KINSTA Laravel Tutorial
KINSTA Laravel Tutorial
Laravel has been the rock star of PHP application development for many years and with a
good reason. Huge ecosystem, active community, strong job market, successful startups — it
has everything that makes it worthwhile to adopt a new technology.
If you want to learn Laravel, you need not go further. By browsing through this guide, you can
find the best Laravel tutorial for you, matching your knowledge level and learning style.
Laravel is an open source PHP framework for web application development, based on the
MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. Its expressive and straightforward syntax
speeds up development and results in a clean and maintainable codebase and scalable
applications.
2. High Popularity
Laravel’s source code is hosted on GitHub where it’s the most popular PHP repository, with
more than 60,000 stars and counting. There are also many Laravel tutorials, videos,
screencasts, and resources available online that can help you learn the framework and stay
up to date with new developments.
3. Huge Ecosystem
Thanks to its popularity, Laravel has a massive ecosystem of both official and third-party
packages that you can add to your own application. The official packages include server
management tools and platforms, developer environments, monitoring and testing tools, an
administration panel, and more (see them on Laravel’s homepage under the ‘Ecosystem’
menu).
If you want to add functionality that doesn’t yet exist, you can also develop your own Laravel
package.
4. Active Community
There’s a huge community around Laravel that you can find on Laravel.io, Laracasts Discuss,
LaraChat, Discord, Reddit, and other cool places. Laravel also has an official conference
called Laracon that takes place every year on three continents (America, Europe, Australia).
5. Strong Job Market
Laravel development is a highly in-demand skill and job prospects are excellent. It has an
official job board called Larajobs where the most common job titles are ‘Laravel Developer’,
‘Backend Laravel Developer’, ‘Full-Stack PHP Developer‘ (Laravel is frequently paired with
Vue.js on the frontend), and ‘TALL Stack Developer’ (TALL stands for Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js
, Laravel, and Livewire).
Besides Larajobs, you can find multitudes of Laravel jobs on other job sites such as Monster,
Indeed, and LinkedIn, and remote Laravel jobs are also available at RemoteOK, We Work
Remotely, and other places.
If you don’t want to work for someone else but build your own business, Laravel can also be
an excellent solution for you. There are already many successful businesses built on Laravel,
such as OctoberCMS, Mailcoach, Monica CRM, Invoice Ninja, and CodeCourse (see below in
this article, among paid Laravel tutorials), to just name a few.
With Laravel as a foundation and using best practices and high-performing PHP hosting, your
app will scale in production without any problems.
Prior Knowledge
You’ll need to safely use PHP, especially object-oriented PHP. Knowing how to use the
command line and the Composer package manager is also important — these two topics are
usually covered by beginner-level PHP tutorials.
Some knowledge of HTML and relational database management systems (Laravel supports
four of them: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and SQL Server) can also be helpful for an easy
start.
Learning Materials
Building real-world apps also means that you’ll frequently use Laravel as part of a stack. For
instance, many Laravel tutorials use it with a Vue frontend, which means that you’ll also need
to learn Vue.js (usually also covered by the same tutorial) to accomplish the project.
It’s also harder to find tutorials for complete beginners and most tutorials are in video format.
There are barely any books on Laravel mainly because changes so quickly that by the time a
book gets published, the framework is already two versions ahead.
Laravel Versions
One of the most important things when picking a Laravel tutorial is paying attention to the
Laravel version it covers. You’ll need to be familiar with the following Laravel versioning rules:
Since version 6, Laravel and its official packages follow semantic versioning (
major.minor.patch), for instance 8.* is a major release.
Before Laravel 6, the framework used the paradigm.major.minor convention, for
instance 5.8.* is also a major release.
There’s a major release every six months (in February and August).
And, there’s one LTS (long-term support) release every 2 years.
For general releases, bug fixes are provided for 6 months and security releases are
provided for 1 year.
For LTS releases, bug fixes are provided for 2 years and security releases are provided
for 3 years.
So, Laravel’s subsequent major releases are numbered as 5.5.* (LTS), 5.6.*, 5.7.*,
5.8.*, 6.* (LTS), 7.*, 8.*
There are also minor releases and patches, but they don’t contain any breaking
changes.
As there are two major releases every year, tutorials can hardly follow along. Most Laravel
tutorials you’ll find at any given date will be 1-3 versions back compared to the actual release.
This is not a huge problem unless the framework undergoes a complete overwrite, which last
happened when Laravel 4 was released in 2013.
Even though it’s recommended to use the latest tutorial available, don’t panic if you have to
go back two or three releases, especially if it’s a practical piece that shows how to build the
kind of application you want to learn.
You might find some inconsistencies between the different versions, but these are usually
noted by either the author or other learners in the discussion section. It’s also a good idea to
browse through the release notes of each new release to see what has changed, as it can
help you know what to pay attention to.
Learning Budget
Learning Laravel is not expensive at all — you can do it even for free. This guide includes
both free and paid Laravel tutorials, but even the paid ones are not very pricey; you can
subscribe to a premium tutorial site for ~15-30 USD/month.
Even if you don’t want to spend any money on learning Laravel, it’s also worth browsing
through the paid section, as some of the premium tutorial sites come with free trials,
occasional free video courses, and other free offerings.
Info
Kinsta allows you to run Laravel for your products, even though it’s not
officially supported by our team.
5 Best Free Laravel Tutorial Sites
Now, let’s take a closer look at the best Laravel tutorials!
Pros:
most up-to-date Laravel resource
information is well-structured and easy to search
docs for older Laravel versions are also available
includes code examples and best practice tips
you can submit bug reports on GitHub
Cons:
The official Laravel documentation is useful at any knowledge level for checking out the
details of any Laravel-related concept. However, it can be overwhelming for beginners
because of its high information density.
It’s the best place to familiarize yourself with the features of new releases or compare
different releases.
2. Laravel News (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
— Laravel News
Laravel News is an all-inclusive Laravel tutorial site with multiple facets. It has a blog featuring
the latest Laravel news, a section for Laravel tutorials covering topics from beginner to expert
level, a bi-weekly Laravel podcast, and a Laravel newsletter that delivers every Sunday
morning. Laravel News also showcases popular Laravel packages with a brief description and
example code.
Pros:
regularly updated
delivers content in different ways (blog, podcast, newsletter, etc)
best practice pieces
free tutorials on building real-world Laravel apps/tasks/tools
helpful screenshots and code snippets
Cons:
some of the posts are sponsored posts (even though it’s clearly stated)
hard to navigate (consecutive parts of the same tutorial series are not linked to each
other)
Laravel News is the best free source for Laravel-related news. The tutorials are high-quality
and cover many interesting things — but even if you are not interested in them, it’s worth
subscribing to the newsletter to stay up to date with the Laravel framework (each edition
includes some Laravel job listings, too). The bi-weekly Laravel News Podcast is also an
excellent resource for Laravel developers at any level.
3. Tuts Make (Intermediate, Advanced)
— Tuts Make
Tuts Make is a popular tutorial blog covering different programming languages and
technologies, including Laravel. The tutorials are succinct and up-to-the-point, discussing
common Laravel tasks, errors, and use cases. They include multiple code snippets that you
can also use in your own projects.
TutsMake has a separate category for Laravel interview questions and answers, too, with
straightforward and thoughtful explanations.
Pros:
regularly updated
practice-based tutorials
easy-to-skim content
long but well-structured code examples
job interview Q&A
Cons:
Tuts Make is definitely not for beginners. You’ll need at least an intermediate knowledge of
Laravel to understand these tutorials, as they are very code-based, without much discussion
of theory. The tutorials are also not related to each other — Tuts Make is a blog, not a step-
by-step Laravel tutorial series. If you are looking for a Laravel job, don’t miss out on its
interview Q&A section; it’s really good.
4. LaraShout (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
— LaraShout
LaraShout is a free tutorial website focusing completely on the Laravel framework. Besides
hands-on Laravel tutorials, it also features guides on important theoretical concepts such as
middleware, storage, queues and jobs, and others. Some of the tutorials are grouped as
series so that you can get a deeper knowledge of each topic.
Currently, LaraShout has four series: Collections, Design Patterns, E-Commerce Application
Development, and Package Development.
Pros:
easy-to-navigate website
tutorials start with a table of content
rich content (high-quality images, code examples, alert messages, etc)
both theory- and practice-based tutorials
Cons:
LaraShout is primarily recommended for intermediate and advanced learners, even though it
also has some beginner-level tutorials. The four Laravel tutorial series are especially worth
checking out — however, note that they don’t necessarily cover everything you’ll need, as
LaraShout is more of a tech blog than a comprehensive educational site.
5. Learn2torials (Beginners, Intermediate)
— Learn2torials
They focus more on theory than practice, but as they include many longer code examples,
they can help you solve real-world problems, too.
Pros:
If you are a beginner or already know some Laravel development but there are gaps in your
knowledge, Learn2torials can be the ideal Laravel resource for you. It also has many overlaps
with the official Laravel docs, so you can use the two resources together to solidify your
understanding of the underlying concepts.
6 Best Free Laravel Tutorial Videos, Screencasts, and
Podcasts
— BitFumes
BitFumes is an educational website featuring both free and paid screencasts and video
courses in web development. Its free Laravel tutorial section includes many high-quality video
courses aimed mainly at beginners, but you can find some more advanced pieces here, too.
There are also many free Laravel tutorials on BitFumes’ YouTube channel, including a 6.5
hours-long course covering Laravel development from the very basics to advanced topics
such as Livewire (needed for the TALL stack).
Pros:
you don’t need to sign up to watch the free courses
videos are structured into chapters and lessons
progress tracking functionality
tutorials on common tool pairings (Laravel with DigitalOcean, VueJS, PHPUnit, etc.)
courses are properly labeled (length, level, number of tutorials, publication date)
Cons:
hard-to-understand ecosystem (there are free Laravel courses both on the website and
YouTube, and it has one premium course)
BitFumes’ YouTube channel is worth browsing through in any case, even if you are at an
advanced level. The free tutorials on the BitFumes website cover many beginner-level topics
that are hard to find for free elsewhere. It also has one premium Laravel course including
advanced topics such as Stripe integration and test-driven development.
2. Laravel Business by Povilas Korop (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
— Laravel Business
Laravel Business is a popular YouTube channel including free video tutorials on how to use
Laravel for business. It’s a one-person project by Povilas Korop who is also the author of
Laravel Daily (see below in the paid section).
On his channel, he publishes several YouTube videos every week, discussing topics such as
Blade, Eloquent, PHPUnit, SaaS applications, and many others. Besides hands-on tutorials,
Povilas also does comparisons, provides career and business advice, and under the
‘Community’ tab, he shares the ‘Laravel tip of the day’ on a daily basis.
Pros:
Cons:
Even though Laravel Business is primarily aimed at more advanced users, it can also be a
great Laravel resource for beginners, especially Povilas’ business and career advice.
If you have been doing Laravel development for a while and are a bit bored with your job, this
channel can help you gain back your motivation, as it discusses many interesting things, new
features, and specific use cases you won’t find elsewhere.
3. Laraning (Beginners, Intermediate)
— Laraning
Laraning‘s name comes from the words ‘Laravel’ and ‘learning’, and it stays true to this name
as it’s fully dedicated to Laravel learning. It features free video courses, categorized as
‘Series’, ‘Features’, and ‘Courses’.
‘Series’ are loosely coupled video tutorials on Laravel packages and other topics. ‘Features’
are still under development and currently includes only one video tutorial on the Blade
templating engine. ‘Courses’ are longer video tutorial series, such as the comprehensive
‘Laravel from A to Z’ course aimed at beginner learners.
Pros:
well-structured courses
easy-to-navigate website
practical, real-world examples
full HD videos
code content is available on GitHub
Cons:
As the Laraning website is not fully baked yet, you’ll find missing features here and there. For
instance, the ‘Sign In’ button still doesn’t work and some of the series include only two video
pieces. However, the tutorials that are already published are high-quality and definitely worth
checking out, especially the Laravel from A to Z course if you are just getting started with the
framework.
4. Laravel PHP Framework Tutorial by FreeCodeCamp (Beginners,
Intermediate)
This Laravel tutorial by Victor Gonzalez guides you through building an Instagram clone from
scratch, with functionalities such as follow/unfollow, profile editing, resizing images, and
others. The video is around 4.5 hours long, but it’s broken into smaller sections so that you
can easily follow through.
Pros:
real-world project
in-depth explanation
audited by FreeCodeCamp
demo code available on GitHub
community members help with questions in the comment section
Cons
based on Laravel 5.8, so might contain some outdated info (even though you can find
fixes for these issues in the comment section)
If you want to learn Laravel through building the clone of a highly popular, real-world
application, this is one of the best places to do that for free. Victor’s explanations are
thoughtful and easy to understand and the FreeCodeCamp community is very helpful if you
bump into issues.
Although it’s aimed at beginners, you might also find it useful if you already have some
Laravel knowledge but want to learn how to put together an Instagram-like application.
5. Let’s Build with Laravel: A Linktree Clone (Beginners, Intermediate)
Let’s Build with Laravel: A Linktree Clone is a fast-paced Laravel screencast that teaches you
how to build a social media landing page builder application similar to the popular Linktree
service.
The video is only 58 minutes long, as it doesn’t explain basic concepts or shows how to install
Laravel, but goes straight into practice. This free Laravel tutorial has been created by Andrew
Schmelyun who has several other Laravel videos on his YouTube channel that are also worth
checking out.
Pros:
Although the video’s description on Youtube says that it’s meant for beginners, if you are
completely new to Laravel, you need to keep in mind that this video assumes some pre-
existing knowledge of Laravel, such as installation or initial configuration.
This Laravel tutorial can be ideal for building your first app with the framework, but also if you
want to improve your application development skills.
6. The Laravel Podcast (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
The Laravel Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by Matt Stauffer, featuring Laravel- and
PHP-related discussions. Each episode centers around one topic, such as authentication,
migrations, debugging, setting up a local environment, and others. The episodes are around
1.5 hours long, and you can listen to them either using the embedded podcast player or on
Apple Podcasts.
Pros
information-heavy content
regular updates
episodes are well-documented (summary, notes, link recommendations)
transcripts are available
high-quality audio
Cons
Even though a podcast is not a classic tutorial, it’s an excellent way to familiarize yourself with
a new technology, hear the views of industry experts, and get updated with the latest
features. So, The Laravel Podcast is a highly recommended Laravel resource for developers
at any level.
(Have you ever considered doing a podcast? Check out our in-depth guide on how to launch
your very first podcast with WordPress).
8 Best Paid Laravel Tutorial Videos, Screencasts, and
Books
— Laracasts
It also features five Laracast Journeys: Laravel, Testing, PHP, JavaScript, and Tooling. A
Journey is a collection of screencasts that you need for mastering a given skill.
Pros:
screencasts are structured in three different ways (topics, series, journeys)
easy-to-navigate website
very high-quality screencasts (both audio and video)
also have screencasts on popular Laravel packages (Envoyer, Forge, Nova, etc) and
theory (SOLID principles, design patterns, etc.)
active discussion forum (available with a free forum account)
Cons:
Laracasts are high-quality video tutorials, recommended at every level. Even though it’s a
premium service, you can find some series that are completely free, for instance, an
intermediate series on Envoyer and a beginner series on Forge. However, you can’t filter for
free courses, so you’ll need to find them by yourself.
Even if you don’t want to pay for the membership, it’s also worth signing up for a free forum
account, especially if you need some community help with your code.
2. Laravel Daily (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
— Laravel Daily
Laravel Daily is the paid Laravel tutorial site of Povilas Korop, the creator of the
aforementioned Laravel Business Youtube channel. Povilas has 10 paid and one free Laravel
video tutorial series here, covering interesting topics such as creating an invoice making app
with Laravel, building a CRUD SPA with Laravel and Vue, mastering Eloquent, creating a
REST API with Laravel, and more.
Pros:
Cons
there’s no publish date on the courses (although you can guess it from the commit
history of the related GitHub repo)
Laravel Daily is recommended for Laravel developers at any level. If you are already a
subscriber to the Laravel Business channel and like Povilas’ teaching style, his paid video
courses on Laravel Daily can be the next logical step in your Laravel journey.
It’s also an excellent choice if you want to acquire skills that are in high demand on the job
market, such as API or SaaS development with Laravel.
3. CodeCourse (Intermediate, Advanced)
— CodeCourse
CodeCourse is a premium screencast platform for web development tutorials. Most of the
screencasts are structured as ‘Paths’ and are available in four categories: Flutter, Vue.js,
Laravel, and design patterns.
The Clean Laravel path consists of a video course and teaches you how to write high-quality,
clean Laravel code. CodeCourse also has a shorter Laravel path called Filtering with Laravel.
Besides the paths, CodeCourse features single courses, too, where you can learn how to
build different types of apps with Laravel, including a Twitter clone, a code snippet website,
and an e-commerce platform.
Pros:
Cons:
poorly structured website (it’s not clear that they have different types of content, single
courses are only available from the ‘Library’ menu, ‘Snippets’ are hard to find, etc)
no free trial
To benefit from CodeCourse’s Laravel screencasts, you’ll need to be familiar with the basics
of Laravel development. However, if you have an intermediate knowledge of the framework or
are already working in the industry, you can learn many new things here.
Even though it’s a premium service, it’s really not expensive, so if you find a course or path
you are interested in, it’s a good investment of your time and effort.
4. Building APIs and SPAs with Laravel, Vue.js, and Capacitor (Advanced)
The Ultimate Guide to Building APIs & Single-Page Applications with Laravel, Vue.js, and
Capacitor is an ebook by Dan Pastori and Jay Rogers, available on ServerSideUp. It covers
how to develop web and mobile applications from the same codebase — where all your apps
communicate with a centralized API.
The book goes through the process of building a real-world app called Roast, a coffee house
finder application. It’s not just a demo but an existing app that allows you to sign up, add your
favorite cafe, find coffee houses on a map, and more. You can install the Roast app on your
Android or iOS device too.
Pros:
Cons:
additional video tutorials (advertised as part of the more expensive package) are still
under construction
When to Choose ‘Building APIs and SPAs with Laravel, Vue.js, and Capacitor’
If you are already a seasoned Laravel developer, this ebook can expand your expertise and
further broaden your knowledge. It guides you through how to support three codebases (web,
iOS, Android) while building a complex application.
It also pairs Laravel with cutting edge tools — the Nuxt.js frontend framework (built on top of
Vue.js) and the Capacitor cross-platform runtime (see docs). Plus, it covers Laravel 8, so right
now it’s the freshest Laravel book available on the market (already 380 pages and new
chapters are still coming).
5. LinkedIn Learning (Beginners, Intermediate)
— LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning, previously called Lynda.com, is a premium e-learning platform that offers a
complete learning path in Laravel development.
It consists of five separate courses, starting with (1) Laravel basics, then covering (2) testing,
security, and deployment, (3) RESTful API building, (4) Vue basics, and (5) using Vue.js and
Laravel together as a full-stack environment. If you accomplish this learning path, you will
have sufficient knowledge to start your career as a full-stack Laravel developer.
Pros
instructors are industry experts (Justin Yost, Ray Villalobos, Michael Sullivan)
high-quality, professional videos audited by LinkedIn
well-structured, easy-to-navigate content
transcripts are available
you can earn a Linkedin badge of completion
one-month free trial
mobile apps available for Android and iOS
Cons
the courses cover Laravel 5 and 6, so might contain outdated info at some places
If you want to work as a full-stack Laravel developer and don’t have a huge portfolio, LinkedIn
Learning’s Laravel path might help you find a job, as you can display the completion badge on
your LinkedIn profile (see what it exactly means). It can also be a good choice if you want to
do a longer course on full-stack Laravel development, where all the necessary content is
already collected for you.
6. Udemy (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
— Udemy
Udemy is a global e-learning marketplace where independent creators are selling their video
courses, not just in web development but also in many other subjects.
The Laravel topic currently includes 280 courses at all knowledge levels. Udemy’s interface
provides you with several different filters, such as price, ratings, duration, level, and more, to
help you find the best Laravel tutorial for you. Besides English, it offers courses in other
languages too.
Pros
Cons
quality of video and audio varies, as the courses are uploaded by indie authors
As Udemy offers almost 300 Laravel tutorial video series, you need to put some time and
effort to find what you need. It’s worth paying attention to the ‘best seller’, ‘new’, and ‘hot &
new’ labels, even though you can’t filter for these characteristics.
Don’t forget to read the student reviews and watch the previews, as Udemy is not a
centralized platform with a standardized quality assurance process. If you run into a bad
apple, you can still get your money back using the 30-day money-back guarantee.
7. Skillshare (Beginners, Intermediate)
— Skillshare
Most of Skillshare’s Laravel courses focus on practical skills, such as building a personal
budget website, a todo app, a mailing list filter, a task scheduler admin panel, and a few
others.
Pros:
well-structured courses
easy-to-navigate interface
built-in note-taking functionality
videos are captioned (English)
mobile apps available for iOS and Android
7-day free trial (credit card details are required)
Cons:
Although Laravel development is not the main focus of Skillshare, you can find some good,
premium-level courses here. If you already have a Skillshare membership, it’s also worth
having a look at the Laravel tutorial videos.
Alternatively, if you are new to Skillshare but are interested in other topics they’re teaching
(there are plenty besides web development, from photography to music to creative writing), it
can also be a good idea to sign up for a membership.
8. Eduonix (Beginners, Intermediate)
— Eduonix
Eduonix is an online learning marketplace with independent instructors, similar to Udemy and
Skillshare. It uses the same pricing model as Udemy, so you pay for each course individually
(however, it has an option for lifetime membership to all Eduonix courses and some bundle
discounts as well).
Currently, it offers 16 Laravel video courses, most of which guide you through a hands-on
project, such as creating a hotel app with translation into four languages, a single page forum
application, a contact manager app with a Vue frontend (this one is in the ‘Learn Laravel
Building 10 Projects’ course), and others.
Pros:
Cons:
Eduonix can be a good choice for you if you are more interested in hands-on app building
than theory. Even though it doesn’t offer multitudes of courses on Laravel development, it’s
worth keeping an eye on it, especially because some creators sell their courses on both
Udemy and Eduonix, but with a different price tag (usually Eduonix being the cheaper one).
Summary
Setting up a learning goal to know where you are heading can help you a lot in finding the
best Laravel tutorial for yourself. If you have prior experience with self-directed online
learning, you already know what type of materials you prefer: text-based tutorials, videos,
screencasts, podcasts, blogs, or longer books.
You don’t necessarily have to start with just one Laravel tutorial, but you can also opt for a
mixed approach. For example, you can begin with a video course while signing up for a
newsletter, listening to a podcast, and reading a blog at the same time.
If you are not sure about what skills you’ll need, it can be a good idea to browse job sites such
as LaraJobs to see what’s in demand in the market (this can change with time).
You can also use a project planning app such as Trello or one of its alternatives to track your
progress, set up deadlines and reminders, and keep motivating yourself by following through
your learning plan.
If you choose a paid Laravel tutorial, it’s usually better to start with the monthly subscription
than paying for one year in advance, until you know what you can expect (even if the monthly
fee is lower with the annual subscription).
Finally, start to build a working Laravel app as early as possible in the learning process.
Seeing that you have been able to accomplish a real-world project can help you keep up with
learning and reach your goals.