Is PHP dead? Absolutely not.

Laravel (83K+ stars) is the undisputed industry leader. Its $57M Series A raise in 2024 proved it’s here to stay, cementing its status for one simple reason: Speed. It lets you ship complex apps faster and happier.

The market agrees. Senior salaries are hitting $120K+, and giants like Pfizer and the BBC rely on it.

But between serverless deployment (Vapor), real-time broadcasting (Reverb), and high-performance concurrency (Octane), the ecosystem is huge. Where to start?

Don’t worry, I’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Whether you want to ship your first SaaS or aim to master Domain-Driven Design as a senior engineer, here are the 10+ best Laravel courses to fast-track your journey from “Hello World” to production-ready in 2026.

Shortcuts

• Laravel vs Symfony
• Why Trust My Picks?
• Best Laravel Courses
• Bonus Resources

Laravel vs Symfony

In short, Laravel is twice as popular as Symfony according to the 2025 Stack Overflow Survey, which translates to more job openings. Laravel is actually built on top of many Symfony components; however, it prioritizes faster developer velocity at the expense of being more “magical” than Symfony’s explicitness.

For the full breakdown, I refer you to the table below.

Feature	Laravel	Symfony
ORM	Eloquent (Active Record) — Easier to learn, faster to write	Doctrine (Data Mapper) — Better separation of concerns, steeper learning curve
Templating	Blade — Allows raw PHP, compiles to PHP	Twig — Strict separation of logic and presentation, secure by default
Configuration	Opinionated (“Convention over Configuration“)	Highly configurable, explicit definitions (PHP/YAML)
Middleware	Simple, route-based middleware	Event-driven listener architecture
Ecosystem	Massive first-party ecosystem (Forge, Vapor, Nova)	Strong component library, but fewer “SaaS-in-a-box” products
Performance	Slower out-of-the-box; fast with Octane	Faster out-of-the-box (stripped down); highly optimized kernel
LTS Support	2 years bug fixes, 3 years security (LTS releases)	3 years bug fixes, 4 years security (LTS releases)

Symfony caught your fancy? Here’s my Best Courses Guide (BCG) on it.

Why Trust My Picks?

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 100 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 250,000 online courses. We’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.

To ensure you have the latest and greatest learning experience, I’ve refined my picks following the criteria listed below.

• Up-to-date: Laravel releases major versions annually, so it can be really easy to accidentally pick an outdated course. I’ve limited my selection to Laravel 10 and newer.
• Hands-on: Hands-on learning, especially those that involve project-building, is essential if you want to actually improve your programming and architectural skills. The courses I’ve picked have plenty of them.
• Community reviews: I’ve looked at numerous recommendations from the Laravel community, including those on Laravel.io (forum), official Laravel Discord, and the Laravel subreddit. I recommend you join them too and have a look for yourself.

Now, without further ado, let’s get on to my picks!

Best Laravel Courses

Course Name	Duration
Best Overall Free Course with Paid Certificate (Laracasts)	8–9 hours
Best Official Tutorial (Laravel)	2 hours
Best for Curious Laravel Developers (LaravelDaily)	1–2 hours
Best for Practical Laravel Developers (CodeCourse)	≈1 hour
Best Short & Practical YouTube Course (NetNinja)	3 hours
Best In-depth YouTube Course (Program With Gio)	8 hours
Best for Hands-On (freeCodeCamp)	7 hours
Best Zero-to-Hero course with Certificate (Pluralsight)	17 hours
Best Project-based Course with Certificate (Traversy Media)	20 hours
Best for Codebase Maintainers (Spatie)	2 hours
Best for Building Dynamic UIs (Livewire)	11–12 hours
Best Comprehensive Laravel Book (Matt Stauffer)	12 hours
Bonus Resources	Varies

Best Overall Free Course with Paid Certificate (Laracasts)

Take if:	Skip if:
You value understanding the “why” behind the code You want a comprehensive, project-based introduction for free You want an engaging and lively instructor	You don’t want slightly outdated courses (Laravel 11) You are already an advanced user seeking deep dives

• Duration: 8–9 hours
• Cost: Limited free courses / paid subscription

If you were stranded on a deserted island with access to Laracasts, you’d likely return as a 10x developer.

… Alright, I may be exaggerating a bit, but the quality of instruction is no joke. Founded in 2013 by Jeffrey Way, Laracasts is widely considered the definitive platform for Laravel. Way’s unique teaching style often demonstrates the “naive” code first to expose pain points, helping you truly understand why the framework’s solution is better.

While the library hosts over 200 courses, the best starting point is 30 Days to Learn Laravel—the only free course in an otherwise premium catalog. This curriculum guides you from beginner to capable developer:

• Baby Steps (Days 1-7): Start strong with a fast environment (Laravel Herd) and master the essentials: the request lifecycle, routing, and Blade templating.
• Eloquent (Days 8-15): Ditch raw SQL. Learn to manage databases with Eloquent, handle migrations, and solve the N+1 performance bottleneck with Eager Loading.
• Forms (Days 16-20): Adopt a “trust no one” mindset. Focus on server-side validation and protecting against vulnerabilities like CSRF.
• Authentication (Days 21-23): Secure your application by implementing user login systems and managing permissions via Gates and Policies.
• Digging Deeper (Days 24-26): Polish for production. Learn to send emails, use Queues for performance, and bundle assets with Vite.
• Final Project (Days 27-30): Apply everything by building Pixel Positions, a fully functional job board application.

Beyond the videos, Laracasts features a highly active discussion forum and a comprehensive learning path to guide your next steps when you finish the course.

Best Official Tutorial (Laravel)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want to learn from the latest official tutorials You want an engaging and lively instructor	You are seeking a deep dive

• Duration: 2 hours
• Cost: Free

Laravel’s main selling point is developer velocity, and this official Getting Started tutorial proves it. In just under two hours, you will go from a blank slate to a fully deployed application by building Chirper, a Twitter-like microblogging platform (view demo here).

The curriculum covers the full development lifecycle:

• Architecture: Start by setting up your environment and mastering the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
• Data Handling: Implement dynamic features using Database Migrations, Eloquent ORM, and full CRUD functionality.
• Security: Secure the app with robust form validation and build an authentication system from scratch.
• Deployment: Launch your live application with the help of Laravel Cloud.

In this bootcamp, you’ll go from a blank slate to a fully deployed, live application (with the help of Laravel Cloud) by building Chirper, a Twitter-like microblogging platform (demo site here).

The lesson delivery feels premium, both production and instruction. Good video editing ensures you don’t need to squint to read code on screen, and your instructor, Josh Cirre, will calmly walk you through every step of the process.

No prior PHP knowledge? The course includes a Fundamentals of PHP primer to get any programmer up to speed in just 90 minutes. Or check out our PHP Skill Guide.

Best for NativePHP & Design Patterns (LaravelDaily)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want to learn professional workflows immediately You prefer action over theory You need practical solutions on various established and hype topics	You want to understand the magic from scratch

• Duration: 3-4 hours
• Cost: Paid subscription

Laravel Daily’s free Laravel 12 For Beginners parallels the official tutorials—they are project-based and under two hours—so cut straight to the chase. Instead of manual theory, you’ll immediately use industry-standard tools like Laravel Breeze to build a functional blog with an admin panel, mirroring a professional workflow.

While the wider CodeCourse library is paywalled, the bite-sized video and text courses are worth the investment for topics ranging from database optimization to AI agents. I’d point you to their roadmap for guidance, or dive into these highlights:

• NativePHP: Build Mobile App with Laravel: Break the server-side boundary and build native mobile apps using your existing PHP skills.

• Design Patterns in Laravel 11: Bridge the gap to senior engineering. Master patterns like Facades and Singletons to understand the why behind the architecture and write cleaner code in any framework.

Best for Practical Laravel Developers (CodeCourse)

Take if:	Skip if:
You learn best by building real-world clones You want to master the modern full-stack ecosystem (VILT and TALL)	You are looking for strictly backend training

• Duration: ≈1 hour
• Cost: Free courses (paid subscription for some)

Codecourse’s signature approach is “learning by building”. Rather than sitting through abstract theory, you build fully functioning clones and features from day one.

Although a paid subscription unlocks the full library of courses, there is plenty of generous free content to get you started. I recommend you start with the Realtime with Laravel Reverb course, which deals with running a Reverb server and broadcasting events.

The platform covers a wide range of tools and technologies (including the VILT and TALL stack) that you’ll reach out for as your project becomes more sophisticated. For example:

• Need real-time updates? Build a chat app or a one million checkboxes clone with Laravel Reverb and Echo.
• Want dynamic user interfaces? Use Livewire to develop a drop-in comment system or a Trello Clone.
• Or are you developing an SPA? With Inertia, you don’t have to leave Laravel to make forums, uptime monitors, or multiple file chunked uploaders.
• How about adding reactivity or advanced state management to your webpages? Alpine.js will help you create a note-taking app.

Best Short & Practical YouTube Course (NetNinja)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want a quick, visual quickstart to get a feel of Laravel You want to master the essentials first	You are building a complex application

• Duration: 3 hours
• Cost: Free

Get your first website up and running in three hours with this free YouTube course from NetNinja!

Laravel Tutorial for Beginners will teach you the fundamentals of Laravel by building a small website (Ninja Network) from scratch. The course walks you through the core building blocks: routing, views, Blade templating, models, database migrations, and CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Destroy). By the end, you’ll have the confidence to spin up your own small projects immediately.

You’ll take away:

• The “V” in MVC: With Blade, you’ll learn how to create reusable layouts and components (e.g., a single navigation bar used across all pages).
• Database Management: Using Migrations to set up your database tables and Eloquent Models to fetch and save data without writing raw SQL.
• Handling User Input: Creating forms, validating data (e.g., ensuring a username is unique), and saving it to the database.
• CRUD Operations: Building the classic Create, Read, Update, and Delete functionality — the backbone of almost every web app.
• Basic Architecture: Learning just enough about Controllers and Routes to make your app work.

The GitHub repository for this course can be found here.

Best In-Depth YouTube Course (Program With Gio)

Take if:	Skip if:
You prefer a “first principles” learning style. You aim for professional-grade standards	You prefer a purely practical, “get it done” approach

• Duration: 8 hours
• Cost: Free

Whereas Net Ninja teaches you the how, Program With Gio goes even further by also revealing the why behind parts of the Laravel framework. That means both beginners and advanced Laravel developers can get a lot of value from this free YouTube course!

In Learn Laravel The Right Way – For Beginners & Advanced, you’ll learn:

• Project Setup: How to install Laravel quickly (using tools like Laravel Herd) and get a site running in minutes.
• Core Architecture: Deep dives into the Request Lifecycle, Service Container, and Service Providers. You’ll learn how Laravel automatically injects dependencies and manages classes, rather than just memorizing commands.
• Advanced Database Concepts: Beyond basic saving/loading, you will look at Database Transactions, preventing SQL Injection, and the difference between using the Query Builder vs. Eloquent ORM.
• Code Structure: How to organize your routes and controllers cleanly so your application remains maintainable as it grows into a massive system.
• The Why: Explanations of why you use certain features (like Facades or Middleware) and how to implement them manually before using Laravel’s shortcuts.

P.S: Gio also has a Learn PHP The Right Way course for those who want to strengthen their knowledge of PHP and web dev.

Best for Hands-On Learning (freeCodeCamp)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want to build a complex, feature-rich social platform You want to master ecosystem integrations	You want to build everything from zero

• Rating: 2.7K likes (106K views)
• Duration: 7 hours
• Cost: Free

Exploring bits and pieces of a framework is helpful and all, but the most crucial (and fun) part of learning comes when you start implementing everything you’ve learned by building something — and Zura from TheCodeholic will help you with just that.

In this free Learn Laravel by Building a Medium Clone tutorial, you’ll create a robust web application where users can register, publish articles, follow other authors, and “clap” for (like) posts.

You’ll deal with many aspects of full-stack web development, such as:

• Blade Templating: Create reusable UI components (such as buttons and postcards) and layouts using Laravel’s Blade engine.
• Authentication: Install Laravel Breeze to handle user registration, login, password resets, and email verification.
• Database Management: Build the functionality to Create, Read, Update, and Delete posts, as well as migrations and models for Posts, Categories, Followers, and Claps, with the help of the Eloquent ORM.
• Media Management: Integrate the Spatie Media Library package to handle image uploads, allowing you to resize and crop images automatically (e.g., for user avatars and post thumbnails).
• UI Design: Use Tailwind CSS (specifically Flowbite components) to create a clean, responsive user interface that mimics Medium’s design. Furthermore, sprinkle some interactivity by animating claps with Alpinee.js.

No knowledge of Laravel is needed for this course. All you need is a good understanding of PHP and web development.

Best Zero-to-Hero Course with Certificate (Pluralsight)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want a formal, career-oriented path You’re looking for a certificate to boost your resumé You learn best through extensive guided labs	You are looking for a quick, zero-cost start

• Duration: 17 hours
• Cost: Paid

Looking for a certificate? Pluralsight’s 17-hour-long Laravel Learning Path will take you from beginner level to professional proficiency. All you need is basic knowledge of PHP and web development.

You’ll cover the following key topics:

• Core Fundamentals: Understanding the Laravel framework structure and the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern.
• Database Management: Mastering Eloquent ORM for database interactions, designing database schemas, and running migrations.
• API Development: How to build secure, scalable RESTful APIs, manage resources, and handle API authentication/authorization.
• Advanced Features: Implementing Middleware, Services, and Events to build robust applications.
• Security: Best practices for securing applications, including authentication systems.
• Quality Assurance: Testing strategies (using tools like PHPUnit) and deployment workflows to get your application ready for production.

And for the coding project lovers (like me!), you’ll be pleased by the five guided labs in this course. They are:

1. Build an E-commerce Platform (Part 1 & 2): You will build a functional e-commerce application from scratch, reinforcing your grasp of real-world application structure.
2. Develop a RESTful API: Create a complete API with authentication, teaching you how to serve data to front-end applications or mobile apps.
3. Implement Logic & Middleware: Practice isolating business logic using Services and managing HTTP requests with Middleware and Events.
4. Test Your Application: Write and run tests to ensure your Laravel application is bug-free and reliable before deployment.

Bear in mind that some of the courses are on Laravel 10.

Best Project-based Course with Certificate (Traversy Media)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want formal validation of your skills with a paid certificate You want a true End-to-End deployment guide	You are looking for a quick crash course You prefer free, self-paced content

• Duration: 20 hours (10 hours a week for 2 weeks)
• Cost: Paid

Created by Brad Traversy (from Traversy Media), Laravel From Scratch guides developers with basic PHP skills through the entire lifecycle of building Workopia, a comprehensive job listing website.

While the course is available on Packt and O’Reilly, taking the paid Coursera version is the superior choice, offering grade assessments, AI coaching, and a professional certificate.

The hands-on curriculum covers:

• Core & Frontend: Master the MVC architecture (routing, controllers, views) and build reusable pages with Blade and Tailwind CSS.
• Data & Security: Manage complex database relationships with Eloquent and implement robust authentication using Laravel Breeze.
• Real-World Integrations: Add polish with Mapbox and Mailtrap, handle file uploads, and finally deploy your production-ready app to a live server using Laravel Forge.

Best for Codebase Maintainers (Spatie)

Take if:	Skip if:
You are managing large-scale, complex applications You want to implement Domain-Driven Design (DDD)	You are a beginner or early-intermediate developer

• Duration: 2 hours
• Cost: Paid

One common criticism of Laravel is that its codebases are a nightmare to maintain due to its glamorous amount of ‘magic’. Spatie’s paid Laravel Beyond CRUD course proves it doesn’t have to be that way.

This course is designed explicitly for developers who have ‘outgrown’ the standard Laravel patterns. It addresses the problems that arise in large, multi-year projects where the standard MVC pattern leads to Fat Controllers and God Models.

The curriculum introduces concepts from Domain-Driven Design (DDD) but adapts them for the Laravel framework. Key concepts include:

• Data Transfer Objects (DTOs): Using strongly typed objects to pass data between application layers, ensuring strict contracts and reducing bugs.
• Actions: Encapsulating business logic (e.g., CreateUserAction) into single-purpose classes rather than burying them in controllers or models.
• View Models: Separating the preparation of data for the view from the controller logic.

Best for Building Dynamic UIs (Livewire)

Take if:	Skip if:
You want to stay in PHP Land, that is not deal with the mental overhead of managing a JavaScript framework You need specific recipes for complex UIs	You are building an API-first architecture You want to learn standard JavaScript patterns

• Duration: 11–12 hours
• Cost: Free / Paid

Livewire is a package that lets you build reactive, server-rendered UIs using only PHP and Blade.

But unlike Blade alone, each component holds state: user actions auto-round-trip to the server, re-render the view, and patch the DOM — no custom AJAX or JavaScript required.

Intrigued? Then the creator’s Livewire Screencasts will give you everything you need to get comfortable with the framework.

Free Curriculum

• The Essentials: Start with the basics: forms, tables, and validation.

Paid Curriculum

• Advanced Use Cases: Tackle complex UI patterns like nested modals, dynamic data tables with filtering, and charts.
• Code Architecture: Learn to keep your codebase clean and maintainable using reusable traits.
• Alpine.js Integration: Layer in interactions like drag-and-drop to build rich, SPA-like interfaces without ever leaving PHP.

Best Comprehensive Laravel Book (Matt Stauffer)

Take if:	Skip if:
You prefer a comprehensive written reference You are an experienced developer seeking depth	You need the absolute latest syntax: (Laravel 11) You struggle with dense technical reading

• Rating: 4.4/5.0 (Goodreads)
• Duration: 12 hours
• Cost: Paid

“Not only is Matt one of the most knowledgeable members of the Laravel community, he is also a fantastic teacher. I’m proud to recommend this book as a thorough, extensive guide to the Laravel framework.” — Taylor Otwell, Creator of Laravel

Written by Matt Stauffer, host of The Laravel Podcast, Laravel: Up & Running provides 572 pages of deep-dive material designed to help experienced PHP developers understand why the framework works the way it does.

• Core Architecture: Follow the request lifecycle through middleware and the IoC container while mastering dependency injection.
• Data & Logic: Write migrations once to manage data with Eloquent ORM, and strictly validate user input before it touches the database.
• Advanced Processing: Generate code with Artisan, offload slow tasks to queues and schedulers, and handle API authentication with Sanctum.
• Security & Communication: Restrict actions via Gates and Policies, and manage multi-channel notifications (Mail, Slack, SMS) through a single system.

Note: While the book was written for Laravel 10, the core concepts and architectural techniques remain fully applicable to the current version.

Bonus Resources

Here are some miscellaneous resources that I found useful while researching this BCG:

• Laravel News: The definitive source for everything in the Laravel ecosystem. Tutorials, package spotlights, and official framework announcements. Curated by Eric Barnes,
• The Laravel Podcast: Hosted by Matt Stauffer, this show features interviews with the core team and community leaders, offering deep dives into the philosophy behind recent updates and the future of the framework.
• Laravel Communities: Need help or advice? Try asking around in the Laravel.io forum, official Laravel Discord, or Laravel subreddit, or the other communities listed in the bolded link.

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