Explore the Top Pros & Cons of Laravel for an Astounding Business Growth
PHP frameworks are prevalent among website developers because they make it possible to build robust & scalable websites with comparatively lesser efforts. They eliminate the necessity of using more code otherwise required without the framework. There are tons of PHP frameworks and one of the most prominent ones is Laravel.
Statista says that Laravel has usage of 10.1% among the most used frameworks globally. The infographic below offers insights into the popularity of Laravel among PHP frameworks.
Clearly, Laravel is a preferred choice among PHP development companies. It has grown in popularity rapidly since its release, going from one of the most used PHP frameworks to the most used framework overall in just a few years.
If you’re thinking about using Laravel, you should know that there are many pros and cons to using it as your website’s development framework, depending on what your needs are. Many web developers are critical of Laravel and its development practices.
This article will view the factors that make Laravel so popular and how its weaknesses can make it challenging to work with.
Here are just some of the renowned benefits of using Laravel as your development framework.
- Leverages the latest PHP features
- Documentation- Easing Onboard of New Members in the team
- Quicker Development Cycle- Saving you Time, Effort, & Cost
- Smooth Management- Easing Updates Deployment
- Artisan Console- Facilitating Skeletal Code Development
- MVC Structure- Providing Rapid Code Modification
- ORM- Smooth ActiveRecord Implementation
- Mail Services- Multiple plugins facilitating Local & Cloud-based services
Let’s explore them in detail.
Pros of using Laravel
1. Leverages the latest PHP features
Laravel leverages some pretty new web development technologies to streamline developing, deploying, and maintaining large applications. One prominent example is that Laravel includes Symfony, the same robust framework that powers top sites like Facebook, Reddit, Etsy, etc.
It is PHP’s de facto dependency manager, which eases interoperability between packages/apps/etc. It means you can develop apps quicker as one app may use another app’s features or code, just as WordPress can use Bootstrap. It also supports PHP 5.4 with built-in support for Composer.
2. Documentation - Easing Onboard of New Members in the team
Laravel has excellent documentation. It is one of the prime reasons why many firms switch to Laravel. The framework offers tutorials, videos, and API documentation on how things work under the hood. Laravel provides perfect security in both API access as well as user passwords. Notably, these are two specific entry points for hackers looking to break into a site if there isn’t proper protection in place.
Documentation includes examples about database seeding, securing your database by creating a separate user account or password protecting it via .htaccess, and more. Another great thing is that Laravel includes built-in authentication/authorization functionality.
You can add the login required to any controller simply by appending Authorize::user() on your desired methods in that controller. If there are any bugs with some code, you can easily report them on the issues page. If there is no fix for that bug, you can create a new feature request page to add features that you want for developers.
3. Quicker Development Cycle- Saving you Time, Effort, & Cost
Laravel has a compelling, beautiful, and unique web development framework. It takes great care to separate your business logic from all of your other code so that you can move forward quickly. The separation also allows for easy deployment to production environments using tools like Homestead Improved Flexibility.
With Laravel, you can access a robust set of tools like Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapper) and authentic Object-Oriented design. With the availability of multiple tools, plug-ins, & libraries you get fast development cycles saving you time & money.
4. Smooth Management - Easing Updates Deployment
Products made using the Laravel framework perform better and require less management throughout their lifecycle because they are flexible with plenty of resources. You have access to a single command for upgrading your whole website or app from one version to the next all in one go instead of independently managing each performance.
It allows developers working on enterprise projects & clients large with simple implementation cycles. Thus you have significantly reduced risk for anyone working on enterprise projects, whether within a company, agency, or freelance setting.
5. Artisan Console - Facilitating Skeletal Code Development
While Laravel includes its console, it gets frequently used with Artisan, a more powerful command-line interface for developers. Though Laravel may be skeletal for front-end code, Artisan is not. And yet, because it’s just another layer in your development stack, Laravel users find that integrating Artisan doesn’t increase their workload.
As a bonus, creating skeleton tasks with Artisan is ridiculously easy. Just install Laracasts’ Blade Task package (another prevalent Laravel library), and away you go! You can use it to create additional tasks within your application without adding further responsibility to your role as a developer.
6. MVC Structure - Providing Rapid Code Modification
MVC stands for model-view-controller. It is a system that allows different parts of an application to communicate independently through defined channels. MVC lets programmers modify one part from an architecture standpoint while leaving other parts untouched. This system lets code be modified, reused, and changed without affecting other pieces of an application.
Whether you use Laravel or not, working with an MVC structure as much as possible will help you be more efficient. Rather than having to wade through hundreds or thousands of lines of code to make even simple changes, Laravel lets you modify specific components.
For example, rather than looking at every file in your application when you need to change how data is sent from server to browser, Laravel puts everything together in one class that’s easy to edit.
7. ORM- Smooth ActiveRecord Implementation
Everyday use for an ORM is to handle database access. Laravel comes pre-loaded with Eloquent, a practical, smooth ActiveRecord implementation that’s well designed. Not only can it be used as an ORM from within your custom application code (as you would expect), but it’s also integrated into Laravel so that developers can access it easily from outside.
In other words, Eloquent is part of what makes working with various database backends such as MySQL in Laravel pretty easy. You’ll be able to leverage powerful functions such as the following:
- Auto-loading relationships between models
- Query caching through eloquent queries cache
- Lazy loading models based on your defined relationships
8. Mail Services - Multiple Plugins Facilitating Local & Cloud-based services
SendGrid, Mandrill, SparkPost, Amazon SES/Simple Email Service (SES), and Postmark are popular plugins that you can leverage for using email services in your PHP-based platform.
Sendgrid is your all-in-one solution for transactional email. Unlike its competitors that focus on transactional mail only, SendGrid offers web application monitoring, email marketing platform integration & much more. You can also use codes at signup to get free credits towards mail sending services.
If you are starting on your first email platform, Mandrill is by far your best bet. It offers zero-cost transactional mail. It allows you to use multiple addresses with any domain hosted on their servers. It will enable you to use API tokens & code snippets (signup code) to integrate them into your website.
Cons of using Laravel
#1. Issues with Upgrades
Upgrades can be incredibly challenging if you’re in a team where multiple developers are working on an app built on Laravel since it may not be clear who should take responsibility for each upgrade. Having to upgrade to newer versions is rarely fun or easy.
You could encounter headaches like un-updated third-party packages, or maybe you’re trying to update your app with new functionality only to find out that it’s been deprecated.
These challenges can make your job much more complex than need be, but you can take some simple steps to minimize them. First off, always research upgrading just about anything in development — it’s crucial if you want to avoid major headaches later on.
#2. Lacks In-Built Support
While Laravel makes building an app easy, it is also very new. As such, there aren’t many in-built features yet. If you want something like an admin panel or even user accounts, you’ll have to build these on your own.
It is time-consuming if you don’t know how to code but shouldn’t pose too much of a problem for developers familiar with Laravel.
Final Words
Laravel has become one of PHP’s most popular frameworks, but it’s suitable for diverse kinds of projects. However, Laravel is ideal for you, depending on your specific project needs.
If you are building an API or mobile app, use Laravel to take advantage of its built-in features like authentication, caching, event broadcasting, and more.
If you are creating a complex web application with interactive content, it’s best to hire laravel developers. They can help you leverage the astounding features of Laravel effortlessly.
