Laravel
The framework that made PHP a joy — auth, queues, billing and admin scaffolding out of the box, on hosting that costs pennies.
What it is, and why we use it.
Laravel is the most complete web framework in any language: ORM, auth, queues, scheduled jobs, websockets, subscription billing (Cashier), admin panels (Nova/Filament) — first-party, documented, and designed to feel good to use. It runs on the world's cheapest, most available hosting, and its ecosystem (Forge, Vapor, Livewire, Inertia) covers deployment to reactive UIs without leaving PHP.
Laravel is our pick for content-heavy platforms, internal tools and businesses whose product is workflows rather than milliseconds: CRMs, booking systems, marketplaces. Paired with Inertia + Vue or Livewire, one full-stack developer ships features that would take a split frontend/backend team twice as long.
Laravel vs Node.js (Fastify/Express) vs Django.
Laravel against the JavaScript default and Python's equivalent — three batteries-included paths to a working product.
| Dimension | Laravel | Node.js (Fastify/Express) | Django |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | PHP | TypeScript / JavaScript | Python |
| Batteries included | The most of any framework | Minimal — you assemble | Strong — ORM, admin, auth |
| Sweet spot | Business apps, SaaS, content platforms | APIs, realtime, type-shared products | Data-heavy and ML-adjacent apps |
| Hosting cost | Cheapest, runs anywhere | Cheap | Cheap |
| Frontend pairing | Livewire / Inertia + Vue | Same language as React clients | Templates or separate SPA |
| Hiring | Huge global pool, strong in MENA | Deepest | Deep, research-leaning |
Laravel wins when
- The product is workflows, dashboards and CRUD done beautifully
- One full-stack developer should own whole features
- Budget hosting and fast iteration beat micro-optimisation
Node.js wins when
- Types must flow from database to React component
- Realtime features dominate
- The team is already all-TypeScript
Django wins when
- The app sits next to data science or ML pipelines
- Python is the team's native language
- The admin panel out of the box saves a sprint
Laravel optimises for the metric that actually kills projects: how fast a small team ships working software, month after month. Unfashionable in San Francisco, undefeated in the real economy.
Thinking about Laravel?
Tell us what you're building — we'll tell you honestly whether Laravel is the right tool for it.