What is Laravel and Why is it Used?

What is Laravel?

Laravel is a web framework that's built on PHP; it is used by web designers and software developers to build websites and applications. Laravel is gaining popularity thanks to its easy-to-use structure, which still allows for feature-rich development. Other PHP frameworks exist, but Laravel is the most widely used.

When choosing the framework for your business's website, it is important to understand the advantages and limitations of each, so that you can approach a developer who can build the site you need. In this article, we explore what Laravel can do for you and your business, and why you should think about it as the base of your website.

Haven't heard of Laravel?

Laravel is a framework that can be used to create any functionality for websites or web applications. That means more freedom than typical website builders such as WordPress: web designers can build any feature to your exact requirements, rather than relying on what existing software offers. Laravel lets you get exactly what you are looking for, and explore all the opportunities of web design without restriction.

The advantages of Laravel

Laravel has been used to create over 1.1 million websites globally, and the number is growing quickly. Its popularity comes down to the benefits it brings to your site, its users and your ability to manage content.

Security: is Laravel secure?

Security is the main concern for every website; protecting against hackers, bots, viruses and malware matters to any company with an online presence. Just as we protect our physical business assets, we have to make sure our web property is secure too.

Laravel offers advanced security features to keep your website and files protected and guarded against threats. With user authentication and restricted access to certain features, as well as data sanitisation and protection against common vulnerabilities, Laravel keeps your site secure and gives you peace of mind.

Web performance

Another key part of your website is performance. If a site doesn't perform well, loads slowly or makes things difficult for your users, your business could suffer.

Laravel provides a framework that optimises the performance of your site, keeps things running as they should and helps drive traffic through better SEO. A quality web designer will use Laravel to build you a site that performs for your company.

Traffic and capacity

Every business has to deal with capacity. Whether it's seats in your restaurant or space in your shop, your business can only handle so much at once.

The same is true of websites. How many users your site can handle at any one time depends on how advanced its architecture is, the framework used and the server it's hosted on. Laravel handles web requests quickly and efficiently, so it can manage large numbers of people using your website at the same time. It also has a message queue system that lets you prioritise tasks and give as much computing power as possible to serving your users.

Flexible and easily integrated

Laravel can be integrated with software from other companies to create a bespoke solution for your business, including Shopify and WordPress, content and data systems such as HubSpot, Google Analytics and social media sites. It lets you build a website, and a wider business, that uses as many tools as you need to give your customers the best experience possible.

Full ownership and freedom with Laravel

When a web design agency builds your website with Laravel, your company is not tied to a single company or piece of software. A quality Laravel developer builds the site using Laravel's structure, so any other Laravel developer can pick the project up if needed. Raw PHP projects are different: their structure can vary hugely from one project to the next, so bringing in other developers can be time consuming, and many agencies will suggest reworking a project that isn't built on a popular framework such as Laravel.

Bespoke website design with Laravel

Work with Tarka Web Design to create your ideal website with Laravel. We build high-quality, high-performance websites designed to strengthen your business's online presence and extend its reach. Find out more about bespoke web design, or see Laravel-built websites in our portfolio.