If there is one single core feature that demonstrates Laravel's superiority, it would be the ability to quickly and easily create a RESTful API. With the arrival of Laravel 5, several new features have been added; however, the ability to create application models and controllers via the Artisan command-line tool remains the most useful feature.

This feature is what initially encouraged me and so many others to abandon frameworks such as CodeIgniter, which at the time that Laravel 4 was in beta, did not natively have the same integrated functionality. Laravel provides the basic CRUD methods: create, read, update, delete, and also lists all.

Requests that arrive via HTTP to a Laravel URL are managed through their verbs and subsequently, the routes.php file, which is located at app/Http/routes.php. There are two ways in which the requests are handled. One way is that the request is handled directly via a closure, and the code is entirely inside the routes file. Another way is that it routes the request to a controller, where a method will be executed.

Also, the basic paradigm used is convention-over-configuration, where the method names are ready to handle the various requests, without too much extra effort.