, websites built in Laravel are easy to maintain over time. 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 straightforward.

8. 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.

Why we Use PHP Laravel Framework?

Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Laravel attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

Laravel aims to make the development process a pleasing one for the developer without sacrificing application functionality. Happy developers make the best code. To this end, we’ve attempted to combine the very best of what we have seen in other web frameworks, including frameworks implemented in other languages, such as Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET MVC, and Sinatra.

Laravel is accessible, yet powerful, providing powerful tools needed for large, robust applications. A superb inversion of control container, expressive migration system, and tightly integrated unit testing support give you the tools you need to build any application with which you are tasked.

Is Laravel Still Relevant in 2022?

Web applications developed using Laravel Services have performance relatively higher than their counterpart services. The presence of caching systems of Laravel is a big reason. The file cache driver stores a variety of cached items inside the file system, offering a chance to promptly develop web applications.

In today’s stringent market, it’s only the beginning to have a creative product idea. It’s a matter of just a few weeks when your competition can surprisingly beat you in shooting a website that can successfully pull a humongous market segment away from you, and that sounds really harsh!

Hence, a quicker turnaround time for delivering your product in the market becomes highly important. Speed doesn’t mean compromising on quality.

However, the turnaround time should express that the product is viable and, most importantly, provides assurance of an amazing user experience.

Now, considering all these factors, Laravel web development brings a very simple verification process for web application consumers.

How cool is it to have an authentication process with higher output and lesser complexity? That’s exactly what Laravel targets to offer with its amazing configuration.

Considering all those points and benefits, we can promisingly exclaim that the future of Laravel is bright, and new features and functionalities will keep on popping up in the community with time.

Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?

There are numerous PHP frameworks and platforms that web developers utilise on a regular basis for backend development. Laravel is the most popular framework, and WordPress is the most popular content management system for PHP developers.

1. Laravel
Laravel is a PHP framework used for building full-stack apps. It is purely meant for developing MVC-based applications. It is open-source with a huge community backing.

With an aim to provide a more advanced alternative to the CodeIgniter framework, it shares a lot of features, along with architectural patterns, with Symfony. It has a state-of-the-art powerful templating engine.

Laravel also provides configurations for the Authentication and Authorization system. This means in just a few artisans commands your web app will be equipped with secure user authentication and authorization features.

2. Yii
Yii is a PHP-based web framework created by Qiang Xue in 2008. It is secure, quick, and high-performing. Yii stands for “Yes It Is” and is a basic solution for constructing niche websites for a specific audience.

It follows the MVC software architecture paradigm and follows the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle throughout, as do other PHP frameworks. Yii is simple to work with when it comes to jQuery and AJAX.

3. Symfony
Symfony is a framework and set of PHP components for building scalable, high-performance applications. Symfony is one of the oldest PHP frameworks, with pre-configured components for templating, translation, dependency injection, form settings, and event dispatcher, among other things.

The company’s ideology is defined as “embracing and fostering professionalism, best practises, standards, and application interoperability,” according to the official website. Because of its adaptability, flexibility, and scalability, it is more popular and chosen over other frameworks.

4. CodeIgniter
One of the oldest open-source PHP frameworks is CodeIgniter. It’s great for designing safe websites because it’s primarily used for customising eCommerce web applications. It has a relatively small footprint and is widely used for developing payment gateways and eCommerce sites quickly.

It’s quite user-friendly, and it’s simple to adapt for web development. It is an excellent solution for a startup company because it offers scalability as well as numerous built-in security features. Furthermore, it does not impose any rigid coding requirements and allows for creative freedom, which is critical for businesses.

5. Phalcon
Phalcon is a full-stack PHP framework that follows the MVC style of web construction. It is developed in C and C++ and is ideal for constructing highly customised web applications. It was released in 2012.

Phalcon’s devotion to following enterprise development criteria is one of its most notable features. A developer has access to a variety of features, including speed and efficiency, an asset management tool, a universal autoloader, security measures, and caching.

Why is Laravel Better Than Other Frameworks?

Laravel scores better than other web frameworks because of its advanced features and development tools that facilitate rapid web application development.

Laravel also helps website developers simplify their development process with clean and reusable code. It’s one of the few frameworks that has the flexibility and rich features to make it a perfect platform for creating websites and online applications.

Now, let’s learn some of the technical advantages of Laravel and why it is still the best PHP framework to use in 2022 for software developers.

1. MVC Architecture For Exceptional Support & Performance

Laravel comes with the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern. It is easy to use and thus offers an extremely convenient way to build large or small business applications. With it, web artisans can organize big projects with more than five files for improved maintainability.

When you have to work on a large project, you have to deal with a lot of unstructured code. Using MVC can simplify your coding structure and make it easier for you to work with.

MVC support also makes it easier to find files in their logical directories when working on large projects. With it, you can control the process of how your application appears in the real world, so you can improve the app for branding purposes.

2. Template Engine For Outstanding Layouts

Programming tasks often involve the use of a template engine that works as a tool for handling a lot of textual data in web applications. Briefly, the template engine connects the data model, processes the code given in the source templates, and directs the output to a specific text file or stream.

Laravel comes with the Blade templating engine. It’s a powerful, lightweight, and pre-installed template engine that helps web developers make the process of development smooth and easy with its outstanding layouts.

The Blade template engine allows data display and extending layouts without affecting the application’s performance and speed. It helps you create innovative and amazing layouts using the feature of content seeding.

In addition to this, it provides its own structure to create and view a file that includes conditional statements and loops. You can also use the master template to create a simple layout that can be extended by other files.

3. Artisan CLI For Utterly Simple & Fast Commands

Laravel has its own Artisan command-line interface (CLI) that lets you make your development process simple, easy, and fast. It uses a powerful Symfony Console component for building applications. The tool also helps in data migrations, database management, and you can create skeleton code, models, controllers, and more.

Laravel’s Artisan tool eliminates those tedious and repetitive coding tasks that developers previously had to perform manually. In addition, it can be used to generate MVC files and manage data configurations by creating its own commands.

It is one of the few Artisan types that’s made up of all documented items that are required for app authentication services.

4. Eloquent ORM For Easy Interaction With App Database

You can easily enhance the performance of any business application using Models in Laravel. It is the only PHP framework that provides an easy way of building and customizing these models by using the Eloquent ORM.

ORM stands for object-relational mapper, and Laravel’s Eloquent ORM is awesome. As the name suggests, it allows you to maintain an easy interaction with your app database objects using an eloquent or expressive syntax.

It is one of the best ORM tools for web developers, as it allows them to perform database queries with simple PHP syntax. So there is no need to spend a lot of time writing complex code in SQL, which will save you a lot of time.

5. Adequate App Testing Features

Laravel comes with a specific set of features for performing unit tests on your web applications/mobile applications through PHPUnit. It automatically set up the file phpunit.xml for performing unit testing in web development.

It runs tests on two directories including Feature and Unit. The first, Unit tests, are for small coding portions. Feature tests are for larger codebases with several objects.

Laravel can run multiple unit tests at the same time to make sure all your new changes are tested properly. So, when it comes to testing your application, unit tests are better because they make it easy for developers to perform app testing.

If used properly, Laravel’s testing features make your application bug-free and extremely performant.

Laravel costs less compared to other PHP frameworks because of its MVC architecture and Unit testing features. These allow web developers to build business applications that are scalable and within a limited budget.

Why do we Use Laravel in PHP?

Developers can begin building a Laravel application in just a few minutes. It is always a huge time-saver. A laravel web development company facilitates ideal tools and pleasant ideas that help you build a robust website that is faster and easy to manage. The reasons for Laravel’s popularity mentioned above are just the tip of an iceberg. There are multiple other reasons that makes Laravel the best framework.

We use Laravel because:

• Tasks that typically take hours and hundreds of lines of code to write can be performed with pre-built functions within few minutes with Laravel framework. For instance, cache (to enhance performance), authentication (social login integration) etc. are already instituted in Laravel’s new installation which makes the development easier, faster and more efficient!
• Writing unit tests is a time – consuming task, but the effort spent is definitely worthwhile because software testing provides product or service quality information to customers. Laravel testing is, fortunately, already integrated into the framework!
• Developers don’t have to spend too much time analyzing best practices in developing and maintaining web applications and taking decisions on how to properly implement everything because the documentation in Laravel framework is detailed. You can find various courses, code snippets, tutorials on Laravel. Unlike other frameworks, Laravel framework is pleasing and welcoming.

What Can You do With PHP Laravel?

Laravel framework is very popular for custom software development. It is the Most Starred PHP Framework on Github: more than 56 000 developers from all over the world (mostly from the USA) greatly appreciate robust features of this platform.

It gives the right tools to help build websites and web apps faster, more stable and very easy to maintain. Below are some things you can do with the Laravel PHP framework.

1. Authentication and Authorization Systems

Each owner of the web application needs to ensure that users are who they claim to be and thus prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to secured/paid resources.

2. Integration with Mail Services

Mail service can be used to send notifications to users’ emails after various events. It’s hard to imagine a modern web application, for example, lacking even a simple email notification to a new user about their successful registration on the website.

3. Integration with Tools for Making Web Applications Faster

It is important not just to create an application but also to create a fast application, which will result in accelerating revenue. Integration with so-called caching backend is often one of the main steps taken to improve a web application performance.

4. Fixing the Most Common Technical Vulnerabilities

Security vulnerabilities go hand-in-hand with the development of any web application. American non-profit organization, The OWASP Foundation, describes the most critical web application security vulnerabilities: SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, cross-site scripting, etc. The developer must not forget and be able to fix all of them before delivery.

5. Configuration Error and Exception Handling

The way a software application handles errors can have a big impact on user satisfaction and usability of the application. Data-entry forms are one of the most common places where errors are identified and presented after users click a Submit Button.

If something does not work because of the user doing something wrong, he/she should be notified about it in the convenient form. If user’s action cannot be completed because the user submitted incorrect data, it should be reported to him/her in an informative error message.

Without proper error handling, the user may decide that the problem is in the application (it is out of service) and move away from the application forever. Nobody wants to lose their customers or to disappoint them.

6. Automation of Testing Work

Without testing and verifying what the developer has created, how can anyone (including the developer) be sure that the software will perform without any crashes, bugs, errors and in accordance with the initial application requirements? Automation testing is less time-consuming and in many cases more exact than manual testing.

7. URL Routing Configuration

Users will utilize a web application by clicking or typing links. They will hope to see the desired content, for example, an article, a contact form, a product description etc. If there is no URL routing, the web application will never understand what the user wants to see and may show a blank page or an error page instead.

8. Separation of “Business Logic Code” from “Presentation Code”

Such separation enables Html Layout Designers (less costly staff) to change the appearance of a web page easily without interacting with Developers (more expensive stuff). Possible bug fixes and feature requests would be done by developers faster (read as “cost-effectively”) if all programming code of the web application has the appropriate separation at the early stage of the development.

9. Scheduling Tasks Configuration and Management

Whether it is necessary to send out emails to the subscribers each morning or automatic cleanup of the database tables at the end of the day (to make the application faster and to reduce the cost of hosting), any web app needs a task scheduling mechanism to take care of the tasks, when it’s time.

Which Framework is Most Used in PHP?

There are numerous PHP frameworks and platforms that web developers utilise on a regular basis for backend development. Laravel is the most popular framework, and WordPress is the most popular content management system for PHP developers.

1. Laravel
Laravel is a PHP framework used for building full-stack apps. It is purely meant for developing MVC-based applications. It is open-source with a huge community backing.

With an aim to provide a more advanced alternative to the CodeIgniter framework, it shares a lot of features, along with architectural patterns, with Symfony. It has a state-of-the-art powerful templating engine.

Laravel also provides configurations for the Authentication and Authorization system. This means in just a few artisans commands your web app will be equipped with secure user authentication and authorization features.

2. Yii
Yii is a PHP-based web framework created by Qiang Xue in 2008. It is secure, quick, and high-performing. Yii stands for “Yes It Is” and is a basic solution for constructing niche websites for a specific audience.

It follows the MVC software architecture paradigm and follows the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle throughout, as do other PHP frameworks. Yii is simple to work with when it comes to jQuery and AJAX.

3. Symfony
Symfony is a framework and set of PHP components for building scalable, high-performance applications. Symfony is one of the oldest PHP frameworks, with pre-configured components for templating, translation, dependency injection, form settings, and event dispatcher, among other things.

The company’s ideology is defined as “embracing and fostering professionalism, best practices, standards, and application interoperability,” according to the official website. Because of its adaptability, flexibility, and scalability, it is more popular and chosen over other frameworks.

4. CodeIgniter
One of the oldest open-source PHP frameworks is CodeIgniter. It’s great for designing safe websites because it’s primarily used for customizing eCommerce web applications. It has a relatively small footprint and is widely used for developing payment gateways and eCommerce sites quickly.

It’s quite user-friendly, and it’s simple to adapt for web development. It is an excellent solution for a startup company because it offers scalability as well as numerous built-in security features. Furthermore, it does not impose any rigid coding requirements and allows for creative freedom, which is critical for businesses.

5. Phalcon
Phalcon is a full-stack PHP framework that follows the MVC style of web construction. It is developed in C and C++ and is ideal for constructing highly customized web applications. It was released in 2012.

Phalcon’s devotion to following enterprise development criteria is one of its most notable features. A developer has access to a variety of features, including speed and efficiency, an asset management tool, a universal autoloader, security measures, and caching.

Which PHP Framework is Best for Beginners?

Now, choosing the best framework to use depends on various factors such as security, ease of use, scalability, documentation, and more. So, start by understanding the requirements of the project or application you want to develop. After analyzing these factors, choose the most suitable PHP framework from the list in the graph below.

in order to select the right one, you’ll have to set the priorities and factors like ease of use, features you want, etc. If you are a beginner then a framework like Codeigniter can be a good start as it is easy to learn and start with.

As you can see in the survey by Jetbrains, Laravel is leading the list of most used PHP frameworks. After that Symfony Framework is holding its position in 2nd place. It is not necessary to go with the flow. Like just because the majority use Laravel doesn’t mean you have to go with it. Pic the one you need.

Well, it’s a fact that using PHP frameworks simplifies the development process, which helps to minimize workload. Each framework has its own strengths and weaknesses, and they all vary in terms of community, documentation, and the database they support.

As you can see in the graph below, Laravel is at top of the race with 64.1k Gitstarrs, and Symfony with 24.7k is in second place. Although, frameworks like CakePHP and Codeigniter are making their place very fast because of their faster work efficiency and responsiveness.

Now, choosing the best framework to use depends on various factors such as security, ease of use, scalability, documentation, and more. So, start by understanding the requirements of the project or application you want to develop.

Is Laravel Easier Than PHP?

Core PHP is the name of pure PHP language that is used to build dynamic web pages. When using Core PHP, web developers don’t rely on any external libraries neither have a carcass of a built app. It means that they write an app’s code from zero.

Things change when web developers utilize PHP Frameworks for building web solutions. With PHP Frameworks web developers still use PHP language to create apps, however, they provide helping tools and aids such as:

• an app’s basic carcass that web developers evolve into a stand-alone app;
• tools for debugging and code fixing hints;
• architectural patterns like MVC (model-viewer-controller), MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel), and others to separate an app’s business logic from the presentation layer;
• tools to automate recurring actions, and much more.

Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks in the web development market. It has lots of followers as it’s simple, powerful, and fast to use. Nevertheless, some developers are sure that Laravel is for amateurs, while Core PHP can be used only by experts. Let’s compare the two and see what they have in common and how they differ.

Development Quality

Laravel framework provides a safe development environment. It allows writing clear and reliable code even for beginners. It means that when using Laravel, web developers can exchange their code pieces and they will be logically structured and easy to understand for others.

The comprehension of Core PHP totally depends on a developer’s level of expertise. Core PHP doesn’t provide web developers with any set app structure, therefore, they can solve the same problem in different logical steps. This uncertainty results in different code quality. Therefore, the more knowledge a developer has on Core PHP, the better the code is.

Learning Curve

Laravel has a shallow learning curve as many steps are pre-set and automated. With this framework, even a beginner can professionally formulate and modify their app’s code. On the other hand, web developers need time to learn the framework’s tools and how to configure it.

Core PHP is for hard-core players. It allows programmers to script their codes in their own style. As a result, the same functionality can be built in different ways, depending on a developer’s knowledge and understanding. However, once a web developer is an expert in Core PHP he can use all PHP frameworks and create any functionality using just a Notepad.

Scalability and Simplicity

Core PHP is a great tool when it comes to building simple apps with a small set of features that have no extension perspectives. Building a simple blog doesn’t require lots of tools, therefore Core PHP is the best and time-saving choice.

Laravel framework is used for more complex solutions. Before using Laravel web developers need to configure this framework, choose development patterns and functionality they want to include in an app. Laravel-based apps are easy to scale due to their clear division into layers. Also, web developers can add additional functionality or change it during an app’s development process.

Speed

Due to their simpler structure in comparison to Laravel, Core PHP scripts are faster to execute on the condition that the codes are clearly and concisely written. Web developers can reuse Core PHP scripts in similar projects.

Laravel has a layered structure, therefore, code lines will be executed a bit slower. As to the development speed, Laravel has an advantage here. Laravel offers a strong set of debugging tools which means that with this framework web developers can build a viable code with minimum critical errors much faster than in CorePHP. Also, it supports code reusability and allows using code scripts in other projects.

Security

Unfortunately, Core PHP doesn’t provide any security functions for its codes. Therefore, web developers will have to build their own security rules to prevent code vulnerabilities.

In turn, Laravel provides a strong security system, that prevents SQL injection, cross-scripting attacks, and cross-site request forgery. Moreover, it has a secure authentication system that guards user authentication by checking valid tokens in every request.

Should I Learn PHP Before Laravel?

We see more and more people trying to learn Laravel without learning PHP first. Another similar trend is those who try to use jQuery without learning any JavaScript. Stop fooling yourselves and start with fundamentals.

To begin learning any modern PHP framework (Laravel, Symfony, or others), you need to be good at PHP. And, especially, object-oriented programming; all frameworks are written in OOP mode and you need to be fluent in classes, objects, properties, methods, dependencies, traits, and other “keywords.”

In general, we would advise you to create at least one simple project with plain PHP without any framework. You will then have a better understanding of PHP which will allow you to use the Laravel internal functions more efficiently.

Also, Composer, a tool that, in my opinion, made PHP great again. Knowledge of Composer will help you competently use Laravel dependencies, which is a crucial part of modern PHP development.

Also include terminal and command line for Windows OS. Again, modern PHP frameworks use commands for a lot of their functionality—generating code, installing libraries, changing settings, running deployments, etc. You have to know the basics.

All of this is how much you need to know BEFORE starting with Laravel.

How Much do Laravel Developers Make?

The average annual pay for a Laravel Developer in the United States is $92,285 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $44.37 an hour. This is the equivalent of $1,775/week or $7,690/month.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $150,500 and as low as $40,500, the majority of Laravel Developer salaries currently range between $73,000 (25th percentile) to $106,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $128,500 annually across the United States.

The average pay range for a Laravel Developer varies greatly (by as much as $33,000), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.

The salary of a Laravel developer depends on a number of factors such as the position they occupy, the skills they may have and the industry they’re in.

A developer who’s just starting out makes around $64,000 per year whereas a developer in a more senior position can earn around $94,300 per year. The average salary in the United States is $78,000 per year.

In Germany, the salary range per year is €35,400 – €54,200, whereas in the UK, the range is £25, 500 – £48,100.

Starting salary	$64,000
Average salary	$78,000
Senior salary	$94,300

What Does a Laravel Developer do?

The primary role of a Laravel developer is to build and maintain innovative and modern web applications using web development tools. They also build and test reusable and efficient PHP modules and write secure modular codes.

A Laravel developer is in charge of designing and maintaining databases and must perform backend and User Interface tests on applications to optimize performance. They also collaborate and work with other developers in the company to fill data acquisition requirements.

These developers check that the HTML, CSS, and shared JavaScript across applications is consistent and valid and document the entire development process and plan, anticipating any changes during development.

They follow new industry trends and best practices in the area of web development and effectively convey the progress of the technical process, and any issues related to it, to the project manager in charge. They also test, troubleshoot and debug web applications.

What are the roles and responsibilities of a Laravel developer?

• Build and maintain innovative and modern web applications using web development tools
• Build and test reusable and efficient PHP modules
• Write secular modular codes
• Design and maintain databases
• Perform backend and UI tests on applications to optimize performance
• Collaborate with other developers to fill data acquisition requirements
• Check that the HTML, shared Javascript and CSS across applications is consistent and valid
• Document entire process and plan
• Anticipate any changes during development
• Follow new industry trends and best practices in web development
• Convey progress of technical process to project manager
• Test, troubleshoot and debug web applications

What Are The Needed Skills of a Laravel Developer?

A Laravel developer has expert knowledge in PHP and the Laravel framework and is proficient in HTML, CSS and Javascript. They also have a strong understanding of OOP and MVC design patterns as well as open-source projects like Joomla and osCommerce.

A Laravel developer has experience handling common third-party APIs and is familiar with unit testing software such as PHPUnit and Behat. They also have experience dealing with SQL/NoSQL databases and their query languages.

They have a good knowledge of version control tools and systems like Git and of developing web services and also have a good understanding of cloud servers like Rackspace and Digital Ocean. 

A Laravel developer is also creative and is able to efficiently solve any problem that may arise. They have strong communication skills and the ability to think analytically.

What are the skills of a Laravel developer?

• Expert knowledge in PHP and the Laravel framework
• Proficiency in HTML, CSS and Javascript
• Strong understanding of OOP and MVC design patterns
• Knowledge of open source projects like Joomla and osCommerce
• Experience handling common third-party APIs
• Familiarity with unit testing software such as PHPUnit and Behat
• Experience in dealing with SQL/NoSQL databases and their query languages
• Good knowledge of version control tools and systems like Git 
• Knowledge of developing web services
• Good understanding of cloud servers like Rackspace and Digital Ocean
• Creativity
• Efficiency in solving any problem
• Strong communication skills
• Analytical thinking

Is Laravel More Secure Than PHP?

Laravel is a development framework and, as such, it won’t make your server more secure, just your application. Laravel features allow you to use everything securely. All the data is sanitized were needed unless you’re using Laravel with raw queries. The point is, Laravel gives you security for common vulnerabilities

Laravel is known to be a secure as a PHP structure. It is frequently the decision for sites and applications that need an expanded degree of security. Out-of-box, Laravel is acceptable at cleaning inquiry information and shielding sites and applications from normal dangers.

What is The Difference Between Laravel And PHP?

To be precise, a framework is just a collection of different types of programming languages, libraries, design patterns, etc. which make the process of building web applications much faster.

So why are we comparing Core PHP which is a basic PHP programming language and a PHP Framework?

Because they both are capable of building amazing web applications, and in this blog we are going to find out which one of these is better for building web applications.

So let’s understand their capabilities.

There many differences between both PHP web development and Core web PHP development even though they are from a single parent the PHP programming language.

Core PHP is a very basic PHP programming language; it is used to create dynamic web pages.

Don’t worry about what’s a dynamic web page, there are basically two types of web applications Dynamic and Static, but more about that later.

Core PHP works without any extra library, which a PHP framework cannot, so it is very important to learn core of principle PHP programming to create dynamic web applications.

Core PHP uses the purest form of PHP script, a developer needs to know the language thoroughly in order to write a clear and concise code using core PHP.

It required a good amount of skill to write flawless code using its Core form. And it actually saves time if you are really good at it.

Core PHP has a rich set of functionalities available so that the developer does not have to embed the same code again and again.

When it comes to PHP framework, they usually have a fixed set of rules and hence the code can be passed from one developer to another without any hassles.

But with Core PHP, a PHP developer cannot read other developer’s code that easily.

PHP framework on the other hand provides consistency in the code and are big time savers when the project needs to be handled by several developers at the same time.

Also, Framework rarely allows you to write bad code which ensures less time in debugging later and helps you to finish a project faster.

Integrating your entire module becomes very easy as you do not have to separately understand each developer’s code.

Frameworks actually ensure you to separate the logic from the views by using the MVC models. This is a great practice and helps keep the code clean and makes it easy for modifications.

What is Advantage of Laravel?

The benefits of using Laravel are too numerous to summarize. To help you understand the advantages of Laravel over other frameworks.

1. High Security

Every year there are numerous cyber attacks taking place. In such situations, you need frameworks that safeguard your
web apps.

One of the most important benefits of selecting Laravel for your web app development is its capabilities to provide
high-class security.

Laravel itself is a secured framework that does not allow any malware activities or security threats to enter within
the web app. That means your web app development code is safe and secure.

If you choose Laravel, your web app is risk-free from any unintended and hidden SQL injections.

2. Enhanced Performance

Another stronger reason to choose Laravel is its capabilities to provide an excellent performance of the web apps.

There are times when certain features and functionalities affect the site performance. But, Laravel comes up with
various tools that help the developers to boost the web app performance.

The tools such as Memcached and Redis needs to be integrated within the Laravel framework while developing the web
apps and they make things easier for the developers to enhance the web app performance.

That means with Laravel, you have the highest-performing web app.

3. Powerful Authentication

The Laravel PHP framework was developed by Taylor Otwell with the purpose to help website developers. He wanted to
allow developers to create certain web app functionalities much faster and even in a better way.

And, one of the extremely challenging functionality for web developers is- developing authentication for web apps.

Laravel makes easy for the developers to create a logic behind providing access to the authorized users.

4. Open Source & Powerful Community

One another benefit for you to choose Laravel is that it is open-source. But, that is enough for you to choose it
over other PHP frameworks.

But, Laravel has a powerful community of developers and development companies that constantly and continuously
provide support to make it more flexible and scalable.

So, if your developer wants to bring some complex functionalities, he/she is always open to take the expert advice
from the community and make your app as per your needs.

In short, your app development does not stop despite any such complex functionalities and you get what you desired.

5. Blade Templating

One of the key features of Laravel is its Blade Templating engine. This engine allows web developers to simply use pre-defined templates to write certain codes.

But, those templates do not restrict developers to write their own simple and plain PHP codes. The templates are light-weighted, intuitive, and dynamic that allows developers to write code easily and quickly.

This benefit of using Laravel with Blade templating makes your website light-weighted without compromising on the performance of the same.

6. Database Migration

There is one more benefit of using the Laravel framework is Migrations of databases. These migrations allow the developers to easily undo the changes made to the database.

Using migrations, the developers can share the databases to other developers within the team easily and smoothly. This was not possible earlier, but various Laravel developers came up with such facilities.

The pairing of migrations ensures that the databases are created and maintained appropriately without re-creating it. This saves a lot of time of developers for your web app development.

7. MVC Architecture

While discussing what is Laravel, the definition from Wikipedia explicitly says that it follows a
Model-view-controller architecture.

And, due to this MVC architecture, Laravel is said to be the best framework to use for your web application development.

Read Also: Top 10 US Software Developers Jobs

MVC architecture provides built-in functionalities which the developers can make the best use of while developing your web app. The MVC architecture also provides better documentation compared to other PHP frameworks.

And, using MVC architecture improves the performance of your web apps. And, that’s the reason why you should choose
Laravel.

8. Object-Oriented Libraries

Laravel comes up with Object-Oriented libraries. These libraries are pre-installed ones and one of them is the Authentication library. These libraries are full of excellent features that are easy-to-use and easy-to-implement for the developer.

The Laravel framework is divided among modules that allow the developers to develop responsive, modular and even ready-made apps.

Finally

The MVC pattern support, object-oriented libraries, command-line interfaces, a powerful templating engine, the built-in ORM implementation, streamlined unit testing, route protection, and attention to security in software design are some highly featured benefits of Laravel that make it one of the best PHP frameworks for websites and web apps.