Laravel Application Development: Introduction, Capabilities, and Websites

If there is a framework that offers an exceptional platform for building robust web applications in PHP, it’s Laravel. Launched in 2011, the app development framework quickly started gaining ardent followers and became the most starred PHP framework on GitHub in 2015. 

Being known for its clean syntax and less repetitive code, Laravel has also increasingly gained popularity amongst entrepreneurs and businesses for launching powerful and feature-rich web applications. In this blog, we will gather insights into Laravel by considering the following aspects:

• Introduction and growth
• What’s amazing in Laravel
• Applications built on Laravel

Laravel – A Star PHP framework of this decade

A young and promising framework that comes with a plethora of built-in security features, Laravel has been invariably evolving to suffice the needs of web application developers. Well- documented and armed with an interface that facilitates quick coding, this framework has truly administered the web development sector at a relentless pace.

According to BuiltWith Trends, there are over 135k websites that are driven by Laravel technology. In total, there are over 972k websites that have used Laravel at some point of time to get more firepower. As a PHP framework, Laravel can easily accomplish what CodeIgniter, Yii, and Ruby on Rails can while bringing so much more on the table.

What’s amazing in Laravel?

By delivering an enjoyable yet robust experience to the developers, Laravel eases out the development process by streamlining the basic tasks involved in a project like routing, caching, authentication, etc. From small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, this accessible and powerful platform is preferred by all.

Let’s understand what sets Laravel apart from other frameworks available in the industry:

• Scalability: When you work with a framework like Laravel, you don’t need to worry about future scalability. This PHP framework empowers developers to integrate new features as well as recent upgrades into the functionalities of the current application.
• Time savings: Like other PHP frameworks, Laravel also brings the advantage of ‘borrowing’ components from other frameworks. This means not everything ought to be built from scratch if you choose to work with this technology. Fast turnaround without compromising other critical elements makes Laravel extremely luring to business owners. 
• Highly secure: The fastest-growing technology solutions right now are the ones that help people communicate, work, and improve. Such solutions are demanding in terms of authentication and authorization. Laravel stands out by simplifying access to resources and making them secure on the way. Also, it comes with complete protection from various web app security vulnerabilities like cross-site request forgery, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting. This is crucial for the success of any web application and Laravel promises the same.  

• Fast performance: In survey findings shared by Unbounce, 79% of online shoppers said that they won’t return to an e-commerce website that didn’t meet their loading expectations. Performance is revenue critical in today’s time of low attention spans. Laravel is a PHP framework supports cache back-end such as Redis and Memcached. File cache driver is configured as default and the same enables better performance. 
• Design and logic independence: In most of the application development scenarios, designers and developers have to work in close harmony if major design changes are to be made to the application. Since Laravel is an MVC framework that allows segregation, so it lets your HTML professional easily play around with the design without breaking a critical functionality. 
• Multilingual capabilities: Success of some ventures is highly dependent on catering audiences with diverse language and content preferences. For such web applications, Laravel is the perfect choice since the PHP framework has in-built capabilities that assist developers in creating multilingual applications.
• Growing community: For any framework to grow, it requires the support of developers who believe in it and leverage it to create tools and functionalities. Laravel has a highly engaged community that keeps on adding more value with its ever-growing base of capabilities. This is also one of the reasons why turnaround time has become lesser and lesser for Laravel driven projects. 

In short, there is already a lot of stuff out there that’s ready to use!

Development cost: The number of Laravel developers has massively grown across the world, all thanks to the gentle learning curve and vast learning resources. Developers working on the PHP framework can be hired at the hourly cost that ranges from $20 to $50 USD depending on:

• Language expertise
• Years of experience
• Location of developer or development team
• Timeline 
• Other variables 

Powerful tools: Programming can be challenging even if you are a master of the art. There are some tedious and repetitive tasks that will make any coder reach for his hair in agony. Laravel as a PHP framework simplifies a lot of these tasks, giving a programmer the time and mind to focus on important problems. Artisan- the built-in command line tool – is the perfect example of it. 

Forever evolving: As new versions of Laravel are coming out, the PHP framework is getting better. Over the past couple of years, impressive features like Automatic Package Discovery and Responsible Interface have been added which has simplified package detection and interface implementation respectively. This is one of the reasons why new developers are embracing the framework so fast.

Applications built on Laravel 

Since Laravel is a robust framework that brings huge capabilities, it can be used to build web applications for a vast range of industries. From simple business websites to full-fledged social networks, it can deliver almost anything. Below are some examples of web applications catering to businesses and ventures active in different industries:

Community & education:

If you have been keeping a tab on how entrepreneurship is shaping up online, you must have come across Startups. The platform helps startups and entrepreneurs discover clients, funding, mentorship opportunities, and world-class educational resources. The platform caters to more than 16 million registered users and is powered by Laravel technology. 

Fundraising:

Do you know what it takes to broker $653 million in funding? Besides other things, it needs a powerful crowdsourcing platform like Fundable. Launched in 2012, the online fundraising platform charges an upfront fee to help entrepreneurs raise capital to grow their offline and online ventures. Besides bringing powerful profile creation and payment functionality, the website can accomplish a lot more. Laravel – the technology behind the website – surely deserves due credit to make it a success. 

News and media:

As we have already mentioned, Laravel can deliver a web application solution for almost every niche out there. FOX47 is the perfect example to prove that a news and media website can be built to perfection using the PHP framework. Catering to the Wisconsin Capital Region, USA, the news website caters to a vast range of news categories and delivers impeccable performance as well as experience. 

Ecommerce:

Yes, you read that right! As a PHP framework, Laravel can help you launch unique e-commerce stores with ease. Camping World is an e-commerce store for everything RV & Outdoor adventure related. The platform brings thousands of products to shop and promises flawless experience to customers through unique features. Need another example of an e-commerce store build using Laravel? Check out Invicta Watch!

Nonprofit & research:

If your goal is to develop a web application that will be powered by data and bring unique features for users as well, then, Laravel should your choice of PHP framework. Global Dietary Database is probably the best example of it. Supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the web application was created for Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.  

Unique ventures:

There is no dearth of entrepreneurs who work on so unique ideas that technologies often fall short. It would be rare however if Laravel didn’t deliver when it comes to working with something truly phenomenal. Koel, for instance, is a personal audio streaming application that capitalizes on Laravel for server side scripting. Monica, on the other hand, is a personal CRM that helps you become a social superhero. 

Still not sure whether Laravel is the perfect technology solution for your project? 

Feel free to share your queries in the comment section.