The Perfect Pair: Combining Laravel and React for Powerful Web Applications

In the modern web development landscape, Laravel and React have emerged as a powerhouse duo for building dynamic, scalable, and high-performance web applications. Laravel provides a robust backend framework with an elegant syntax, while React enables highly interactive frontend experiences.

Despite Laravel traditionally being paired with Vue (especially with Laravel's creator Taylor Otwell favoring it), many developers have embraced Laravel + React due to React’s wider adoption, ecosystem, and flexibility.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• Why Laravel and React complement each other
• How to set up a Laravel-React project
• The role of Inertia.js in this tech stack
• Best practices for integration
• The ongoing Laravel/React vs Laravel/Vue debate

Why Laravel and React Make the Perfect Pair

1. Laravel: A Powerful Backend Framework

Laravel is a PHP framework known for its elegant syntax, rich feature set, and strong community support. It simplifies backend development by providing features like:

• Eloquent ORM for database interactions
• Authentication & Authorisation out-of-the-box
• Blade templating engine (though not needed when using React)
• API Resource Controllers for building RESTful APIs
• Queue and Job Processing for handling background tasks

With Laravel, developers can quickly spin up APIs that serve as the backbone of modern applications.

2. React: A Dynamic Frontend Library

React, developed by Meta (Facebook), is a JavaScript library that enables interactive and modular UI development. Key benefits include:

• Component-based architecture for reusable UI elements
• Virtual DOM for optimised rendering and performance
• State management with hooks and context
• Rich ecosystem with libraries like Redux, React Router, and Material UI

Unlike Laravel’s Blade templates or Vue, React works entirely as a frontend framework, meaning it communicates with Laravel’s backend via RESTful APIs or GraphQL.

3. Effortless API Integration

Laravel’s ability to create RESTful APIs and React’s capability to consume APIs with Axios or Fetch allow seamless communication between frontend and backend.

This decoupling of frontend and backend improves:

• Scalability: Each layer can be scaled independently
• Maintainability: Codebases are better structured
• Performance: Optimised rendering and data fetching strategies

4. What About Inertia.js?

One of the biggest Laravel trends right now is Inertia.js, which acts as a bridge between Laravel and frontend frameworks like React and Vue.

What does Inertia do?
Instead of using Laravel solely as an API, Inertia allows Laravel to render React components as if they were Blade templates—without needing an API layer.

Why use Inertia with React?

• Eliminates the need for a separate API
• Simplifies routing by using Laravel routes instead of React Router
• Maintains Laravel’s session-based authentication

While many prefer the traditional Laravel API + React frontend approach, Inertia is an increasingly popular alternative for Laravel developers who want React’s UI benefits without fully decoupling the frontend and backend.

How to Set Up Laravel with React

Step 1: Install Laravel

First, create a new Laravel project using Composer:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel my-app

Move into the project directory:

cd my-app

Step 2: Set Up Laravel API Routes

Modify the routes/api.php file to create an API route. For example:

use IlluminateSupportFacadesRoute; 
use AppHttpControllersUserController;

Route::get('/users', [UserController::class, 'index']);

Step 3: Create a Controller to Serve Data

Generate a controller for handling API requests:

php artisan make:controller UserController

Modify the controller (app/Http/Controllers/UserController.php):

namespace AppHttpControllers;

use IlluminateHttpRequest;
use AppModelsUser;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return response()->json(User::all());
    }
}

Step 4: Install React in Your Project

If you're using Laravel with Vite, install React via npm:

npm create vite@latest frontend --template react

Move into the frontend directory and install dependencies:

cd frontend
npm install

Step 5: Fetch Data from Laravel in React

Inside the React project, install Axios to make API calls:

npm install axios

Create a component (src/components/UserList.js):

import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react";
import axios from "axios";

const UserList = () => {
  const [users, setUsers] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    axios.get("http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/users")
      .then(response => {
        setUsers(response.data);
      })
      .catch(error => console.error("Error fetching users:", error));
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>User List</h2>
      <ul>
        {users.map(user => (
          <li key={user.id}>{user.name}</li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
};

export default UserList;

Step 6: Display the Component in Your App

Modify src/App.js:

import React from "react";
import UserList from "./components/UserList";

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Laravel + React Integration</h1>
      <UserList />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

Step 7: Run Laravel and React

Start the Laravel server:

php artisan serve

Start the React application:

npm run dev

Now, your React app should successfully fetch and display data from the Laravel backend.

Laravel + React vs Laravel + Vue: Which One is Winning?

For years, Laravel has been closely tied to Vue.js, even shipping with Vue as its default frontend framework. However, React’s popularity in the wider JavaScript ecosystem has led to a major shift.

Why More Developers Are Choosing React Over Vue with Laravel

1. Bigger Ecosystem & Job Market → More job opportunities and open-source support
2. Reusability → React is preferred for multi-platform applications (web + mobile via React Native)
3. Decoupled Approach → Many teams prefer separating frontend and backend for scalability
4. Meta’s Backing → React is widely used in enterprise projects

However, Vue is still strong in the Laravel community, especially with Inertia.js making Laravel + Vue seamless.

Is there still space for Laravel + Vue?
Absolutely. Vue remains a great option for developer-friendly syntax, smaller projects, and Laravel-native support. But if you’re working on scalable, API-driven, or enterprise applications, Laravel + React might be the better bet.

Best Practices for Laravel + React Integration

- Use Laravel Sanctum for authentication in SPAs
- Enable CORS to allow cross-origin API requests
- Use Laravel Queues for background tasks like emails and notifications
- Optimise React with Lazy Loading for better performance
- Consider Inertia.js if you want Laravel and React to work together without an API

Final Thoughts

Laravel + React is no longer just an alternative to Laravel + Vue—it’s becoming the go-to combination for developers who want the best of both worlds.
Whether you’re building a SaaS app, an e-commerce platform, or a dashboard, this stack provides scalability, maintainability, and performance.