· 2 min read · Laravel / PHP / frameworks
Why I prefer Laravel over other frameworks
After trying Next.js, Express, AdonisJS and Laravel, I keep coming back to Laravel. Its ORM, Inertia and Livewire, deploying with Coolify, and when I don't use it.
There are lots of frameworks you can build a website with. I'd stick with Laravel, simply because it's that good to use.
So far I've tried Next.js, Express, AdonisJS and Laravel. In my experience, Laravel gives you so much out of the box that you can build and ship faster than with the others, without resorting to vibe-coding. For example, it comes with its own ORM, so there's no need for external packages like Prisma or a Supabase client. And that ORM supports different databases, including PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite.
"But it's PHP"
Laravel sounds too good to be true, and you might say it's written in PHP, so it must be bad. The people behind Laravel thought about this, and I promise writing PHP with Laravel is very different from writing plain PHP. On top of that, Laravel supports React through Inertia, which also works with Vue. So you get Laravel's robust backend with a great-looking frontend.
Laravel with Inertia is great, but sometimes you just want something that works and is fast to build. That's where Livewire comes in, Laravel's official frontend framework. It lets you use the backend directly in your component code, with state and reactivity, which makes it a very good choice for CRUD apps that care more about speed of development than looks. In the end, you can use whichever frontend you want with Laravel.
Deploying it
Now for publishing a Laravel app. I've deployed Laravel apps two ways. The first was configuring CloudPanel manually, which was not enjoyable. The second was Coolify, a hosting panel that makes your life a lot simpler. Either way, Laravel deployments tend to go wrong, usually because of misconfiguration and not testing properly before deploying.
Laravel for everything?
Does this mean we should avoid frameworks like Next.js? No. You don't need to use Laravel for everything and run away from the rest. I built this website with Next.js because it doesn't need Laravel's backend. Using Laravel here would be like using an axe to slice a cake: it works, but it isn't practical. Next.js lets me ship the same result, and it's cheaper.
— Omar. Questions or corrections? Tell me.