Laravel vs React: The Better PHP Framework in 2024?
When starting a web development project, the choice of framework is often critical and can determine the project’s success. Two popular options are Laravel and React, each offering great features to support development.
Laravel is a PHP framework celebrated for its elegance and ability to handle complex backend processes. With inbuilt features like routing and authentication, it simplifies development and is a favorite for server-side logic.
React, on the other hand, is a JavaScript library designed for building dynamic, interactive user interfaces, making it a top choice for front-end development.
In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between Laravel and React to help you make the best choice for your project in 2024.
Laravel vs React: Head-to-Head Comparison
Laravel and React are often compared to one another since they ultimately share a common usage in web development. But they serve different fundamental purposes. Laravel is primarily a backend framework. Whereas, React is a front-end JavaScript library used to create dynamic user interfaces. The comparison below between Laravel and React can help us understand how each framework differs:
| Criteria | Laravel | React |
| Architecture | Follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture | Component-based architecture |
| Design Philosophy | Ideal for managing backend logic and data | Focuses on building reusable UI components |
| Development Workflow | Main focus on backend logic, database management, and routing | Development revolves around building dynamic UI and managing front-end states |
| Performance | Performs well in complex backend tasks. But performance may depend on server and database optimizations | Suitable for rendering dynamic UIs and performance enhancements through virtual DOM and concurrent rendering |
| Third-Party Integrations | Supports third-party packages like caching, authentication and queues | Integrates with libraries like Redux for state management and other JavaScript tools |
| Deployment | Laravel is deployed on server-side environments and works with platforms offering PHP support | Deployed for client-side rendering but can also be used for server-side rendering when paired with frameworks (Next.js) |
| Hosting | Best suited for conventional server-based hosting setup | React apps can be deployed on platforms that support JavaScript-based hosting |
| Learning Curve | Medium to high, particularly for developers not familiar with PHP or MVC frameworks | Low to medium. Easier to learn for those familiar with JavaScript but learning complex features may take time |
| Community Support | Strong PHP community | Active Javascript community |
| Development Speed | Fast development with built-in tools and features | Faster front-end development with reusable components |
| Security | Has built-in security features like CSRF protection, SQL injection prevention, and more | Doesn’t handle backend security itself but can implement security best practices on the front end |
| Scalability | Scalable for large, enterprise-level applications involving backend processes | Scalable on the front end, and capable of managing dynamic UIs |
Understanding Laravel in 2024
Laravel has positioned itself as one of the most popular and widely used PHP frameworks of the modern era for backend development. It offers a comprehensive set of functionalities that simplify and streamline the development process.
Known for its clean and modular structure, Laravel is extensively used to build web applications needing a strongly supported backend. In 2024, Laravel is a top PHP framework that has a well-structured architecture and is ideal for the development of scalable applications.
Source: Laravel News
When Was Laravel Created?
Created in 2011 by Taylor Otwell, Laravel is an elegant PHP framework designed to ease web application development. Otwell envisioned it to provide a more organized alternative to the very popular CodeIgniter at that time, including features like routing, authentication, and an ORM. Ease of use, flexibility, and powerful out-of-the-box features have grown Laravel into one of the most used frameworks over the years.
Laravel’s Ecosystem
The Laravel ecosystem complements the core framework with a set of tools that enables developers to simplify and optimize development processes. In turn, this extends the framework’s capabilities for modern web and API development. Tools like Laravel Mix and Forge, when integrated with Laravel, greatly enhance its potential.
Laravel Mix
Laravel Mix is a tool that simplifies compiling and optimizing your assets such as CSS and JavaScript. Developed on top of Webpack, it provides a fluent API for defining build steps for your Laravel application using an expressive syntax. Laravel Mix allows developers to manage front-end assets, from CSS, Sass or Less compilation to bundling JavaScript modules, especially in full-stack applications that require both front-end and back-end optimizations.
Laravel Forge
Forge is a server management tool that serves the purpose of deploying and managing Laravel applications and other PHP-based projects. It automates repetitive tasks involved in deploying applications to cloud providers, from provisioning servers and setting up databases to configuring security features like SSL. Forge allows developers to deploy their Laravel applications to AWS, DigitalOcean, Linode, and similar platforms, ensuring smooth and secure deployments.
Laravel Horizon
Laravel Horizon offers a dashboard to keep track of job queues in real-time. It is useful for applications that rely heavily on queues. This functionality helps manage jobs much more conveniently, giving a lot of valuable insights into performance.
Source: Laravel News
API Development in Laravel
Modern applications rely on APIs, and Laravel is fully equipped to handle that with strong API development functionalities. Whether you are looking to build a simple RESTful API or a more complex GraphQL API, Laravel offers tools that make the process seamless and efficient. While Laravel does not include native GraphQL support, third-party packages such as Lighthouse or Rebing/graphql-laravel can be easily integrated to build GraphQL APIs.
RESTful API
Laravel simplifies the creation of RESTful APIs with built-in routing, middleware, and resource controllers. Its routing system makes defining API endpoints easy, and tools like Eloquent ORM streamline database interactions. It makes data manipulation within your API more intuitive. Laravel’s authentication and authorization features, including Passport and Sanctum, provide secure token-based authentication and it’s crucial for the API security.
API Resource Classes
Laravel provides resource classes to transform your models and collections into JSON responses. This keeps your API responses clean, consistent, and easy to maintain. Resource classes allow developers to customize API response structures, and this ensures data is optimized for client-side use.
Rate Limiting and Throttling
Laravel includes built-in rate-limiting and throttling features, ensuring your API can handle heavy traffic. At the same time, it offers stern protection against abusive requests. These features are essential for managing large-scale API interactions.
Key Features of Laravel in 2024
Laravel’s feature set is growing at a rapid pace. Above all, it provides developers with powerful features to streamline the backend development. Here are some standout features of Laravel in 2024 that we need to know:
Blade Templating Engine
Laravel’s Blade templating engine simplifies writing dynamic HTML and seamlessly integrates with PHP code. Blade enables dynamic HTML templating and integrates smoothly with PHP code. It is lightweight and compiles views into plain PHP, contributing to efficient rendering.
MVC Architecture
The Model-View-Controller (MVC) structure in Laravel offers a clear separation between business logic and presentation. This particular feature helps make the code easy to manage, especially for large applications.
Source: GeeksforGeeks
Built-in Authentication
Laravel has built-in authentication and authorization features that help in enhancing the security of web applications. These have been further improved in 2024 to include more flexibility when dealing with complex permission roles.
Eloquent ORM
Eloquent ORM in Laravel helps while interacting with databases. It has expressive syntax, which makes the job of dealing with complicated queries in the database much easier to do while reducing the time spent on writing SQL.
RESTful Routing
Laravel has a remarkably efficient routing system that makes it a lot easier to define clean and maintainable definitions of routes. Hence, it is fully capable of developing scalable APIs and web applications.
Task Scheduling and Queues
Laravel’s task scheduling system, built on top of cron jobs, allows developers to automate recurring tasks such as sending emails or database maintenance. The queue system allows deferred processing of time-consuming tasks, keeping the application responsive even under heavy loads.
Laravel’s Strength in Large-Scale Applications
Laravel is designed to be used with high-scale, enterprise-level applications. With its modular architecture and built-in features like queues, caching, and database migrations, applications are easy to scale. However, scalability in large-scale applications also relies on the proper setup of infrastructure.
Developers can build complex, feature-rich applications that remain easy to maintain as they scale, making Laravel the best choice for projects that require scalability and performance in the long run. Besides the framework, the role of underlying infrastructure is also very important for scalability,
Performance Improvements in Laravel for 2024
To meet the growing demands of building the backend of web applications, some key enhancements have been made in Laravel. These include improvements in database query optimization, caching mechanisms, and efficient task management for fast loading and smooth execution of tasks.
These functionalities help ensure that resource-intensive applications continue to perform at the top level. Also, the integration of tools like Redis for caching and Horizon for management of queue ensures applications built on Laravel can handle heavy traffic without a lag in their efficiency and speed.
Understanding React in 2024
React is one of the most widely adopted JavaScript libraries for front-end development in 2024 and offers efficiency in building dynamic user interfaces. React itself is a JavaScript library that results in more flexibility, enhanced performance, and the development of a responsive web application. In 2024, React still stands at the top for front-end development due to its vast ecosystem, robust features, and continuous evolution towards the enhancement of end user experience.
Source: Linkedin Blog
When Was React Created?
React was developed by Jordan Walke at Facebook in the year 2013. It was originally developed to handle complex user interface updates with enhanced performance on Facebook’s platforms. Since then, React has grown to become an important cornerstone for modern web development, used by developers across the world.
React’s Ecosystem
React’s prominence comes from its vast ecosystem of libraries and tools that enhance its capabilities. While React itself is a UI library, its ecosystem allows developers to build scalable applications by integrating various complementary tools.
Some of the most used libraries in the React’s ecosystem are:
Redux
Redux is a state management library that is used with React for the centralization of application state.The great feature about Redux is that it offers a predictable state container that manages global states across complex applications and React handles the UI. This container makes it easy to manage shared data across components and this works well for large-scale applications. React’s Context API and React Query have emerged as modern alternatives as their usage is common for state management in small apps.
React Router
With its powerful routing capabilities, React Router helps with navigation in the Single Page Applications which can often be complex. Without the requirement for page reload, developers can define the URL structure and navigation paths. So it plays a crucial role in enhancing the user experience for apps built on React.
React Query
React Query is a powerful tool for managing server-side state in applications that require frequent data fetching and synchronization with a backend. It simplifies tasks like caching, background data synchronization, and updating the UI with fresh data. This makes it useful for applications that handle large or complex datasets.
React Native for Mobile Development
React Native is a cross-platform framework that allows developers to build mobile applications for Android, iOS, and even platforms like macOS and Windows, following the same React principles. It uses a bridge to translate React components into native mobile UI elements, enabling applications to render native views on Android and iOS. It offers a near-native experience and developers can reuse their React code and knowledge when they make the switch from web to mobile.
With React Native, we can:
- Develop cross-platform mobile applications with a shared codebase, greatly reducing the time and effort.
- Gain access to mobile device features which may include GPS, camera and notifications. This can be done using native modules or even third-party libraries.
- Ensure that the applications are optimized for performance and offer a close to native experience.
Top Features of React in 2024
React has several key features in 2024 which make it very appealing for developers working on front-end applications. These features help in the development of highly responsive and scalable applications. Some of the top React features used by the developers include:
Component-Based Architecture
React’s component structure makes it possible for the developers to break down the UI into reusable elements, It makes the scalability and maintenance of code possible.
Source: Maruti Techlabs
Virtual DOM
The DOM functionality enables React to update and render only the components that have changed. This approach ensures that the rendering process is more efficient because only the elements that differ between the Virtual DOM and the actual DOM are updated This is how high-performance rendering of complex user interfaces is carried out.
Hooks
React Hooks, like useState and useEffect, allow developers to manage state and lifecycle events directly within functional components, making the code more intuitive. In this way, the code remains cleaner and is easier to maintain. It also eliminates the need for class-based components.
Concurrent Rendering
React’s concurrent rendering feature enables the framework to break tasks into smaller units and prioritize user interactions, ensuring smoother performance. This improves performance efficiency by allowing React to pause or interrupt non-urgent rendering tasks, ensuring that critical updates are processed first without lagging or freezing the interface.
Why React is Popular for Front-End Development
React is the perfect library for front-end development due to its flexibility, speed, and ease of use. The component-based system helps developers build interactive UIs in no time, while the huge ecosystem of tools and libraries has a solution for almost every problem related to frontend. React also has a strong community support, which makes finding training resources, tutorials, and best practices much easier.
How React Has Evolved in 2024?
In 2024, React continues to evolve with new features that include Server Components for fetching data and rendering in more efficient ways. It reduces the time to load web pages. Similarly, better concurrency rendering in React allows better and streamlined management of large-scale apps while supporting fast and responsive user interfaces.
The PHP Ecosystem in 2024
In the year 2024, PHP remains one of the most used server-side languages thanks to frameworks such as Laravel, which push its capabilities to greater heights. PHP remained strong, but the growth of JavaScript and its frameworks indeed transformed the landscape and introduced a shift in how developers approach full-stack development.
Current Trends in PHP Development
As far as the latest development trends are concerned, there has been a great focus on the performance, scalability, and security. Developers are taking full advantage of the new advancements and methodologies to streamline the development process. Some key trends in PHP development include:
Performance Enhancements
The JIT compiler in PHP 8 results in faster application performance. The feature helps make PHP-based solutions a desirable choice for developers.
Adoption of Microservices
More developers are now preferring the use of microservices architecture. The microservices help developers break down large-sized applications into smaller pieces that are easy to handle. The functionality helps make the application development process more manageable.
Serverless Architectures
The use of serverless computing helps in building lightweight applications that cost less on the pocket. Above all, there’s no need to use a dedicated server. So, it offers more flexibility in the development process.
Focus on Security
PHP developers, with increasing concern about data breaches and privacy issues, are developing applications by deploying best security practices, including tougher authentication mechanisms and encrypted data handling.
API-First Development
There has been a great shift toward developing RESTful APIs and GraphQL endpoints. These enable seamless interaction between frontend and backend resulting in optimized app performance. It works well in the case of developing mobile and single-page applications.
How Laravel and React Fit into Modern PHP Workflows?
Instead of doing Laravel vs React JS comparison, in modern PHP workflows, Laravel and React both come together in building highly interactive dynamic web applications. Laravel manages the backend logic, database management, and API development, while React offers a powerful frontend, ensuring speed and responsiveness to user experiences.
Therefore, this makes it possible for developers to tap into the strengths of both PHP and JavaScript. This integration is popular for projects that require complex backend logic and interactive user interfaces. The integration of Laravel with React offers a viable choice to optimize applications that perform at a top level and are easy to scale.
Use Cases: When to Use Laravel and React
The above comparison suggests that both Laravel and React serve different development functions. It’s essential to understand when to use Laravel and React so we can maximize the operational efficiency and performance of our digital project.
When to Use Laravel?
Laravel is an excellent choice for projects that require a robust backend framework. It offers a robust set of features that help deal with server-side logic. Ideal cases for using Laravel:
Source: CubetTech
Building Complex Web Applications
If your applications have huge processing, complex user authentication, or e-commerce functionality, then Laravel provides the foundation for your project through its inbuilt tools or MVC architecture.
API Development
Laravel is very capable of developing RESTful APIs and handles data-intensive tasks like database operations, authentication of users, routing, etc.
Enterprise-Level Applications
Laravel framework supports large-scale applications. One of the main reasons behind this is its scalability. Applications built on Laravel are easy to scale due to its support for modular development which makes it possible to add new functionalities without disrupting existing code.
Top Companies Using Laravel
Laravel is undoubtedly one of the most popular PHP frameworks. Laravel’s popularity stems from its versatility and ability to cater to a wide range of custom software and web development needs, making it a preferred choice for many organizations. It is used by enterprises of all sizes, from large corporations to small startups. Some of the notable companies that use Laravel framework are:
- Pfizer
- BBC
- Crowdcube
- 9GAG
- TourRadar
- DISQO
When to Use React?
React is a go-to choice if your end goal is to build a fast, interactive and dynamic user interface. We can use it in different scenarios such as:
Single-Page Applications (SPAs)
React is ideal for SPAs because it helps improve the user experience by using a virtual DOM to minimize page reloads. The seamless user experience can help you gain positive reviews of your application resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction.
Interactive UIs
React is very good at rendering complex user interfaces. So, in case your application needs real-time changes like those used in social media platforms or a dashboard, React is a strong choice.
Mobile App Development
Alongside React Native, React can be used to build cross-platform mobile applications that perform reasonably well on iOS and Android devices.
Top Companies Using React
With numerous frameworks available, React remains a top choice for businesses that aim to build sustainable, high-performing and responsive applications. Many prominent companies use React in their development process. Some of the notable ones include:
- Meta
- Tesla
- Netflix
- Airbnb
- Uber
- Skype
Source: Inexture
How to Use Laravel with React
By integrating Laravel with React, developers can build powerful full-stack applications. They can do so by using Laravel’s robust backend along with the dynamic front-end capabilities of React. It would be worth mentioning some effective ways of using Laravel with React:
Source: Tutofox
API-Driven Development
We can use Laravel to build a RESTful API that manages server logic, database operations, and authentication. React will then consume this API to update the frontend in a dynamic way without having to reload pages.
Embedding React in Laravel Views
React components can be directly embedded into Laravel’s Blade views. Laravel handles server-side rendering while React manages all the interactive elements on the frontend. This integration results in a dynamic user interface enhanced by Laravel’s templating engine.
Single Page Applications (SPA)
A Single Page Application could be developed in React, while the backend could be built with Laravel. This way, we can create a fast and responsive SPA in which UI and the backend communicate effectively by using Laravel as an API provider and React for client-side rendering.
Full-Stack JavaScript and PHP Workflow
Laravel handles routing and data processing on the server side, while React powers interactive components on the client side. Both perform different functions, which makes the development process more scalable and efficient.
Why Choose Cloudways for Your Laravel Hosting Needs?
Cloudways is one of the top hosting providers for Laravel applications. It provides a high-performance development environment while ensuring scalability for Laravel applications.
Owing to its cloud-based infrastructure, developers can easily set up and manage Laravel projects by efficiently using the resources available and enhancing the performance of applications. Its dev-friendly features, fully managed hosting, and responsive support ensure that your project stands out and excels .
Conclusion
Both Laravel and React excel in their respective domains. So, it’s nearly impossible to settle the Laravel vs React debate. Laravel excels at handling complex backend applications and server-side logic. Whereas, React shines when you intend to build dynamic user interfaces and other UIs that require real-time updates.
Choosing Laravel and React for full-stack development allows you to leverage the strengths of both frameworks, optimizing your application based on specific project requirements.
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