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.
Check out this guide to find the perfect Laravel tutorial for your skills and learning style. Let's dive in!
1. Official Laravel Docs (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
–Official Laravel Docs
The official Laravel documentation is a matter-of-fact description of the Laravel framework, maintained by the Laravel community and also available on GitHub. It starts with an installation guide and provides an overview of all Laravel concepts, such as templating, security, database management, and many others. You can also find the documentation of official Laravel packages here.
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:
- dry, textbook-like tone and design
When to Choose Laravel Docs
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 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:
updated almost every day
very practice-based tutorials
longer videos are broken into smaller sections
‘Related Links’ recommendations under tutorial videos
sometimes he replies to his viewers in video answers (see example)
Cons:
- videos are hard to search through
When to Choose Laravel Business
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. BitFumes (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
–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.
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)
When to Choose BitFumes
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.
4. Let’s Build with Laravel: A Linktree Clone (Beginners, Intermediate)
–Let’s Build with Laravel: A Linktree Clone
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:
to-the-point explanation with no fluff or distraction
you can build a working Laravel app in less than 1 hour
video is divided into smaller sections
source code is available on GitHub
Cons:
- audio quality is not the best
5. The Laravel Podcast (Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced)
–The Laravel Podcast
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
- episodes can’t be downloaded
When to Choose The Laravel Podcast
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).
Summary
Setting a learning goal can help you find the best Laravel tutorial for you. If you've done online learning before, you probably know what type of materials you like.
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