The founder refused investment for 13 years. An open-source project with only a few dozen people has won over 81k GitHub stars and has over a million users. Netizens: He single-handedly saved PHP.
Laravel is a modern PHP framework designed to simplify web development by offering elegant syntax, powerful tools, and a developer-friendly experience. It was created by Taylor Otwell in 2011 with the aim of improving PHP development and providing an alternative to the popular CodeIgniter framework at that time. Today, the number of Laravel users has exceeded 1 million.
The official GitHub repository of Laravel has received over 81.6k Stars and 24.4k Forks, ranking among the top in the PHP framework category for both metrics.
According to a survey by BuiltWith in 2024, over 1.7 million websites have used Laravel in the past, and currently, approximately 740,000 websites are powered by Laravel.
As estimated by SimilarTech, Laravel holds a market share as high as 35.87%. Its comparable competitors are Yii (30.56%) and CodeIgniter (26.05%).
Laravel's Creator: I Never Thought of Becoming a Programmer
Laravel was created in 2011 by Taylor Otwell, a web developer from Arkansas, USA. The framework was initially developed to address some of the shortcomings of another PHP framework, CodeIgniter. Otwell's goal was to create an easy-to-use, elegant, and powerful framework.
In high school, Otwell was exposed to some basic programming and computer knowledge. He learned HTML and CSS and used them to work on some simple web projects. Additionally, he wrote some simple programs on his TI - 83 graphing calculator. Although he didn't write complex code at that time, he developed an interest in computers and technology and enjoyed creating small websites, similar to the popular Pokemon - style websites of that era.
Taylor Otwell
But at that time, Otwell didn't consider himself a "programmer." He was just an ordinary high - school student with other interests besides programming, such as basketball and being a drummer in a band.
After graduating from high school, Otwell entered Arkansas Tech University to study IT, specializing in computer networks rather than computer programming. In fact, he didn't plan to become a programmer. In college, he saw himself as a "network administrator" type, learning network technology instead of software development.
Otwell mentioned that his degree focused more on computer networks than programming, and he had no interest in programming at all. Therefore, he didn't acquire in - depth programming knowledge during his college years.
Otwell never thought about becoming a software developer in the future. However, his thoughts gradually changed after graduation.
After graduating in 2008, Otwell joined a large freight company called Arkansas Best Freight. Although his major was computer networks, his job was not related to programming. The company recruited many recent graduates and provided them with six months of in - house programming training.
By coincidence, Otwell truly got in touch with programming here and learned technologies such as COBOL,.NET, and ASP, even though he had only taken two basic C - language courses before.
This training was crucial for Otwell as it laid the foundation for his later programming career. In the first few years after entering society, Otwell was actually engaged in programming work, but at that time, he just regarded programming as a job and didn't really fall in love with it.
He recalled, "At that time, I went home after finishing my programming work and never thought about programming well. I didn't even visit GitHub. I didn't do any of those things."
But the more he was exposed to programming at work, the greater his interest in programming became.
By the end of 2020, to solve some problems he encountered at work, Otwell decided to develop a framework to improve PHP development.
Otwell said, "Throughout my career, I've always liked creating tools for other developers in the company. I enjoy working on projects that can boost developers' productivity and help them work more efficiently. At that time, my goal was to create a tool that could help developers build web applications faster. PHP is a programming language very suitable for web development, easy to deploy and maintain. So I decided to build a more modern PHP web application framework than the existing ones, which is the origin of Laravel."
Thus, the story of Laravel began.
Otwell revealed that he initially created Laravel to solve his own problems. But after spending more than five months completing the development of Laravel, he began to realize that it would be a great thing if he had the opportunity to develop a tool that people could use for about eight hours a day and that could have a huge impact on their work.
With this idea in mind, he open - sourced a Laravel project on GitHub.
"I Had No Income for the First Three Years of Laravel's Open - Source Phase"
He recalled the excitement of the first release: "I remember I got four stars on GitHub on the first day, and I was super excited that anyone would notice what I wrote." Despite this small start, Laravel quickly caught people's attention, and it was his first open - source project.
By the end of 2011, while he was still doing.NET development, he received an email from Ian Landsman. Ian ran a company called UserScape, which focused on the development of help - desk and customer - support software. He said he really liked the design concept and features of Laravel and wanted to use Laravel to rebuild some of the company's original PHP codebase. Ian had full confidence in Laravel, even though it wasn't a mainstream PHP framework at that time. Otwell was very excited and agreed to Ian's invitation.
In the first week of January 2012, Taylor officially joined UserScape. Fortunately, Ian gave him six months to develop Laravel full - time because UserScape had a lot of work to do, and Laravel's features were not fully developed. During this time, he developed a complete queue system, database migration system, and packaging system. Otwell thought this period was extremely valuable because Ian not only had confidence in Laravel but also in him personally, supporting him to develop and improve Laravel.
While working at UserScape, Otwell and Ian discovered and solved some minor problems in Laravel. Every Friday, Ian would set aside time specifically for Laravel development, which allowed him to improve the framework based on the pain points encountered in the company.
Until 2014, Otwell didn't earn any income from the Laravel project. It was not until the release of Laravel Forge that he really started to have an income.
One to two months after the release of Forge, its income even exceeded Otwell's original work income. Subsequently, Otwell had to quit his job and focus on Laravel.
Moreover, Ian also told Otwell, "Laravel is too big. You can work on it full - time." If it weren't for Ian's support and trust, Taylor thought the story of Laravel might have been very different.
On January 1, 2015, Otwell fully dedicated himself to Laravel development for the first time. From then on, he started working from home, making Laravel his full - time job and has been focusing on this project ever since.
Taylor Otwell shared his insights on Laravel development:
"When you develop open - source software, there will be many voices. Some voices come from genuine constructive criticism, while others are more like attacks on your project. For example, if the American heavy - metal band Metallica tried to cater to Taylor Swift's fans, they would ultimately lose their core fans. Similarly, if Taylor Swift changed her core style, she would disappoint the fans who love her deeply. Therefore, developers should create content that their fans love. Fans are the core part of your community.
When facing external criticism, it's very tempting for developers, especially when other smart people try to tell you, 'Oh, I think you should do it this way, or you should do that.' Those who comment from the sidelines never really use your product. If you follow their advice, there will always be another request, but they will never become users of your product. This is very frustrating. So, I suggest you focus on your real core users who like what you do and support your project.
In the first three years, I had no income at all, and Laravel was completely open - source. I think I'm a very ordinary developer. All the features and functions of Laravel are basically solutions to the problems I encountered in actual development."
In the early years, Otwell was the only employee of the company, responsible for front - end, back - end, customer support, documentation, and so on.
It wasn't until around 2016 - 2017 that the Laravel project started recruiting and hired its first engineer.
But now, looking back, Otwell thinks he made a mistake in recruitment: he waited too long. As the creator of an open - source project, one tends to be protective of the project and reluctant to let others get involved. However, once he started hiring employees, Otwell found that it was something he should have done much earlier.
Besides the company, for any open - source project, the community is the foundation for its survival. Taylor Otwell also gathered a group of like - minded people to promote the development of Laravel.
Taylor Otwell shared his experiences with Laravel and the community, especially his interactions with some key figures and their contributions to Laravel's growth.
He recalled his friendship with Jeffery Way. They had been playing "Rocket League" together for four or five years. Although their results weren't outstanding, this experience became the cornerstone of their friendship.
Jeffery Way
Jeffery Way is the founder of Laracasts, a platform that provides video courses related to Laravel for developers. Jeffery Way is also one of the veterans of Laravel.
Otwell also mentioned some early important community members, including Dayle Rees, who wrote the first introductory book on Laravel. This book played an important role in the popularization of Laravel.
Dayle Rees
In the early days of Laravel's development, Taylor and Dayle Rees and others created resources to help more people access and understand Laravel. Taylor was also one of the first to write articles related to Laravel, and these articles gradually attracted the attention of the community.
Eric Barnes was one of the early promoters. He suggested that Otwell compile these blog articles into a book. Eventually, this book, "Code Happy," became the first introductory book on Laravel and was more successful than Otwell expected.
Eric Barnes
Jeffrey Way's contributions to the Laravel community cannot be ignored. Through Laracasts, he provided high - quality video tutorials, which greatly helped developers learn Laravel and promoted its popularization. The goal of Laracasts is to create a centralized educational platform to help developers learn more efficiently, especially full - stack developers using Laravel or PHP.
Accepted the First Investment 13 Years after Its Establishment
As Laravel continued to develop, Otwell also began to build a business ecosystem around the framework, launching a series of tools and products such as Laravel Forge, Laravel Envoyer, and Laravel Nova. These tools improved developers' development experience and helped them deploy their code globally. Nevertheless, Otwell still regarded open - source projects as his most interesting area, focusing on community development and continuous improvement of the open - source framework.
Otwell recalled his experience of being the first employee at Laravel. At Laravel, Taylor and the team had a great deal of freedom, working in a more flexible and collaborative way without being restricted by the traditional corporate hierarchy. This open and free working atmosphere made Otwell very satisfied.
As the Laravel community grew, Otwell and the team also participated in multiple open - source projects related to Laravel, promoting the development of the entire ecosystem.
For example, Tighten is a good example. As a company focused on Laravel, with the growth of the community, Tighten has expanded from an initial team of two to nearly a hundred people, demonstrating Laravel's profound impact on the entire industry.
In 2019, Otwell experienced some important moments in his life. For instance, he shared the news of his wife's pregnancy with his friends in the Laravel community. He had a very close connection with the community. Before the pandemic, he attended multiple conferences every year, and Laracation was born in such a context.
Laracon, an important event in the Laravel community, was initially small - scale. But as the community expanded, the scale of the conference gradually increased. There was even a Laracon music festival held in Times Square, becoming a grand event for developers worldwide. Taylor mentioned that at Laracon, people didn't come for work but because of their love and sense of belonging to Laravel and the community.
He also specifically mentioned the inclusiveness of the Laravel community. Both male and female developers can find their place here. Taylor believes that the friendliness and openness of the Laravel community are one of the reasons why it can attract so many developers.
After more than a decade of development, Laravel decided to take the next step.
In September 2024, according to an exclusive report by Fortune magazine, Laravel received a $57 million Series A investment from Accel. In a sense, Laravel is the kind of company that venture capitalists pursue - it has been growing steadily. For example, the open - source download volume of the company in July 2024 increased by 25% year - on - year. At that time, Laravel had 35 employees, while at the beginning of 2024, there were only 8. Well - known companies such as Apple, OpenAI, Square, Zillow, OpenTable, and Motorola are using Laravel.
Although the company has been established for 13 years, this is the company's first full