Laravel PHP Framework
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework that eases the development of common tasks used in most web projects and brings the flexibility to build solutions for innovative business needs on any kind of web application. In addition, Laravel has an elegant syntax that is enjoyable to work with and lots of supporting training materials which speed up the learning process and the development itself. Laravel is also the most popular PHP framework and has a large community of developers.
Updates
Initially prompted by client requirements we've decided to adopt Laravel at Factorial to further diversify our technology stack and to be in a position to take on new kind of projects. We also often use it when we want to build a prototype or a minimum viable product (MVP) quickly.
While considering Laravel for general adoption, we tried to come up with a couple of points that would help us decide if Laravel is a good fit for a project. Here are some of the points we came up with:
- Good for projects that can’t handle big setup costs, Laravel won’t consume a considerable part of the project budget and is thus a good fit for small or medium sized projects.
- Good for projects that only have limited hosting available to them, thanks to PHP Laravel uses only little compute resources to run efficiently.
- Good for projects with lots of custom business logic, e.g. automation of internal processes in SMEs, Laravel is a framework for generalists and you can build any application type with it. That’s in the nature of such frameworks.
- Good for projects that need to be developed rapidly, e.g. a prototype, MVPs, Laravel is a no-brainer to start with and offers scaffolding for nearly everything.
- Good for projects that change direction or re-scope often, fueled by new insights from analysis of user behavior.
- Good for projects that are developed iteratively and where the final scope isn’t yet known, e.g. innovative software ideas (with new/complex requirements), SaaS (product-centric). Laravel grows with you as you find out more details about scale and type of your project.
- Good for projects that are design-centric & UI-heavy, as Laravel adapts to challenging and changing UI and layouts.
- Good for projects where the backend supports a frontend or acts as a data hub and offers API-only capabilities, e.g. Website Standards. Laravel can be switched into API mode with one line of code.
- Good for CRM-based projects: Laravel ecosystem helps integrate social media auth, marketing automation services and payment gateways to build customer lifecycle.