Laravel vs Node.js?

You're asking in a Laravel forum, so I think your responses will be biased towards Laravel.

If your end goal is to maximize your salary, then do some research on which languages/frameworks have the highest average salary and focus on that.

I've been around long enough to realize that I would much rather prioritize enjoying what I do than a few extra thousand dollars per year. I'm not actively comparing salaries between different frameworks, but I would assume that there's a lot of good-paying roles for Laravel devs based on the popularity of Laravel itself.

@drehimself said:

If your end goal is to maximize your salary, then do some research on which languages/frameworks have the highest average salary and focus on that.

I agree, my early career was in java mainly a logistics company and later the State of Texas.

So you could learn the languages that large companies are using such as:

• CH Robinson
• Fedex
• UPS
• Landstar
• Walmart
• etc

And seek a good programming career with a large company. I would suggest Spring framework as one to learn.

I never used a framework, I did java, servlets, beans direct. Now it's jakarta ee. But back in the day Struts was used a lot also.

But remember, a large company including State Governments use many technologies to include:

• Node JS
• .net core
• java technoligies
• php
• Microsoft Office Access and Excel
• Vue
• react
• angular
• etc

In fact DADS (Department of aging and Disability Services) dumps local employee data via ODBC and creates a nice looking local employee report using the reporting In MS Access.

I also suggest you take some general business, accounting / bookkeeping courses if you want to do business applications / programming. And some basic tax law learning would help.