Laravel 12: The Modern Monolith PHP Framework

Quick Answer

Laravel is PHP’s dominant web framework, known for developer happiness and elegant syntax. Version 12 (February 2025) solidifies the “Modern Monolith” approach, combining the simplicity of synchronous development with the performance capabilities of Octane (FrankenPHP/RoadRunner). It includes Livewire 3 for reactive UIs, Inertia.js for SPA-like experiences, and Reverb for WebSockets.

What is Laravel?

Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It provides the structure needed to create modern web applications, including robust routing, database ORM, dependency injection, queues, and scheduling capabilities.

Version 12 Highlights

Key Features:

• Slimmed application structure
• Livewire 3 + Flux UI
• Inertia 2.0 with React/Vue starter kits
• Laravel Reverb (self-hosted WebSockets)
• Octane performance (10x throughput increase)
• Encrypted environment files

Release: February 24, 2025

Maintainer: Taylor Otwell

Core Architecture

Service Container (IoC)

class UserController extends Controller
{
    protected $users;

    public function __construct(UserRepository $users)
    {
        $this->users = $users;
    }
}

Eloquent ORM

Active Record pattern:

$user = User::find(1);
$user->posts()->where('active', 1)->get();

Platform Support

Platform	Support	Details
Web	✅ True	Full-stack SSR/CSR
API	✅ True	RESTful APIs
Real-time	✅ True	Reverb WebSockets

Key Features

1. Livewire 3

Full-stack reactive UIs with PHP:

class SearchComponent extends Component
{
    public $query = '';

    public function render()
    {
        return view('search', [
            'results' => User::where('name', 'like', "%{$this->query}%")->get()
        ]);
    }
}

2. Inertia.js

SPA-like experience without API:

return Inertia::render('User/Edit', [
    'user' => $user
]);

3. Octane

Long-running PHP processes:

• 10x throughput increase
• FrankenPHP (Go-based)
• RoadRunner (PHP-based)

Laravel vs Django

Feature	Laravel 12	Django
Language	PHP	Python
ORM	Eloquent (Active Record)	Django ORM (Data Mapper)
Real-time	Reverb (built-in)	Channels (add-on)
Frontend	Livewire/Inertia	DRF + SPA framework

Best Use Cases

Ideal For

• Enterprise applications
• SaaS products
• CMS projects
• PHP-first teams

Avoid For

• Microservices (use Go/Rust)
• Edge computing
• Teams requiring Python ecosystem

Conclusion

Laravel 12 continues to define modern PHP development. The “Modern Monolith” architecture, enhanced by Octane, Livewire, and Inertia, provides the performance of microservices with the simplicity of monolithic development.

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Last Updated: 2026-01-20