Laravel is the most popular framework for building web applications with PHP. It takes the language that already powers WordPress and millions of websites, and adds the structure, tools, and conveniences that make building a complete app enjoyable. If you know a little PHP and want to build real projects — a blog, a shop, a booking system — Laravel is the fastest path to something you can actually show people.

How does Laravel work? You build your app around the MVC pattern: models talk to the database, views are your pages, and controllers connect the two. Routes map URLs to your code, so /posts can show a list and /posts/42 can show one post. Eloquent, Laravel's database tool, lets you work with database rows as if they were PHP objects, with no SQL to write for common tasks. Blade, its templating engine, lets you build pages from reusable pieces.…