The updates are never stopping in this digital era. Every day new technology is introduced so it becomes quite tough to choose the best framework for your upcoming projects.
There are plenty of options available in the market. But, selecting the most suitable is daunting for you if you’re not a technical expert.
If you want to create any website or application, just make sure that the framework is easy to understand and user-friendly.
In this piece, I will talk about the world’s easiest and most flexible framework Laravel. It is a PHP web framework which is free and open source. Create anything you want from web applications to complex websites!
Since its introduction in 2011, Laravel has been a constant companion for developers to create beautiful, user-interactive websites.
As per W3Techs latest report, 78.8% of websites use PHP. That means most businesses are hosting their websites on PHP frameworks.
To understand what Laravel is, let’s first get a basic idea of what PHP is.
PHP is ‘Personal Home Page’. To develop a personalized website, PHP is used as the written language.
In this article, you will have all the possible information regarding Laravel development and the best possible reasons that Laravel is the best web framework.
What is laravel
Laravel is a free, open-source PHP Framework to develop websites and web applications created by Tyler Otwell in 2011.
Laravel comes with a Syntax that is powerful enough to make the development process simple, faster, and smoother. Laravel allows you to build sites and applications with the help of its pre-built object-oriented library.
In March 2023, Laravel 10.4 was released with a File: Json() method, converting existing Has Many relationships to a Has One relationship, a new test response assertion, and more.
Laravel helps in simplifying various activities such as navigation, routing, authorization, and others so developers can occupy themselves with making sites or applications more stable and safer from every point.
Laravel is a back-end framework that works on the server side and creates full-stack web applications. That way it can handle both front-end as well as back-end operations.
Thanks to all the pre-built features of Laravel, developers can save time from building a website from scratch, which also saves resources on project development.
Why is laravel the best framework?
According to Wikipedia, “Taylor Otwell created Laravel as an attempt to provide a more advanced alternative to the CodeIgniter framework, which did not provide certain features such as built-in support for user authentication and authorization.”
Its many in-built features are one of the many reasons why developers prefer to use Laravel among many frameworks. Laravel gives developers the flexibility to build different websites.
Laravel is an ideal choice for web development because it follows MVC architecture. its significant documentation and wide range of web application functions improve overall efficiency.
It brings structure to unstructured codes that make a highly secure project, its robust security feature makes Laravel a good choice. Laravel competes with 68 competitor tools in the programming framework category and maintains the title of being the easy-to-use framework tool of all.
Currently, Laravel is hosted on GitHub. There are 72.8k stars and 23.5k forks available on GitHub.
As per the data received from Google Trends, Laravel has been one of the most used web frameworks for the past 5 years.
While compared to other Popular PHP frameworks, 47.3% of all websites are built using Laravel.
According to data available on GitHub 711,178 Live Websites are currently using Laravel, while more than 15 million websites are hosted on Laravel.
The popularity of Laravel has grown by 37% in a single year. Laravel has been more demanding than other PHP frameworks.
The top 10% of developers were using Laravel in 2022.
Web development is the largest industry using Laravel with 2357 customers, followed by digital marketing with 1787, and software development with 1717 customers. While e-Commerce is the smallest industry using Laravel with 1062 customers.
USA is the biggest user of Laravel Development services with 21.98% of all customers, followed by India and the United Kingdom with 8.75% and 7.77% customers respectively.
Why use laravel framework for web developments: top features?
Before Laravel was introduced, CodeIgniter was one of the best frameworks available for web development. But there were a few features that CodeIgniter did not provide such as Built-in support for Authentication and Authorization.
- Query Builder
- Open Source
- Object-Oriented Libraries
- IoT Integration
- Multilingual website
- Command-line Interface (CLI)
- MVC Architecture
Query builder
Since Laravel 3, a new feature Query Builder has been available to provide more direct database access. Laravel’s query builder provides classes and methods that are capable of building queries programmatically.
Open source
Laravel is an open-source PHP web framework and is free. That means you can start your project immediately without worrying about the cost. Projects built on Laravel can be maintained easily over the years and are cost-effective.
Object-oriented libraries
Laravel has object-oriented, pre-populated libraries that can be used to implement several different features into your development.
This can save time and effort for developers to create object-oriented models and it also brings additional functionalities.
IoT integration
Laravel transfers a large amount of data through IoT devices securely. IoT and PHP are the best combos available for developers. A user can implement an IoT feature into their project to gain more databases.
Multilingual website
Laravel has an excellent routing capability. One of the key benefits is a powerful version of multilingual websites.
You can do your project in multiple languages to attract more customers. With its steady URL redirects, Laravel makes sure that users are landing on the right page in the right language.
Command-line interface (CLI)
command-line-interface (CLI), called Artisan, with a limited set of capabilities was launched in Laravel 3.
Later, the artisan was allowed to incorporate different components from the Symfony framework which was available as an additional feature in Laravel 4.
Usually, Artisan manages database migration, publishes package assets, and generates new codes. It can also implement new custom commands that can be used to automate application-specific tasks.
MVC architecture
Laravel’s MVC architecture makes it an ideal choice for web development because of its significant documentation, and the wide range of web application functions also improves overall efficiency. It brings structure to unstructured codes.
Laravel follows an MVC architectural pattern that specifies a set of rules on how to build scalable and maintainable web apps.
It also helps in bringing consistency and structure to unstructured codes.
What top advantages make it popular?
When creating Laravel, issues with alternative PHP frameworks have been discovered, examined, and rectified. To ensure the safety of your project, Laravel’s Built-in testing feature makes sure that your web application is error-free.
However, there are more reasons of using Laravel to develop your project listed below:
Simplified mail integration
Laravel uses its SwiftMailer library tool to simplify mail API configuration. Laravel. Laravel sends notifications and emails through multiple channels and offers drives for various cloud-based email services.
Secure authentication
Laravel makes it incredibly easy and hassle-free to install a full authentication system. Laravel framework accomplishes different tasks such as logging in, signing up, and resetting the password with the assistance of a single command. It also provides a way to control access and organize authorization logic.
Automated unit and testing features
Laravel’s unit testing features examine the web software’s performance. It shows the overall performance of the application without any glitches or errors.
Developers can easily test and analyze results effectively without spending extra cost or effort. With this built-in security feature, you can save costs on implementing tests on your project.
Traffic-handling
To grow your business, it is important to build a strong website that doesn’t crash under server loads. Laravel has a unique queuing system that can prioritize certain tasks to run faster and postpone certain other tasks.
The framework helps in building a website that handles requests much faster and works smoothly. You can save the extra cost of hosting and implementing other speed optimization techniques.
Caching for better performances
Caching improves the overall performance of any system or application. Laravel supports server-side caching with built-in drivers and also stores cached objects. By appropriate caching, you can improve your application’s backend performance and memory.
Automated task execution and scheduling
Every web application needs to automate tasks when necessary. Such as sending emails, implying new orders into your execution system, or cleaning up junk or cache memory to improve the website’s performance.
Before Laravel was introduced, developers had to generate a Cron entry to schedule each task. Laravel comes with a feature ‘Command Scheduler’ that allows developers to command a schedule and it automatically executes it.
Moreover, it occupies only a single Cron record and reduces the cost of hosting.
Integration of third parties
Your company’s marketing tool, custom payment gateways like PayPal or GooglePay, or a website chat, every company’s website require third-party integration.
If your site demands third-party integration, Laravel offers basic APIs for integration which makes it a solid choice for the process of web development.
Security of web resources
Laravel uses advanced security features such as the Bcrypt hashing algorithm, which never stores passwords in the database.
Laravel’s advanced security features are easy to implement on any website to improve security and fix vulnerabilities before deployment. As a secure framework, Laravel saves developers’ code.
Managing errors
The development of different forms and when the user enters wrong data or doesn’t enter any data at all can cause some inconvenience to developers.
In addition to the built-in library, Laravel also has a built-in error and exception managing module. This means that errors can be solved in real-time and can deliver effective solutions to the customers.
Database migration
In the whole process of creating a full-stack web app, database migration requires more time and effort from developers. Laravel has a built-in database synchronization, which improves the quality and security of the project.
Simplified URL redirect
Laravel’s ability to simplify URLs makes it easier to define and identify routes. URL routing promotes navigation to land users on desired page in the application, it is a critical process while developing a web application. Laravel framework makes the entire process easy.
Cost effective
One of the biggest advantages of using Laravel is, it is a free and open-sourced network. You can use it for free but after hiring a good developer to build your product. Projects on Laravel become cost-efficient as they’re easily developed and maintained over the years. The cost of using the Laravel framework is reduced compared to other back-end frameworks.
Latest updates and new features
Laravel follows the semantic versioning methodology and because of that, it releases every major update in the first quarter, once a year. Although every minor update is released on a needy basis.
It is recommended to use version constraints like ‘^10.0’ when referring to the framework or its components.
The latest version is called Laravel 10, released on February 13, 2023. The previous version, Laravel 9 was released on February 8, 2022, and the next version, Laravel 11 is scheduled to be released on February 6, 2024.
As per official Laravel News, Laravel 9 is scheduled to receive bugs by August 8, 2023, and security fixes until February 14, 2024. Laravel 10 will fix bugs by August 6, 2024, and security fixes until February 14, 2025.
The current Laravel 10 includes a few essential improvements, which will be beneficial to its users.
Let’s take a look at the new features introduced in Laravel 10:
PHP 8.0 support dropped
Laravel has dropped PHP 8.0 and is now supporting PHP 8.1 or 8.2, so you need to upgrade from PHP 8.0. Meanwhile, it is not necessary to immediately update your applications as soon as the new update is released!
Introduced laravel pennant
Laravel Pennant is a feature flag package coming up with Laravel 10. It is a well-built and well-tested package that includes some great functionalities to roll out new features such as A/B test interface designs, maintenance trunk-based development strategies, and more.
Easy process handling
Laravel process services include many features that make testing and running CLI processes easy to use. Laravel offers extensive API for Symphony process methods to run external processes in your projects.
Invoke validation rules
In Laravel 10, Invokable validation rules are default. With Laravel 9, when creating a new invokable rule, an invokable flag was necessary to be added after the artisan command.
This is what you can expect when creating a new rule in Artisan.
artisan make:rule Uppercase
New string password helper
The new Str::password is very useful to create a secure password. This password is inclusive of a random combination of letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.
Deprecations from Laravel 9:
Few methods are depreciated from Laravel 9.
- The Route::home method, deprecated in Laravel 9
- Removed DispatchNow()
- The MaintenanceModeException class
- The MocksApplicationServices trait
- To use $casts instead of the deprecated $dates properly
- The assertTimesSent method
- The getBaseQuery has a toBase equivalent
Laravel’s use in the future
Looking at current times, it is safe to say that technology is the future. Laravel is one of the most in-demand frameworks for web applications because of its multiple features and advantages.
Laravel offers everything that is required to develop a full-stack web app to the developer. Laravel has the fastest-growing community that helps solve any problems that arise while developing web applications or websites.
Conclusion
As said earlier, Laravel’s advantages are way more than its drawbacks. Laravel helps in making the process of creating your project hassle-free and easy without losing efficiency.
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If you are looking for dedicated a Laravel developer who can help you develop your website or web applications using Laravel, you can contact us as we will provide a solution that fits your requirements and helps you in growing your business.
