Why we’re all in with Laravel

Laravel is the World’s most popular PHP framework on GitHub. At 36,700 stars and counting the ‘new kid on the block’ is setting down its roots and getting ready for the long haul. Initially started in 2011 by Taylor Otwell, and then rebuilt from scratch in 2013, Laravel has been growing in strength year after year.

It was Laravel version 5, released in February 2015, which caught my eye and drew me into the Laravel ecosystem. Laravel was the first framework that felt useful enough to assist me when building a project, but that was not so large I needed a qualification and 7000-page getting-started guide.

The detail inside Laravel amazes me every day. For instance; each line of each comment Taylor writes is three characters less than the line above – why? It’s easier to read. The documentation is not only well-written and insightful but is also easy on the eyes. There are hundreds of examples of these little details which go a long way toward making projects, even legacy projects, a delight.

Laravel is now at version 5.5, with a wide variety of products supporting the core framework, such as; Forge (hosting), Dusk (testing) and Mix (compiling SASS and JS).

We use Laravel, nearly exclusively, for all our applications. It allows us to work quickly and efficiently without compromising on the end product. On top of the core framework, we also utilise Forge for deploying and provisioning servers, which allows for rapid deployment and easy management of our development servers.

In 2018 the development team will be taking their Laravel Certification tests and getting stuck in when it comes to Laracon Online 2018 – we’re excited about what the next year looks like with Laravel!