Is Laravel a Valid Next.js Alternative?
Laravel, Next.js, and Nuxt are popular choices for full-stack development. Let's dive into their differences and find out which one suits your needs best.
So Laravel vs Next.js?
The short answer is no. These frameworks can complement each other. The main difference is with Laravel, you need to know PHP - which is a backend language. PHP has evolved significantly since the older versions, that people often mocked. With PHP 8.0+ you've got types, match expressions, arrow functions, anonymous classes and more.
Next.js is JavaScript (TypeScript). To run it locally, you need Node.js. Next is a framework based on React, and since React is a library for building UIs, Next is a framework much more focused on the frontend part of building apps.
Laravel as a full-stack framework?
Okay, so you might be thinking: I will probably need to write some amount of JavaScript anyway, so why bother with two languages, when I can use one with Next.js?
You might have a point here! Learning PHP from scratch, and then learning Laravel might be a time investment.
But if we get past that, Laravel offers different tools to build modern websites. First is the Livewire, which lets you use just PHP to build interactive SPAs. It's a magic, almost first-party library, very popular in the Laravel world. It lets you create components, similar to how you'd do it in React.
Then there's Inertia.js, a library that connects Laravel with React or Vue. Basically, in that case, Laravel is acting like Next.js. Backend logic is kept in PHP, but frontend is a SPA, but it's really tightely integrated with Laravel. There's a new version coming up soon (2.0), that has even better features.
Okay, but doesn't Next.js have all that?
Well, yes, it does. It offers server rendering of pages, static rendering, data and components streaming and a lot of other great features.
The difference here is the backend part. Laravel offers a rich opinionated ecosystem of first party tools that can handle databases, queues, notifications, emails, web sockets, subscription payments, and much, much more.
On the other hand, with Next.js you essentially can render React on the server, and you have tools to try and roll your own ways to do all the things Laravel already gives you.
With Next.js there are much more ways things can be done, and it's intentional. You can use Prisma, Drizzle, Supabase for your database library. Next doesn't care how you send emails, how you offload heavy work to queues or how you take payments. It's on you.
Conclusion
Laravel is a more complete product. With limitations, of course, as you often need to use PHP & JavaScript. But for a solo developer or a small team, it gives you an unfair advantage over bigger teams, as you can really move fast.
Next.js is a great tool for building any kind of websites or web applications. It's focused on being really fast and giving your users a sublime experience. But you need to roll your own things for all the backend work. This is fine for very experienced developers with their own strong opinions but can be hard for beginners.
Either way, check out the learning paths to see how you can get started.