If you are confused by all the different web development frameworks and unsure which one to choose for your next project, you are not alone. There are literally dozens of options out there. Some of the biggest names though are Angular, CodeIgniter and CakePHP.

Each one has their fair share of advantages and disadvantages in web development. But we are going to put those three to one side for a moment and get straight to the ‘juicy bits’ by revealing another option which rules them all. So without further ado, meet the Laravel Framework – this is the ‘knight in shining armour’ your project has been waiting for. Read on to learn why!

The Laravel framework is open-source, easy to get started and super efficient.

So what exactly is Laravel? Laravel, is a web app development framework. It is not a CMS or eCommerce platform – they are built to serve a specific purpose. Laravel is more of an all-rounder.

Sure, you can use it to develop a CMS or eCommerce platform – and OctoberCMS is one – but it can do so much more than that.

From creating an elaborate website for the media giant Warner Bros. Entertainment, to developing sophisticated web-based invoicing systems at InvoiceNinja to building the global eLearning platform Alison – all 3 of these behemoths, are Laravel powered.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Laravel.

So where did it all start and why? The Laravel framework was created by Taylor Otwell in 2011, an American programmer, with the sole intention of helping website developers make complex coding simpler and faster.

Up until that point it was messy to say the least. Laravel is based upon Symfony components, but it alleviates some of the commonly executed tasks like routing, authentication, sessions and caching (amongst others) so that developers can focus on building the actual features of the app.

Simply put, this mean less time spent on the boring parts and more time spent on the fun parts people will actually see and interact with! Who wouldn’t love that.

So, now you know the history and a brief overview of what Laravel can achieve. Let’s delve into the exciting details with the Top 5 reasons why you should choose Laravel for your next web development project.

1. Laravel is Easy to Learn

2. Laravel is Open Source

3. Laravel Supports MVC Architecture

4. World Class Security is Standard for Laravel

5. Laravel has a Growing Community

1. Laravel is Easy to Learn

The first reason why developers enjoy using Laravel is because it’s extremely easy to learn the basics. Even if you’ve only dabbled in website development and familiar with the basics of PHP, you can easily develop a 5 page website in only a few hours with Laravel.

All you need is a text editor & PHP installation to get you started. It really couldn’t be easier, which is why 1000’s of developers are learning it every day.

Imagine how quickly a skilled Laravel Developer could create a complex web app or even a CMS to rival WordPress – think days rather than weeks.

But that’s not even the best part, it’s the fact it is highly secure and very fast right from the beginning. When compared to WordPress, expect the exact same website on the same web server to perform up to 40% faster – it really is that much more efficient. 

2. Laravel is Open Source

Laravel is 100% free, with no financial commitment at all. It follows WordPress in this regard and it’s proven to be a winning choice.

As of 2022 there are over 800,000 live Laravel websites, a number that has doubled since 2021 and forecasted to double yet again next year.

You can develop large and complex web applications with the only cost being the developer themselves – that’s a win for any organisation!

3. Laravel Supports MVC Architecture

It is a native MVC based PHP framework. So what does this mean exactly? It basically guarantees a tight separation between presentation layers and business logic.

MVC stands for Model, View, and Controller. It’s a design pattern that separates the model (logic, data handling), view (UI), and controller processes (interface).

By being based on MVC, the Laravel framework provides many features like high performance, increased security, and scalability in one go. This is a big deal and the main reason why Laravel is so fast and secure, all the other web frameworks that do not embrace MVC fall short in this regard.

4. World Class Security is Standard for Laravel

The Laravel framework offers a plethora of high-level security technologies built-in. Although there is no single framework that is 100% protected from online threats, Laravel goes a long way to satisfy even the most risk averse web developer or client.

The framework’s unique tools, such as CSRF tokens, look after the security of the project by checking each and every request.

Similarly, a hacker would be hard pushed to perform any SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, or cross-site scripting on a Laravel powered website. It has gained a reputation the world over for being the ‘gold standard’ for web security.

5. Laravel has a Growing Community

Laravel has a large community of highly skilled developers. They continuously provide support to make it more flexible and scalable.

If you are looking to develop a web app with complex functionalities, a lot of documentation is at your disposal free of charge and a person is never far away for help should you need one on laravel.io.

Your next steps.

At VIEWFULE, we strive to pair our clients with the right platform for their specific use case. Laravel has a lot to offer just about any organisation based in any industry. But the real takeaway is the speed you can achieve it. What this means for business is a faster turnaround on projects which are beautifully coded and work really efficiently – that is money saved, pure and simple. So if this matters to you, reach out for your FREE consultation and we’ll discuss implementing the Laravel Framework with your business.

WordPress is a Content Management System or CMS. It was never intended to become a website building tool or eCommerce platform, it was purely created for blogging. However, since it was released in 2003 its popularity has soared.

From it’s humble beginnings as a fork of Cafelog, WordPress now powers over 43% of all known websites on the planet. It’s a force to be reckoned with, no other CMS comes close to rival it. Read on to learn more about WordPress and why this CMS dominates the world!

WordPress offers control, developmental speed and value that few CMS can rival.

Here are our Top 5 reasons why you should consider powering your website with WordPress:

1. WordPress is 100% Free

2. WordPress is SEO Friendly

3. Customisable & Flexible Web Framework

4. WordPress is Highly Scalable

5. WordPress Community Support

1. WordPress is 100% Free

WordPress is open source software (OSS), this means the original source code is made freely available. This is a game changer, there are very few platforms that can be installed and used 100% for free without ever requiring a financial commitment.

WordPress is one of them and has been for almost 20 years now. Thankfully there are no plans to change this anytime soon either.

For clarity sake, it is worth mentioning that web hosting providers that offer ‘Managed WordPress’ solutions, or the like, do charge. However that is because they are a host and have their operating costs to consider, these costs are not associated with WordPress itself.

As a result of making the source code freely available, there are millions of developers who have seen opportunities to create Themes and Plugins for it. Some are Free, others offer them for a fee.

As of 2022, there are over 60,000 free plugins and over 9,000 free themes in the official WordPress Plugin Directory so you won’t be short of options or design inspiration that’s for sure!

By including these service ‘add-ons’, you are able to create a fully functional website, online store, booking engine or even a membership site – all on WordPress. For a start-up or small business, this could save thousands in upfront and ongoing costs.

Leaving the only costs to consider being any chargeable Themes or Plugins required plus the costs of the Domain name(s), Web-hosting package and the skills of a Web Designer and Web Developer to help realise your vision. 

2. WordPress is SEO Friendly

A WordPress powered website can be on the front page of Google, it is 100% search engine friendly. You don’t need expensive website builders to get you on page 1 of Google or Bing. No matter what their fancy pants marketing says. WordPress can do it too and for a fraction of the time and cost.

We’ll cover SEO in more detail over the course of a series of separate articles (such as this one) but just know – WordPress has you covered.

With only free plugins, you can assign each page and post on your website a unique meta tag, meta title, meta keyword, and meta description. In addition to generating a sitemap that self-manages. This makes it a highly SEO friendly platform.

Granted, these capabilities can be expanded upon and become more powerful with some chargeable plugins. But, the free ones do a good enough job in most cases. This all matters because it allows for more precise optimisation and better ranking in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

One plugin that can help achieve this with a lot less hassle is Yoast SEO – we would highly recommend it, the paid premium upgrade is often worth it too.

3. Customisable & Flexible Web Framework

When it comes to customisability and flexibility, WordPress is legendary. Your imagination really is the only limitation with WordPress. From beautiful animation driven websites to lush image-heavy responsive designs, WordPress delivers.

One of the major reasons why WordPress is loved the world over, by businesses and developers alike, is because it can be tailoured to meet just about any design requirement. And quite amazingly, it can achieve it fast too.

This is all thanks to using what are called ‘page builders’. The two most popular page builders on WordPress right now are Elementor and WPBakery. They will help to create a unique website that will resonate well with your target audience in a matter of days. If you need any help or inspiration with them – YouTube is your friend thanks to their excellent support base. 

Some of the most successful organisations in the world, from The New York Times, to MTV News and The Walt Disney Company – all use WordPress powered websites.

The framework is so flexible, modern and responsive that websites can be created very quickly and be easy to maintain too. Instead of days – think hours. This results in a website that is both cheaper to operate and faster to rectify if, and when, things go south.

Customisability really is King when it comes to websites. Platforms such as Wix and Squarespace have a long way to go in this regard with their highly restrictive and, sometimes, frustrating user interfaces (UI).

This translates into a longer development time, higher costs and limited capabilities. With the ongoing monthly costs to consider too, they suddenly become very expensive options when compared to WordPress.

This is probably the reason why Wix and Squarespace only power, at most, 6% of all known websites apiece. A far cry from the 43%+ that WordPress powers.

4. WordPress is Highly Scalable

With the right infrastructure, services and resources, WordPress is highly scalable. It can serve tens of thousands of logged-in users simultaneously and serve millions of page views each and every month without skipping a beat.

WordPress has the ability to process page requests immediately and can deliver lightning fast results to search queries too. As a result, WordPress is a highly scalable platform that can support almost any growing business – even multi-million dollar corporations like the ones listed above.

Two of the most powerful features of WordPress are its enterprise integration and multi-site capabilities. It has the ability, with little to no coding, to integrate with a wide variety of disparate enterprise level platforms. Including CRM systems such as Salesforce, custom data synchronisation, eCommerce stores and single sign-on systems.

Multi-site is a type of WordPress installation that allows you to create, and manage, multiple websites from one single WordPress dashboard.

This capability makes website management a breeze, making changes and updates all from just one place results in less complication and easier maintenance when you’re running lots of websites.

5. WordPress Community Support

When more than 455 million websites use the same platform, help is never too far away. There are literally tens of millions of articles and do-it-yourself guides on Google and YouTube showing you how to do things with WordPress. It’s an incredible support base and nothing else comes close.

Sourcing a developer isn’t a chore either, there are millions of them that are ready to help resolve your issue – from design to integration and everything in between. An expert is quick to find with only a Google Search these days and you’ll be up and running in no time.

Remember, no platform is perfect and WordPress is no exception. Problems happen and they often derive from updates. It’s just a matter of when, not if, things go wrong with any website platform. So it’s really important you have support on-hand when you need it and you’ll never be far away from a WordPress specialist.

Your next steps.

At VIEWFULE, we often start our customers on WordPress. Given its a completely free, open source solution that is also a highly SEO friendly platform – we hope you understand why. But in some cases platforms such as Joomla or the Laravel framework are required, amongst others. These are custom solutions to meet the needs of custom problems. So reach out for your FREE consultation and we’ll talk through your challenges to get you on the right platform that meets your use case and budget.