What is Laravel and where it runs

What Laravel is

Laravel is a PHP framework for building web sites and web APIs. It gives every project the same skeleton: routes that match URLs, controllers that run the logic, and views that render the pages.

Instead of wiring files together by hand, you describe what each URL should do in one place. The framework takes care of loading classes, reading the request, and sending the response.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route; Route::get("/hello", function () { return "Hello from Laravel!"; });

Laravel vs plain PHP

In plain PHP you build everything yourself: you read input, send headers, and print output. That is great for learning, and every Laravel developer benefits from knowing it first.

Laravel adds ready helpers on top of the same language. Returning JSON, validating input, or redirecting takes one line instead of a hand-written block.

return response()->json(["name" => "Ada"]);

Where Laravel fits

Laravel fits projects with pages, forms, and a database behind them: shops, blogs, dashboards, booking tools, and admin panels. It also fits JSON APIs that serve mobile apps or JavaScript front ends.

For a single static page the framework is overkill. Once visitors log in, submit forms, and store records, the structure starts paying off.

Route::get("/about", function () { return view("about"); });

Versions note

Laravel releases a new major version about once a year, and modern releases need PHP 8.1 or newer. This course uses current syntax that works on all supported releases.

Check your PHP version before installing anything. One line tells you whether the setup is ready.

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, "8.1.0", ">=")) { echo "Ready for modern Laravel!"; }

Next: Install Laravel

Article author: Arthur Isaev