Laravel is one of the most popular and efficient PHP frameworks in the web development market. It’s perfect for the building of advanced web applications such as Flarum, BookStack, and Larasocial. Consider that the Laravel framework can reduce nearly 35% of the development costs.

This fast, secure, and scalable framework significantly simplifies the delivery of web development tasks as well as offers many attractive advantages. Right now, you have a chance to get acquainted with the most important of them.

What Is the Laravel Framework?

In 2011 Taylor Otwell developed an open-source PHP framework – Laravel. It was created to replace Codelgniter, a framework, which was extremely popular at that time. Laravel aimed to overcome Codelgniter’s drawbacks, including the lack of important functions such as user authorization and authentication.

This open-source framework is regularly updated with new modules and features. Eight Laravel versions have been published since its release date. Each of them made the framework better and more robust.

Besides, it offers 18 user ecosystems. They are developed to meet different needs, such as the security of web projects or the support of top-quality customer communication.

Currently, Laravel is used by thousands of professionals around the globe. Plus, every day, it’s improved with dozens of custom innovations developed around its open-source framework. 

In What Cases Should We Use Laravel Framework for Developing?

The functions of the Laravel framework make it perfect for the development of almost any web project. Its most useful features include easy error handling, advanced security, various mailer library drivers, etc.

All Laravel features are available in pre-programmed bundles. Due to it, the developers can design a website with this or that feature using only a few lines of code. It’s a sure way to save the time necessary for the project’s development. 

Consider that Laravel’s backend code is separate from its front end. This tiny feature can save you thousands of dollars. It allows the website designers to change a web project and its functions without the necessity to get into expensive and time-consuming back end code manipulations.

Laravel is also a perfect option in case you want to stay in touch with your clients. Its modules are designed for flawless integration with different communication systems. Thanks to them, you will be able to get in touch with the users who visit your website regardless of the messaging platform they use. Finally, this framework is an ideal option for the development of unique and mobile-friendly websites due to the compatibility with all modern devices.

Key Benefits of Laravel Framework for Development

Here you can discover the main reasons, which will provide you with an answer to the question: “Why use Laravel?” Nonetheless, don’t forget that you should hire a professional web development team to ensure the success of your project.

1. Advanced security

Security problems, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, often occur during the development of web applications. Thus, there must be a possibility to fix them immediately. Otherwise, there is a risk that you will lose your prospective customers due to a poor user experience.

Laravel will protect your website against the most serious security issues. The framework’s codebase is perfectly guarded. It won’t allow any malware activity to enter a web app and cause damage.

2. Improved performance

It’s not enough just to create an attractive web application. It should be fast in case you want to attract new visitors and turn them into your loyal customers. 

The Laravel framework supports all popular cache backends, including Redis, APC, and Memcached. Integration with them provides a great opportunity to accelerate the revenue cycle and improve a website’s performance.

Take into account that Laravel’s default configurations provide it with the file cache drivers. It stores all cached objects in the file system. Nonetheless, it’s possible to use an in-memory cache, such as APC, if you want to develop large applications without affecting their speed.

3. Better Authentication

The implementation of a complete authentication system with the Laravel framework is as easy as ABC. Using a single command, it’ll be possible to adjust the registration process, password reset, etc.

Additionally, you won’t face any problems while controlling access to resources or organizing authorization logic. Thus, you will make sure that unauthorized users won’t gain access to the private data provided by your clients.

4. Integration with top mail services

It’s important to stay in touch with your clients in case you want your online business to flourish. Any modern web app should notify its users about different events such as successful registration or the beginning of sales.

The good news is that Laravel offers drivers for popular Mandrill, Amazon SES, SMTP, SparkPost, and others. They allow sending mails fast through a cloud-based or local service. Plus, the framework has a simple API over the well-known SwiftMailer library.

Another great fact is the possibility to send notifications across different delivery channels. The most popular of them include SMS via Nexmo and Slack.

5. Enhanced URL routing

Proper URL routing is an integral part of any popular website. If you ignore this element, your customers won’t be able to enter the desired webpage. Your web app just won’t understand which page a person wants to see.

The majority of Laravel basic routes accept a URI and a Closure. Plus, they are defined in a file automatically loaded by the framework. Thanks to it, web developers can define routes without spending a lot of time and resources.

6. Automated testing processes

The framework’s testing protocols are certainly among the most useful advantages of Laravel. If you use this framework, you will be able to get the most out of its PHPUnit testing immediately.

Besides, web developers can test not only the whole website but also pay more precise attention to certain functions. The framework allows simulating basic behaviours of users, such as the purchasing process, to check out whether the project’s features respond properly.

7. Friendly support

Laravel’s developers support not only their framework but also the whole community. You can discover tons of guides and articles, which will help you to understand Laravel better. The framework’s team provides valuable answers to the most popular questions. Also, you may solve almost any problem with the help of Laravel’s friendly community of developers.

8. Manage queue system

This is another benefit, which will help you support the performance of your project. The more popular website you own, the more requests your service should handle. Thus, there is a risk that you will need to pay a lot for hosting your site. Plus, the web service may just stop running, causing total data loss.

The best way to avoid such unpleasant situations is the use of the message queue system just at the beginning of the project’s development. In combination with other techniques, it’ll ensure perfect load balancing and high app’s speed.

The Laravel framework’s queue service offers a unified API across different queue backends. Due to it, the developers can manage the processing of various tasks, including email delivery. They can put them until a later time, which will significantly improve the website’s performance.

9. Efficient task management

A successful web app can’t exist without a perfect task scheduling mechanism, which will automatically take care of all important issues on time. For example, it can send important notifications to your clients in the morning and clean the database tables in the evening.

The Laravel framework significantly simplifies the set of scheduling mechanisms. Right now, there is no need to generate a Cron entry for each task. Laravel has an advanced command scheduler. It allows setting different automatic commands within the framework while there is only one Cron entry needed on the server.

10. Other pleasant goodies

Here you can get acquainted with the list of tiny but also important Laravel advantages. If you still have any doubts, they will help you see the bigger picture:

• If you need a project to be developed from scratch, Laravel will save your time up to 35% due to its convenient modules and handy templates;

• The variety of available modules provide a possibility to adjust your website’s language, functions, and style to meet the requirements of your customers;

• Laravel framework is nearly 10 years on the market, and it has already helped develop thousands of successful projects. 

Disadvantages of the Laravel Framework

Although there are many benefits of Laravel framework, it still has some drawbacks which you should consider before you start using it. Remember that there is no unique framework ideal for any web project. And here, you can see Laravel’s major drawbacks.

Update problems

Web developers, who use Laravel, often face framework problems after new updates. Unfortunately, it may significantly slow down the work on your project.

Relatively high complexity

Although Laravel is a developer-oriented framework, some of its features still may puzzle inexperienced developers. Thus, it’s a good idea to hire professionals with years of experience and advanced web development skills.

Conclusion

Laravel has managed to overcome all limitations and drawbacks of its predecessors. Thanks to Laravel benefits, the popularity of this framework is on the rise. It’s a perfect option for anyone who is looking for a quick, intuitive, and cost-effective solution for their web project.

The framework has already gained over 60,000 stars on GitHub. Besides, Laravel has an amazingly friendly community, which can help you overcome any serious problem during the development process. Considering all the mentioned facts and benefits, there is no doubt that the Laravel framework is definitely worth your attention.