Laravel continues to be one of the most popular PHP frameworks for web development. As we move into 2025, here are the essential best practices every Laravel developer should follow:
1. Use Eloquent Relationships Effectively
Leverage Laravel's powerful Eloquent ORM relationships to write cleaner and more efficient database queries. Use eager loading to prevent N+1 query problems.
2. Implement Service Classes
Move business logic out of controllers into dedicated service classes. This improves code organization and makes your application more testable.
3. Use Form Requests for Validation
Create dedicated form request classes for validation instead of validating in controllers. This keeps your controllers clean and validation logic reusable.
4. Leverage Laravel Collections
Take advantage of Laravel's collection methods for data manipulation. Collections provide powerful methods like map, filter, and reduce.
5. Implement Caching Strategically
Use Laravel's caching system to improve application performance. Cache expensive queries and computed values that don't change frequently.
By following these best practices, you'll create more maintainable, scalable, and efficient Laravel applications.