Why use Laravel for your new web application

If you’re going to build a web application, there’s no question that you should build it using PHP. It is a fantastic server-side scripting language that has evolved to serve the needs of the modern web app. One of the best PHP frameworks to build your web apps is Laravel. 

What is Laravel?

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework that was created in 2011. It features a modular packaging system and a dependency manager. It also includes different methods to access relational databases and several utilities for application deployment. 

Here are 7 reasons why we, as developers, recommend Laravel as the framework for your new web application.  

Why Use Laravel For Your Next Web App?

Though it’s still sometimes seen as the new kid on the block, Laravel is used by millions of users around the world and can be trusted for everything from small projects to enterprise platforms. If you’re looking for the perfect tool to build your web app with, then your search is over. Let’s discuss why Laravel is Steadfast Collective’s framework of choice:  

It’s Open Source

Laravel is an open-source framework that is available on GitHub. Despite its open-source nature, the application is well maintained and updated with bug fixes and new (non-breaking) features, with a team of full-time developers ensuring its robustness and momentum continues to grow. 

Major releases for the platform take place yearly, with updates planned for release once every year for the next three years at least. Continuing support is guaranteed as well, due to widespread use. Over 1.38 million websites are running Laravel under the hood.

Authentication 

Why use Laravel? Well, it has built-in authentication measures to assign specific roles to individuals and departments within your organisation. The built-in validation code reduces the time needed to compose colossal codes. Hence, you can assign task-specific or title-specific access in a jiffy without compromising on results. Through role-based access, you can protect your intellectual property, and secure critical data. 

Laravel can also serve as an API backend to mobile applications or applications you’ve designed with JavaScript. This will allow you to provide authentication and data storage for an already built mobile app or JavaScript app. 

Integration with Various Tools

There are several plugins and tools that you can use with Lavarel to make coding with PHP easier. Take for example Larastan, a static analysis tool that will find errors in your code before running it. 

Other tools like Laravel Dusk, a browser automation tool, allow running client-side testing in a browser like if it was a user. Another tool, Laravel Telescope provides insight into requests coming into your application, exceptions, logs, database queries, etc. This is particularly useful in local development for debugging.

You can view our own open-source Laravel packages and extensions here on GitHub.

Progressive Framework 

Laravel doesn’t just provide great features and integrations with various tools but also has fantastic documentation. Laravel has an extensive library of documentation, guides, video tutorials, and more. These extensive resources help the Laravel ecosystem expand and grow, helping new developers and agencies continue to use and learn Laravel. 

“When picking a framework, it’s important that you pick something widely used, that other teams can jump into easily. ”

That’s as clear an answer to ‘why use Lavarel’ that you’ll need. Agencies and developers across the road are committed to crafting quality code using the Laravel framework. 

“If you’re a senior developer, then Laravel gives you great tools for dependency injection, real-time events, queues, and unit testing. It’s fine-tuned for professional web apps and handles enterprise workloads. ”

Laravel also effectively handles errors that can affect customer satisfaction. It has an embedded library called Monolog. This offers support for various log handlers. Through these features, it makes project development for web apps extremely smooth and systematic. 

Finally, the platform features built-in automated testing functionality. Hence, you can automatically test any new changes performed in the application. You can see if they affect the functionality of the application or not. 

Blade Templating

This is a simple, but powerful templating engine that is included in Laravel. Unlike other engines, Blade doesn’t restrict users from the use of plain code. In fact, you can compile the templates into plain PHP code and cached. This means Blade adds no overhead at all to your web application.

Scalability 

The scaling friendly nature of PHP makes sure that Laravel can scale without any issues. In fact, Laravel has support for a fast, distributed cache system like Redis. You can build applications with Laravel which can handle hundreds of millions of requests. 

If you need greater scaling still, then Laravel has Laravel Vapor. This will allow you to run any Laravel application on a near limitless scale. This is made possible by using Amazon Web Services’ serverless technology. 

We use Laravel Vapor on many of our projects, including Vet Help Direct; a video-consultation platform, which allows pet owners and vets to connect virtually via a secure and seamless video connection.

Top-Notch Security

One of the best answers to ‘why use Laravel’ is that it has top-notch security against the most common risks. For example, SQL injections, cross-site requests, and cross-site scripting are all dangers to any web app. Laravel’s technology can shield you from all those intrusions anymore. 

Lavarel is the perfect platform for your web application. Not only does it provide all the features and tools you require, but also security, room for growth, and scalability. Through Lavarel, you can build a fully functional, optimal, and secure web app for your customers without breaking a sweat.

I’m ready to choose Laravel for my web application. What’s next?

Steadfast Collective is a team of highly experienced Laravel web developers, looking forward to working with you on your next web application. From membership platforms, e-learning conferencing sites, community portals, and more, the sky is the limit on what we can build with Laravel.

Get in touch to discuss ideas for your new project today.