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SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Allows for configuration and extending
Laravel allows for free configuration and does not force developers to use a single project structure, instead they can change it to how they wish. It also uses Composer as a dependency manager which allows developers to extend their Laravel application with additional libraries.
Pro Friendly community
Community "leaders" are approachable, helpful and respectful.
Pro Extremely powerful template system
Laravel has a powerful template system called Blade. It's quite similar to Twig or Moustache with lots of curly braces but the real power comes from the usage of PHP code directly in the view. Blade templates compile directly to raw PHP and are processed in the server when a request is made.
Pro Gulp tasks in the form of Laravel Elixir
In Laravel 5.0 they added Laravel Elixir, which provides an API for using Gulp tasks for Laravel applications. Elixir supports several CSS preprocessors and even some test tools. But it's still in the early stages of development and it will be developed even further in the following releases. With more methods and more Gulp tasks supported.
Pro Can use Symfony components
Laravel uses many libraries built for the Symfony PHP framework. Many of these libraries are well-built and have been tested by users before. Since the point of using a web framework is to shorten development time and to avoid reinventing the wheel for problems that have already been solved, then it's logical for a framework to use libraries already built to solve problems that have already been solved.
Pro Handles event queuing
Laravel supports event queuing and it does so in a very simple way. To create an event that should be queued just run:
php artisan handler:event SendPurchaseConfirmation --event=PodcastWasPurchased --queued
This creates a handler that implements the Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldBeQueued
interface. Now when this handler is called it will automatically be queued by the event dispatcher.
Pro Lots of great resources for learning
There are lots of sources for learning about Laravel and modern PHP. The Laracasts.com website is one of the most useful resources for people who'd like to get into a framework.
Cons
Con Does not follow Semantic Versioning
Major.minor.patch is how it is supposed to go and any minor or patch versions should not change the API in such a manner that the code will cause errors. However, even Laravel's patch versions can change the API (and this may be in part due to its reliance upon Symfony - sometimes it's unavoidable). Laravel is on a quick release cycle as well, so there are many updates (which is also good of course) and many chances for this to affect users of the framework. (Not true any more since Laravel 6.0, September 3rd, 2019)
Con Generates bloated projects
While the speed doesn't seem to be an issue with it (on local tests), in production it may be hindered. The framework creates a ton of files and folders, some of which your app might not even use. Not good if you don't like having a ton of folders and rigid non-standard PHP folder structure for development.
Con Dependency on Symfony Framework
Laravel doesn't completely stand on its own (maybe this will change in the future). A lot of it depends on another framework. This is problematic because when Symfony's API changes it can affect Laravel in adverse ways.
Con Steep learning curve
While a lot of times you can write things in plain PHP, it will hinder you down the line when you want to use core features and find that you have to rewrite code which then causes issues throughout the app. Documentation is good, but you need to know what you are looking for and practical examples are non-existent. Many features have been updated throughout the versions in such a short time that tutorials you find online are confusing to sort through outdated tutorials and guides that no longer work or have been depreciated.
Con Bloated
While the speed doesn't seem to be an issue with it (on local tests), in production it may be hindered. The framework creates a ton of files and folders, some of which your app might not even use. Not good if you don't like having a ton of folders and rigid non-standard PHP folder structure for development.
Con Slow Bootstrap
Due to it using Composer, it has a slow bootstrap on each page request. Even after things are cached. It carries with it a lot of overhead.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Pro Perfect PHP framework for RESTful API
With migrations, powerful and intuitive Eloquent CRUD, resource routing, and simple JSON response out of the box, a complete backend can be written in hours.
Pro Comes with its own CLI
Laravel comes out of the box with it's own CLI called Artisan. With Artisan developers can do several different tasks such as migrating databases, seeding databases, clearing the cache and much much more.
Pro Comes with an excellent built-in ORM
Laravel's Eloquent ORM is a simple and fast Object-Relational Mapping which helps with organizing the application's database. It supports the most popular databases (MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, etc.) out of the box.
Pro Laracasts.com
Like, the most useful website for people who'd like to get into a framework. I've personally learned laravel through laracasts and I don't think I could've done it without. (felt this could use its own section)