What is Laravel?

Laravel is a free, open-source PHP web framework created by Taylor Otwell in 2011. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and is designed to make web development more enjoyable and efficient. Laravel provides elegant syntax, powerful tools, and a rich ecosystem that simplifies common web development tasks.

Laravel emphasizes developer happiness and productivity by providing expressive, clean syntax and powerful features out of the box. It includes built-in tools for routing, authentication, sessions, caching, and database operations, making it one of the most popular PHP frameworks for modern web development.

75K+

GitHub Stars

$95K

Average Laravel Developer Salary

Key Features

Eloquent ORM

Laravel's built-in Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) provides a beautiful, simple ActiveRecord implementation for working with databases.

Artisan CLI

A powerful command-line interface that provides helpful commands for application development, database migrations, and more.

Blade Templating

A simple yet powerful templating engine that allows you to use plain PHP code in templates while providing template inheritance and sections.

Built-in Authentication

Complete authentication system with user registration, login, password reset, and email verification out of the box.

Basic Laravel Route Example

                        // routes/web.php
Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

Route::get('/users', [UserController::class, 'index']);
Route::post('/users', [UserController::class, 'store']);
Route::get('/users/{id}', [UserController::class, 'show']);

// API Routes
Route::apiResource('posts', PostController::class);

Eloquent Model Example

                        // app/Models/User.php
<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany;

class User extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'name', 'email', 'password',
    ];

    protected $hidden = [
        'password', 'remember_token',
    ];

    public function posts(): HasMany
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);
    }
}

// Usage
$user = User::create([
    'name' => 'John Doe',
    'email' => 'john@example.com',
    'password' => bcrypt('password')
]);

$posts = User::find(1)->posts;

Controller Example

                        // app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $users = User::paginate(10);
        return view('users.index', compact('users'));
    }

    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $validated = $request->validate([
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'email' => 'required|email|unique:users',
            'password' => 'required|min:8|confirmed',
        ]);

        $user = User::create($validated);
        
        return redirect()->route('users.index')
            ->with('success', 'User created successfully');
    }
}

Laravel Ecosystem

Laravel Forge: Server management and deployment
Laravel Vapor: Serverless deployment platform
Laravel Nova: Administration panel
Laravel Horizon: Queue monitoring dashboard
Laravel Telescope: Debug assistant
Laravel Sanctum: API authentication

Career Opportunities

Laravel developers are in high demand across various industries:

Backend Developer ($70K - $120K annually)
Full-Stack Developer ($80K - $130K annually)
PHP Developer ($65K - $110K annually)
Senior Laravel Developer ($100K - $150K annually)

Learning Path

Master PHP fundamentals and OOP concepts
Learn MVC architecture pattern
Understand Laravel installation and project structure
Practice with routing, controllers, and views
Master Eloquent ORM and database relationships
Learn authentication and authorization
Explore advanced features like queues, events, and API development

Laravel