Laravel is a technology recognized by numerous backend development experts for its efficiency and power. In a nutshell, developers choose this framework because it helps build high-quality and reliable web application backends. The numbers confirm the popularity of the backend framework. Today, over 761,000 websites are now powered by Laravel, and the developer interest in this framework has doubled from 2021 to 2022.
What’s the secret to the success of this technology? In our blog post, we’ll try to answer why Laravel is considered the number one choice for backend developers, and whether it can be used for frontend. We’ll also give examples of large companies that actively use it in their work.
Understanding Laravel Development
Laravel is an open-source PHP-based backend framework that first appeared in 2011. Since then, Laravel is still widely popular among developers, because it allows you to quickly and efficiently develop a secure and stable backend for web solutions.
In addition, this backend framework remains relevant this year because Laravel is a universal solution for the development of various projects. It’s easily scalable and has a wide range of ready-made solutions that significantly speed up the programming process. Thus, Laravel is perfect for web project customizations. Also, the ease of backend programming on Laravel is provided by a simple, clear, and elegant syntax that will allow you to write code quickly.
The Comprehensive Guide to Laravel's Benefits
- Ensuring high page loading speed. Laravel includes special techniques to speed up sites, such as reducing memory usage and speeding up database indexing.
- High security. The backend framework allows you to easily install advanced data protection mechanisms against hackers. It’s not about algorithms for reliable storage of customers and company activity data only. Laravel-based web solutions may contain an internal security mechanism, such as the Bcrypt algorithm, which prevents logins and passwords from being stored on the site.
- An active community of developers around the world. Every library and framework that is relevant has a large community of specialists who support and use this technology. And thanks to the community, these technologies are actively updated and have technical support. We wrote more about this in one of our previous blog posts.
- Built-in testing mechanisms. Laravel is also popular because this backend framework has a focus on code testing and solving system bugs. So, this framework has built-in test suites, including a PHP Unit.
- Cost savings. Hiring Laravel developers from an outsourcing company costs money for a company that orders web development services. On the other hand, since Laravel is an open-source framework, it is freely available to developers, at almost no additional cost.
Is Laravel Truly Full-Stack?
Even though Laravel was created specifically for backend development, sometimes students who learn programming ask the question: “Is Laravel a full-stack framework?” Although Laravel is primarily intended for backend development, some of its features are also intended for frontend as well. That is why some experts consider Laravel to be a full-stack framework.
For example, the Laravel UI package provides professionals with a convenient toolkit for front-end development. Using Laravel UI, you can more easily incorporate front-end technologies based on CSS and JavaScript programming languages. Although Laravel UI is still used, there are also more modern frontend packages like Laravel Breeze and Laravel Jetstream. Laravel Breeze provides the installation of authentication functions on the site, such as login, password, e-mail verification, confirmation, and password reset. Laravel Jetstream has similar functionality, but it also offers two-factor authentication, session management, and API implementation into the web solution.
Top Brands Powered by Laravel
- BBC, a world-renowned British media, actively uses the PHP-based framework to create websites and applications for news broadcasts, educational programs, as well as their movies and TV series.
- Pfizer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, which, not least, is responsible for the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. In this case. Laravel is a perfect backend framework for the company’s web solutions because it is a fast and reliable tool for creating a well-secured customer database, which is key for healthcare platforms.
- Tour Radar is a well-known Austrian company that allows users to book trips to different parts of the world. Their services also include excursions and visits to interesting tourist places. The company has an interactive booking platform where customers can order travel services online, and the backend of this platform is built on Laravel.
- 9gag is an entertaining site for sharing memes and webcomics. The winning combination of Laravel and Vue.JS, which we mentioned in one of the previous blog posts, was used to develop this site.
