PHP and Laravel

PHP has a bad reputation among developers and a huge presence on the real web, especially in Latin America. WordPress, WooCommerce stores, internal systems built years ago and the cheap shared hosting many small businesses rely on all run on PHP, and a good part of the region’s freelance work goes through it. The language is also not what it was fifteen years ago: PHP 8 brought types, enums, attributes and performance that has little to do with its reputation, and Laravel offers an orderly way to build complete applications. In this category we favour courses on modern PHP with typing and Composer, and on current Laravel versions, building apps with authentication, a database and deployment. We skipped the ones that teach mixing SQL and HTML in the same file as the normal way to work. There are good Spanish-language courses, plus English reference courses for the advanced topics.

Who it is for

• Freelancers and agencies working with WordPress who want to move from configuring themes to writing code.
• People who inherit a PHP system and need to maintain it without fear of breaking it.
• Anyone looking for a full stack for web apps that can be deployed on inexpensive hosting.

What you will learn

• Modern PHP 8: types, classes, enums, error handling and Composer.
• Laravel: routing, controllers, Eloquent, migrations and validation.
• Authentication, queues and scheduled tasks, which is where a small app becomes a real one.
• Security basics: SQL injection, XSS and CSRF, which were everyday problems in old-school PHP.
• WordPress theme and plugin development, for those working in that ecosystem.
• Deployment on shared hosting and on your own servers.

Recommended order

1. Modern PHP with object orientation and Composer, before any framework.
2. Laravel, building a complete app with users and a database.
3. Security, testing and queues once the app works end to end.
4. WordPress in depth only if your work is in that ecosystem. With solid PHP, its code makes far more sense.

PHP for Beginners: The Complete PHP Security Course 2026

An English-language course devoted entirely to writing secure PHP, a topic many beginner courses skip. We would recommend it to anyone who already writes basic PHP and wants to understand, through attack-and-fix examples, how to close the most common gaps before shipping an application.

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PHP y MySQL: Gestor de Tareas Proyecto Práctico (Desde Cero)

A hands-on Spanish-language course for people who have never used PHP and want to see, end to end, how a web application stores and changes data in MySQL. We would recommend it as a first project: a to-do list with full CRUD, form validation and a Bootstrap interface, without filler theory.

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PHP Laravel 13 Desde Cero integrando IssuesPHP Framework

A Spanish-language course that takes you through PHP and Laravel 13 from the basics to an API with authentication and payments, using projects as the common thread. We would recommend it to anyone who wants a broad syllabus in one place: object-oriented PHP, Eloquent, Sanctum, Breeze and a Stripe integration.

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Frequently asked questions

Is PHP worth learning in 2026?

Yes, if you are interested in web work in Latin America: WordPress, e-commerce and many internal systems still run on PHP and need people to maintain and extend them. It is not the flashiest choice, but demand is steady, especially in freelance and agency work.

How long does it take to learn PHP and Laravel?

Basic PHP takes one or two months if you already code a little. Building a Laravel app with users, a database and deployment usually takes two or three more months of practice.

Laravel or WordPress?

It depends on the job: WordPress for content sites and stores the client manages on their own; Laravel for custom applications with their own business logic. Many people work with both, and knowing PHP properly is what lets you move between them.

PHP or Node.js for the backend?

Node.js if you want one language across frontend and backend; PHP with Laravel if you want a framework that solves almost everything for you and cheap hosting with any provider. At TintoDev we work with Node.js, but Laravel is still one of the fastest ways to get a complete web app into production.

Are there PHP courses in Spanish?

Yes. The catalogue mixes Spanish and English courses, and each listing shows the course language. There is plenty of Spanish material for PHP and Laravel, so pay more attention to whether it covers PHP 8 and a recent Laravel version.