PHP, an abbreviation for Hypertext Processor, is an open source, general-purpose scripting language. The programming language is widely used for web development across the globe, and currently powers more the two hundred million websites, including Yahoo!, Facebook and Wordpress.

It’s good for PHP developers that so many frameworks are available in the tech market for PHP development. But, it also often leads them into quandary when it comes to determine the best one. Although the decision to choose a PHP framework heavily relies on its functionality and other factors to suit specific project requirements, one PHP framework, called Laravel, has been widely adopted in many cases. As of now, there are 33,119 stars for Laravel on Github. In this blog, I am offering an insight into advantages that make Laravel the most preferred choice of PHP developers.

Top Reasons behind Skyrocketing Popularity of Laravel for PHP Development

#1 Artisan

Laravel generates code using a built-in tool called Artisan. Since developers have to mostly interact with Laravel using a command line, Artisan is a great advantage as it rids the need of performing repetitive and tedious programming tasks manually. Artisan allows developers to generate controllers, model, etc.

# 2 Pre-Installed Object Oriented Libraries

One of the top reasons why Laravel gets edge over other frameworks is object oriented and pre-installed libraries. These pre-installed libraries are not available with any other framework, but Laravel. For example, Authentical library, which apart from its easy implementation, offers advanced features, such as checking active users, Bcrypt hashing, CSRF (Cross-site Request Forgery) protection, encryption, and password reset.

Besides, individual modules that form Laravel are based on modern PHP principles. As a result, developers get more freedom to build even responsive, modular, and handy web apps.

# 3 Blade Template Engine

Laravel’s Blade templating engine is one of the best features it is so popular for. It’s html template used in laravel. The templating engine is highly intuitive and makes it possible for developers to easily work with even the typical PHP/HTML spaghetti. Most frameworks use php tags to call variable from controller, like . However, blade templating uses to print variable. It make work effortless. Inbuilt lightweight templates in Laravel makes it much easier for developers to create amazing layouts using dynamic content seeding. Besides, a way to incorporate CSS and JS code with solid structures adds a new feather to the cap of Laravel.

#4 Database Migration

One of the toughest challenges that PHP web development company faces is to keep database in sync between development machines. However, Laravel migration system makes it a doddle for developers. Using Laravel migration you can develop the database of the application without having to recreate it every time changes are made. Therefore, the risk of losing development data cuts down by many folds. Changing the structure of the database is also possible using migrations, and the code to be used is of PHP, not of SQL.

If you wish to transfer files from local to server, then migration will help build tables using simple command: . You can also make new tables using migrations.

#5 Eloquent ORM (object-relational mapping)

The Eloquent ORM of Laravel comes with simple PHP Active Record implementation. Web app developers are able to issue database queries with PHP syntax instead of SQL code because of it only. The ORM makes use of industry-standard conventions to lessen configuration. A corresponding Model exists in every table in the database to allow the developer to interact.

#6 Authorization

Laravel provides excellent authentication techniques and brilliantly configures almost everything. Be it organizing authorization logic or providing control over access to resources, Laravel is the best among all other PHP frameworks. Laravel's To authorize actions, Laravel uses two primary ways: gates and policies (they act as routes and controllers). Laravel also provides Middleware, which makes it easy to verify HTTP requests before sending them to the controller.

Some user cases where we have had to resort to using middleware are as follows:

1. To confirm the incoming route request API key. Assuming you are building an API.

2. Rate-limiting a service call.

3. Change the site language based on locale.

4. Enable site-wide maintenance.

5. Sniffing bot traffic.

6. Logging.

#7 Security

Web development with Laravel is highly secure. It uses salted and hashed password, which is basically Bcrypt hashing for storing user passwords. The built-in LoginController and RegisterController classes, Bcrypt is automatically used for authentication and registration. Pre-enabled tools in Laravel provide protection against injection and xss attacks, which makes complex coding for site security unnecessary.

#8 Intuitive Syntax

Laravel’s principles have been adopted from a universally acclaimed book “Clean Code” by Robert C. Martin. The book describes easy ways to create and maintain code.

Syntax of laravel is very easy to understand. Let’s look at this example of pagination:

Pagination here is set to 5 and Role is the model here. It’s basic pagination, very easy to understand.

Let’s take one more example:

Here findOrFail is being used to return a single model instance. In case of no result, a ModelNotFoundException comes out, which is easy to handle with a pretty view page.

#9 Excellent Documentation

Laravel has excellent documentation, written by Taylor Otwell, the founder and main developer of Laravel. Without a doubt, Laravel development has the best documentation among all other PHP frameworks, which makes the framework even more credible for trying out hands in PHP development.

#10 Larcasts

Another important factor that makes Laravel better than other popular frameworks, like Codeigniter, Yii, CakePHP, is Larcasts, which provides both free and paid video tutorials on how to use Laravel. The production quality of videos is top-notch and they make learning Laravel very easy and meaningful. If you visit the official website of Larcasts, you will see, “Laracasts is the defacto educational resource specifically for working developers building the web with PHP and JavaScript. It's kinda like Netflix for your career!”

Unit Resting and easy Routing also make Laravel stand out. Apart from the ones I have mentioned above, there are many more features like easy app structure that contribute to making Laravel a top choice for PHP development. This framework has no looking back since its inception and continues to grow popular among developers and businesses for its awesome features.

Click here to learn about : 7 Frameworks for Automated PHP Testing

Have you ever used Laravel for PHP development before? If yes, do you agree based on your experience that Laravel is the best PHP framework? Please get in touch with us and share you views in the comment box below.