Laravel is a free, open source web application PHP framework.
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Next.js
Score 8.2 out of 10
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Next.js is a React framework for production designed to give the best developer experience with all the features needed for production: hybrid static & server rendering, TypeScript support, smart bundling, and route pre-fetching. Next.js is open source and free to use on the MIT license.
I love using Next.js — it's my go-to framework for new personal projects and work projects. The local development environment is quick, easy, and fun to use. The framework it uses, which puts an API that runs node in your pages subdirectory, is absolutely genius. No more middleware! It's good for quick projects and big projects alike. I wouldn't use Next.js if I did not want to heavily rely on serverless tech.
There isn't a whole lot to dislike about the framework, honestly. If I am forced to say something is that sometimes the authors change the directory layout and it's not always easy to deal with. That being said, I've never not been able to upgrade within a few hours.
Sometimes using the artisan CLI - it requires additional tweaking to get it running on non-standard application rollouts.
Originally, it was a decision between Zend, CodeIgniter, and CakePHP for me. I chose CakePHP and used it as my main PHP framework for at least a couple of years before noticing and giving Laravel a fair try. Ultimately I selected Laravel because I felt it fit with my preferred development style, it utilized many of the modern best-practices I wanted to follow, and I felt that it allowed me to build better things in less time that seemed more maintainable. I have used, and still do use, Symfony directly for certain things, but I think of it (and use it) more as a code library than as a full application framework. When I'm building a web application, I tend to prefer Laravel.
Next.js takes the best parts of React and applies them to a full-stack dev environment. With a built-in serverless API, it's easy to boot up a web application in under an hour. With easy integration with tools like Firebase, Supabase, Stripe, and countless others, Next.js is a perfect tool for getting your idea out into the real world.
