PHP is known for its simplicity and easy learning curve. It has been quite popular for some its unique advantages which makes website development quick. But before Laravel, it has faced many criticisms by other language communities like Java, .NET and ruby.

Improving PHP reputation with new MVC based frameworks:

Things got better with some good frameworks like Zend, cakephp, yii and codeignitor but the magic of these frameworks was only visible in PHP community and developers from other technologies was not giving its deserving respect. Though the reality was none of PHP framework giving true completion to other programming languages’ well-structured frameworks

Entry of Laravel in PHP world:

Thanks to Taylor who created Laravel which attracted attention of all hard core developers from all communities. It is actually inspired by Ruby on Rails but has its own PHP flavour which makes it special and a very capable php framework. Now this was the first PHP framework which spiked spread of PHP and created a trust in capabilities of PHP.

Few things which made Laravel special and different from traditional PHP frameworks:

There are a lot of things to talk about Laravel which makes it a greatest PHP framework but let’s focus on some unique important features:

1. Laravel Homestead made installation easy:
   Laravel homestead is a vagrant box which contains complete environment for laravel which can be configured very easily using virtual machine architecture. It omits the efforts to setup a web server and time consuming process without affecting other projects environment.
2. Artisan command saved us typing a lots of regular code of lines:
   Laravel shipped with Artisan which is a command line interface(CLI). It does many things like creating models, controllers, migrations etc. You can create a models and controllers with simple commands in seconds.
3. Database migration made database handling a fun:
   Database migrations are pretty much similar to any version control system but for database. It uses Laravel’s schema builder to create schema and create data tables. It has many features like rollback, reset etc. It works with artisan commands very well and makes data table structure alteration very easy.
4. Seeder made dummy data insertion very easy:
   It is always a challenge to add dummy data to see the layout and pseudo check application. Laravel seeder insert data in table with just a simple artisan command.
5. Vue.js complemented a need of front end behaviour:
   Laravel’s latest version is shipped with official support with Vue.js which is an applauded front end framework created by Evan you. It works with laravel MIX and complements the need of integrating any front end framework with Laravel.
6. Separate routes for web and APIs:
   Laravel 5.4 version introduced separate route files for web part and web-services which makes easy to organise the application routes which has both website and mobile applications. It avoids any conflict between API or website route.
7. Tinker makes life easy:
   Tinker is the most favourite in the Laravel world. It really fascinated me when I came to know this. It makes code debugging very easy and can be used as a handy tool to debug or test any piece of code without actually writing in any code file.
8. Laravel forge made deployment a piece of cake:
   Laravel forge makes managing deployment an easy task. It can handle deployment to some available popular servers like Digital Ocean, Linode and AWS. It creates complete production environment for application and makes deployment simple by working hand to hand with github or other supported version control systems.

Final Note:

Above are some unique features of Laravel which makes it different from other PHP framework. There many things which Laravel does in a smarter way than traditional PHP frameworks. You can read more about it on its official website : https://laravel.com/docs/5.4