Just kidding, it’s not my primary stack... yet. But after delivering two successful projects with it and having two more currently in production, the transition is undeniable. Here is how I went from being a hater to (almost) a full-time advocate.
The "Dark" Ages (Late Junior Days)
In 2019, at the end of my junior days, I had my first real encounter with Laravel. I wasn't just a frontend dev looking at the surface; I was already comfortable with SQL and PHP, so I dove deep into the backend architecture.
At the time, I was also working on a stack involving Angular for the frontend and .NET with various microservices for the backend. Comparing the two felt like night and day:
Angular + Microservices felt like the future: modular, scalable, and modern.
Laravel felt like the past: messy, bloated, and unnecessarily complex.
I honestly didn't see any sense in continuing to invest time in that stack. I walked away for years, moving toward Flask, Firebase, and distributed systems.
The "Aha!" Moment: Laravel Breeze
Fast forward to last September. I stumbled upon a YouTube video showcasing Laravel Breeze. It didn't look like the Laravel I remembered. It was clean, minimal, and remarkably modern.
My curiosity was piqued, but the real breakthrough happened in December. Having a few days off, I decided to give it a serious try.
From Zero to Production-Ready in 2 Hours
The efficiency was staggering. In just two hours:
Hour 1: I read the documentation and dove into Inertia.js and Livewire.
Hour 2: I developed a 5-field form with advanced validation using Inertia + Vue, plus a Livewire backend to display and sort records behind an auth wall.
It wasn't just working; it was elegant.
Going Deep: The Time-Tracking App
To truly test the limits, I built a complete time-tracking application for myself. It features:
Detailed Reporting: General and client-specific summaries.
Data Management: Full CRUD for clients and hours with a daily table view.
Insights: A reporting dashboard with charts and a CSV export feature.
Filtering: Every data view allows for 7-day, 30-day, or custom range filtering.
Why Filament Changed Everything
Then I explored Filament further, and... wow. It’s a game-changing system that accelerates interface development. It allows you to focus on complex backend logic rather than wasting hours aligning buttons and managing state—which is a massive time-sink in admin dashboards.
I was so convinced that I successfully pitched a stack change for a current project. We moved to Laravel + Filament + Inertia.
By leveraging Qwen + Claude Code (local AI - free and secure) for the "horizontal" update of the MVC structure, I further reduced boilerplate time. This allowed me to focus 100% on query optimization, business logic, and application security.
Conclusion: A New Love Story
I’ve officially fallen in love with Laravel. I’ve completely sidelined Flask, Firebase, and those "tons of microservices" that were becoming a maintenance nightmare.
My roadmap for the next six months? One major project already in production, and two more in the pipeline, all built with Laravel, Livewire, and Inertia.js.
If you haven't touched PHP or Laravel in years, do yourself a favor: give it one hour. It might just become your favorite tool for 2026.
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