What is Laravel? Explain it like I’m five

Have you heard of Laravel, the most popular and powerful PHP framework in the world? According to the latest statistics, Laravel is still leading the PHP frameworks market in 2024.

But why is Laravel so popular and widely used? What makes it different from other web development tools? And how can you get started with Laravel and build your own website from scratch?

By the end of this article, you’ll have a solid understanding of what Laravel is and how it works, and you’ll be able to create your first website with Laravel. So, are you ready to join the millions of Laravel users and developers who are creating amazing websites with this framework? If so, read on!

What is Laravel?

Imagine you want to build a website that can do amazing things, like let people chat with each other, buy products online, or watch videos. You have two options: you can either use a framework like Laravel, or you can do everything by yourself.

If you choose the second option, you’re in for a lot of trouble. You’ll have to create every single feature from scratch, without any help or guidance. You’ll have to learn how to deal with complex systems like databases, security, and performance. And you’ll have to spend a lot of time debugging and fixing errors. This can be very frustrating and exhausting, especially if you’re new to web development.

But if you choose Laravel, you’ll have a much easier time. Laravel is like a toolbox that gives you everything you need to build a website. It has ready-made components that you can use to create common features, like authentication, validation, and pagination.

Laravel is a software framework that helps you make websites using PHP. Laravel makes it easier and faster to create websites by giving you some ready-made parts that you can use and customize. For example, Laravel can help you:

• Create a login system for your website
• Connect your website to a database, where you can store and retrieve information.
• Send emails to your users, to let them know about updates or promotions.
• Make your website look nice and work well on different devices, such as phones, tablets, and computers.

It has a clear and elegant syntax that makes your code easy to read and write. And it has a friendly and supportive community that can help you learn and grow. With Laravel, you can focus on the creative and fun aspects of web development, and leave the boring and tedious parts to the framework.

How does Laravel work?

Laravel speeds up your development and makes your development projects easier to modify in the future by following a pattern called MVC, which stands for Model, View, and Controller. Let’s try and understand this with the help of an analogy.

If Laravel was a party planner, it would divide the process into three main parts – the Model, the View, and the Controller. The Model is where you decide on the details of your party, like who to invite, what to serve, how to decorate, and what to do. The Model is like a database that stores all the information and rules for your party.

The View is where you set up the party environment, like sending out invitations, arranging the tables, putting up the banners, and playing the music. The View is like the front-end of your website that shows the users what they can see and do.

The Controller is where you manage the party flow, like greeting the guests, taking their orders, serving the food, and switching the activities. The Controller is like the back-end of your website that handles the user requests and responses. With Laravel, you can easily create and modify these three parts of your party, and make sure your party is a success.

By providing these abstractions, Laravel helps you create models, views, and controllers by providing some templates and commands that you can use. You can also modify them to suit your needs and preferences. This pattern helps you organize your code and separate different tasks. 

Why use Laravel?

Laravel is widely used and loved by web developers around the world, and for good reasons. Here are some of the benefits of using Laravel for your web projects:

Easy to learn and use

Laravel has a clear and expressive syntax that makes your code easy to read and write. It also has a well-written and comprehensive documentation that guides you through the basics and advanced topics of the framework.

If you already know some PHP, you can start using Laravel in no time. On the other hand, if you are new to PHP, Laravel is a great way to learn the language and web development concepts.

Active and Buzzing community

If you start developing in Laravel, you can join a passionate community of developers who use and contribute to the framework. You can find help, support, and resources from various online platforms, such as forums, blogs, podcasts, videos, and books. You can also join local and global events, such as meetups, conferences, and workshops, where you can network and learn from other Laravel users. 

Abundance of features and packages

Laravel is a great tool that helps you create websites quickly and easily. But sometimes, you might want to add more things to your website that even Laravel doesn’t have by default. For example, you might want to create a new infinity scrolling page, or you might want to see how your website is working and fix any problems during testing, or you might want to make your website look more professional and beautiful.

These are some of the things that Laravel can’t do by itself, but it can use other tools to help it. These tools are called packages. Packages are like extra parts that you can attach to Laravel to make it do more things.

You can think of packages like Lego bricks. Laravel is like a big Lego base that you can build your website on. Packages are like smaller Lego bricks that you can snap onto the base to make it more colorful and interesting.

There are many packages that you can use with Laravel, and they are made by other people who also use Laravel. Some of the packages that you can use are:

• Laravel Jetstream: This package helps you create a user system for your website. It lets you make a sign-up and login page, a profile page, and a dashboard page for your users. It also lets you add features like two-factor authentication, email verification, and team management. 
• Laravel Sanctum: This package helps you create an authentication system that can be used for various purposes such as an API. An API is a way for your website to talk to other websites or apps. For example, if you have a mobile app that uses your website’s data, you need an API to send and receive the data. 
• Laravel Telescope: This package helps you debug your website. Debugging is a process of finding and fixing errors or bugs in your website. For example, if your website is slow or crashes, you need to debug it to find out why and how to solve it. 
• Laravel Nova: This package helps you create an admin panel for your website. An admin panel is a special page that only you or other admins can access. It lets you manage and control your website’s data and settings. For example, you can add, edit, or delete users, posts, products, or anything else on your website.

These are just some of the packages that you can use, there are many more that you can explore and try. Packages make Laravel more powerful and versatile, and they also make your web development easier and faster. 

Why Use Laravel Over WordPress?

Laravel and WordPress are two different technologies that can be used for creating websites and web applications. However, they have different purposes, features, and requirements. Depending on your project’s goals, complexity, and budget, you may prefer one over the other. Here are some factors to consider when choosing between Laravel and WordPress:

Flexibility and Customization

Laravel gives you full control over every aspect of your web application. You can create any functionality and design that you want, using the tools and libraries that Laravel provides.

WordPress, on the other hand, is a CMS that has a predefined structure and functionality. You can customize your website using themes and plugins, but you may face some limitations and compatibility issues.

If you need a highly flexible and customizable web application, Laravel may be a better option. If you need a simple and standard website, WordPress may be sufficient.

Learning Curve and Development Time

Laravel requires a good knowledge of PHP, as well as other web development skills, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL. You also need to learn how to use Laravel’s features and conventions, which may take some time and effort.

WordPress, on the other hand, is easier to use and learn, especially if you have no coding experience. As a matter of fact, RunCloud users can launch a new WordPress website in less than a minute using a user-friendly interface, without needing to write any code.

If you have a tight deadline and a low budget, WordPress may be a faster and cheaper option. If you have more time and resources, Laravel may be a more rewarding option.

Performance and Scalability

Laravel is a lightweight and fast framework that can handle high traffic and complex functionality. You can optimize your web application’s performance and scalability using Laravel’s features, such as caching, queueing, broadcasting, and testing. 

Although WordPress is very fast, it is a heavier and slower CMS compared to Laravel. It can suffer from performance and scalability issues, especially if you use many themes and plugins. You can improve your website’s performance and scalability using WordPress’s features, such as caching, and CDN but that requires additional configuration.

If you need a high-performance and scalable web application, Laravel may be a more reliable option. If you need a low-maintenance and simple website, WordPress may be an adequate option.

How to get started with Laravel?

If you are using RunCloud, we recommend checking out our dedicated post that explains the process of installing Laravel on RunCloud.

But if you are not using RunCloud (yet), then to get started with Laravel, you need to have some basic knowledge of PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You also need to have a computer with a web server, a database, and a code editor. You can use any web server and database that you like, but Laravel works best with Apache and MySQL. You can use any code editor that you like, but some popular ones are Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, and PhpStorm.

To install Laravel, you need to use a tool called Composer, which helps you manage and download the code that Laravel needs. After you install Composer, you can use it to create a new Laravel project by typing this command in your terminal:

composer create-project laravel/laravel your-project-name

This will create a folder called your-project-name, where you will find all the files and folders that Laravel created for you. You can then open this folder in your code editor and start working on your website.

To run your website, you need to start the web server that Laravel provides by typing this command in your terminal:

php artisan serve

This will start a local web server that you can access by typing this address in your browser:

http://localhost:8000

You should see a page that says “Laravel” and shows some links to the documentation and other resources. Congratulations, you have successfully created and run your first Laravel website!

What next?

In this post, we have explained the basics of Laravel and how it can help you build awesome web applications with PHP. But there is so much more to discover and explore, Laravel is not the only technology that you can use for web development. There are other options, such as WordPress, that may suit your needs better. 

Whether you decide to use Laravel or WordPress for your web projects, you will need a platform that can help you manage your servers and run your web applications. RunCloud is a great platform that does exactly that.

RunCloud simplifies and automates the process of managing Linux servers. It saves time and money by taking care of the technical aspects of your web hosting and lets you focus on your business.

And the best part is that RunCloud works with ALL CLOUD PROVIDERS, try RunCloud today!

FAQs