Why is Laravel Not Used in Big Development Projects? (It's Not True)

Spoiler: This is a common misconception. In large companies, the choice of tech stack is often influenced by corporate policies, the existing IT infrastructure, and compliance requirements, rather than the technical limitations of Laravel. With the right architecture and disciplined processes, Laravel is fully capable of scaling and is a great fit for serious, large-scale systems.

Where Does the Belief That Laravel Is Not Used in Big Development Projects Come From?

The claim that “Laravel is not used in big development projects” often stems not from technical limitations, but from context: corporate regulations, legacy tech stacks, and specific non-functional requirements. Additionally, there’s a visibility effect – enterprise-level success stories often highlight JVM, .NET, or Go, while Laravel is more frequently seen in SMBs and smaller-scale products. This creates a distorted perception.

In reality, when comparing architectural practices, the requirements for a mature project are the same for any tech stack. The key lies in processes and discipline, not in the “approval or restriction” of the framework. Below, we will explore the key factors that shape this misconception.

Reasons Why Laravel is Not Used in Big Development Projects

1. In large companies, the tech stack is often already predefined. Java/Spring or .NET are typically chosen because they make it easier to pass internal audits, licensing, and industry standard requirements. These stacks come with built-in monitoring, logging, and security solutions, and it’s easier to hire and train teams with readily available academies, certifications, and training programs.

2. Another factor is legacy systems. Companies often have dozens of existing services, integrations with SAP, Oracle, ESB, and custom libraries. Migrating to a new language means expensive and risky migration, parallel support, and new release processes. For businesses, it is often more practical to keep using the current platform rather than switching just for the sake of change.

3. There are also projects with specialized requirements. When ultra-low latency, millions of persistent connections, or high-performance binary protocols and HPC pipelines are critical, companies consciously choose Go, Java, Rust, or Elixir because the nature of these tasks goes beyond what a typical web framework can handle.

4. Finally, market perception plays a role. Major enterprise success stories often focus on JVM, .NET, or Go, while Laravel is more commonly associated with startups, SMBs, and B2B tools. This creates the illusion that Laravel is “not used in big projects.” Often, criticisms of Laravel are related to “plugin-based” approaches, not the custom architecture possible within Laravel itself.

When Laravel is the Perfect Choice

Laravel is a great choice when a project has a typical web profile: HTTP requests, databases, caching, and a lot of business logic. It’s particularly ideal when rapid time-to-market is important, the architecture needs to be clear, PHP developers are readily available, and there’s a rich ecosystem of pre-built packages (authentication, queues, caching, email, testing). Laravel works well as the foundation for a monolithic application or as a standalone service in a microservices architecture. It easily handles integrations (REST/GraphQL, payments, CRM/ERP), scales horizontally, and supports asynchronous processing through queues. If your project’s requirements are not about ultra-low latency or millions of persistent connections, but about a reliable business application with predictable growth, Laravel offers the optimal balance of development speed, predictability, and cost of ownership. Below, we’ll go into detail about specific scenarios where Laravel excels:

1. Business Web and Product Platforms

Laravel is especially strong where the main work involves HTTP, databases, caching, and a lot of business logic: multi-page web applications, user dashboards, marketplaces (listings, carts, offers, transactions, moderation), SaaS services, portals with roles and permissions, internal CRM/ERP modules, and admin panels. The framework provides solid building blocks for such systems, including Eloquent ORM, migrations, validation, access policies (Policies/Gates), queues and events, task schedulers, notifications, and an intuitive Blade/Livewire interface for the frontend. Thanks to these, typical scenarios – from user onboarding to billing, media uploads, and content moderation – can be implemented quickly.

2. Fast Time-to-Market and Iterative Development

When it’s critical to “go live in weeks, not months,” Laravel excels due to its combination of developer experience (DX) and ecosystem: artisan commands, factories/seeds/tests, authentication starter kits (Breeze/Jetstream), Horizon for queues, Scout for search, Sanctum/Passport for tokens, Telescope for debugging, Octane for performance, and Sail/Forge/Envoyer for environments and deployment. As a result, the team can quickly validate hypotheses, run A/B iterations, and scale functionality without the need for custom solutions.

3. API-first, Integrations, and Microservices

Laravel is a great fit as one of the services in a polyglot architecture: it can expose REST/GraphQL APIs, subscribe to message buses (RabbitMQ/SQS/Kafka through packages), process background pipelines (queues + Jobs), expose domain events, and integrate with external systems (CRM/ERP/payment gateways/search/storage). This service can be isolated by domain (Bounded Context), containerized, scaled in Kubernetes, and monitored via APM/logging/tracing. For the frontend, there’s flexibility: whether using SPA/SSR/ISR (React/Vue/Nuxt/Next) or traditional server-side rendering with Blade/Livewire – depending on the project’s needs.