Let's say you have an idea for a web application or API that you are ready to build and release into the world. You have several options when it comes to bringing your idea to life. One option is to build it from scratch by starting with a blank file in an empty folder and coding. But, what if you wanted to save a lot of time and have some of the key components already set up for you? Laravel provides components like routing, security and authentication, a database manager and migrations, and a strong MVC architecture right out of the box. 

Laravel is a fully developed, open source, super efficient framework written in PHP. Laravel provides you with models to handle your database interactions, templates and layouts using blade for your front-end code, and controllers to handle logic between the two. The framework also includes a router so you can handle custom routes from the URL to different locations in your code. 

One of my favorite features of Laravel is its robust CLI, or command-line interface, called Artisan. Artisan helps you generate boilerplate code for your application, run tests, set up and run migrations, as well as interact with your code using Tinker.

Besides having so many built-in features, Laravel also has a strong developer community. With two awesome conferences every year (Laracon and Laracon EU), a great news site with Laravel News, a community Slack group, and an advanced learning platform in Laracasts, you are bound to grow leaps and bounds as you begin to work with Laravel. Give it a try with our new courses, Try Laravel and From Form to Table With Laravel.