Most new platforms developed here at OPG are created with the Laravel Framework. There are many frameworks to choose from. CakePHP, CodeIgniter, and Yii are just a few. So, why does OPG choose Laravel?

One of the hardest things for a software company to do is to upgrade from an earlier framework version to a newer one. Upgrades are necessary with any application as they keep your website safe from internet attacks. Upgrades allow OPG to keep your platform fresh and new, with the latest and greatest features. Laravel automates upgrading and ensures that it is done quickly and correctly.

Laravel utilizes very few dependencies, which are other software packages that are used in a framework. Software developers must pick packages that will be maintained well into the future. When packages are abandoned by their maintainers, developers must look for replacement packages that might not work the same. Laravel is written from scratch and does not depend on other packages, making it more maintainable.

Laravel keeps your platform safe. It implements several aspects of website security. For example, a bad actor might create a form on their website and trick one of your users into navigating to it. When that user submits the form, it performs a secure action on your website (such as transferring funds). Laravel recognizes this and will deny access. Laravel also uses encryption to protect data. Passwords and other sensitive data are stored as a completely unrecognizable string of characters in the database. This prevents theft of your sensitive information.

Laravel includes role-based access to different features of your platform. On a blog platform, you may have roles such as Writer, Editor, and Reader. Writers would be able to create posts, but not edit them. Editors would be able to review posts and edit them. Readers would only be able to read posts. This ensures data integrity by preventing unauthorized changes to the data.

Laravel is fast, using technologies such as caching and eager loading. Data can be loaded ahead of time (eager-loading) or remembered from last time (caching) so that when you want to view the data, it can be shown quickly without having to be retrieved from the database again. This results in reduced wait times.

Laravel is scalable, and is used for small platforms, medium-sized web applications, and large enterprise systems. It contains all the features and tools needed to build these solutions. This means your platform can start small and grow as your business grows.

These are only a few of the reasons why OPG uses Laravel. There are many more to be explored in future articles. OPG strives to provide you with the best possible user experience on the platforms and web applications we develop. Laravel is the only logical choice when it comes to fulfilling this goal.
Curious what all this means for your business? Reach out to OPG, we’d love to talk with you.