Laravel 2,157 is the right default for a new PHP web application, but not always. Look elsewhere when:
The host is restrictive. Shared hosting with no SSH, no long-running queue workers and no custom extensions suits CodeIgniter 23,248 's three runtime packages better than Laravel's 76.
The team already thinks in Symfony 6,093 or PSR standards. Doctrine 159,716 , explicit service wiring and a three-year LTS favor Symfony; PSR-15 pipelines favor Mezzio or Slim 32,516 .
The job is one endpoint. A webhook or a small JSON API is one Slim file.
A working codebase is healthy. Rewriting a maintained CakePHP 43,091 or Symfony application in Laravel buys no features. Rewrite what is ending instead: Laminas MVC, Lumen 2,157 and, from November 2027, Yii 2 41,671 .
Outside those cases, the ecosystem and documentation behind this chapter make Laravel the lower-risk choice.