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tnort's avatar
Level 4

Livewire vs Inertia vs Vue/React

Hi all,

Could anyone help me get what is the idea behind all these tools in relation to Vue and React, please?

I understand that building Vue/React based frontend and Laravel backend seems tedious as you need to develop all these APIs. However, when it comes to Inertia or Livewire you still need to develop traditional routes which seem the same with the exception that you might not need to handle HTTP requests manually. But what is the whole difference between all of them?

And finally, why do we have Inertia and Livewire as they appear to do the same thing?

Also, where can I find more info/tutorials on Livewire/Inertia? Most of the info I can find is on Laracast.

Can I also use Laravel in a hybrid mode in a way where let's say some functionalities are traditional Laravel SSR and some are Inertia Livewire?

Are there tools production ready? Which one is more suitable for building CRM or e-commerce platforms?

I know there is a lot to read and answer but I appreciate your time and help. Your answer could save a few good hours of research.

Thank you, Mihail

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10 replies
Sinnbeck's avatar

Ok a lot to unwrap here. I'll go over it briefly and let you ask follow up questions if you have any

Inertia is the closest to a regular "api based vue/react app". But instead of having to set up and endpoint for each little bit of data, you set up the data for the full page, just as with blade. It also handles the overall state (props), but in php instead of the browser

With livewire you don't use react or vue, but instead write most of your code in php, and livewire transforms it for you

And yes both are production ready

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tnort's avatar
Level 4

@Sinnbeck,

Taking the Inertia course here on Laracast, Jeff mention that he’s using it on Laracast and does the job. Also he mention he loves it. Now the question is which one should I try to build my next project on? I know in most of the cases the answer is “it depends”, but from the maturity, security, productivity sanding point what do you think ?

Sinnbeck's avatar

@tudosm I would say, try both and see what you like. I personally use inertia for my "big" app. But I'm also currently creating a new smaller one in livewire

I love working with react so inertia was a natural choice for me

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Sinnbeck's avatar

Oh and both can be mixed with regular blade pages (livewire can even be small components in the blade page itself)

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tnort's avatar
Level 4

@Sinnbeck, so as per my research and out of what you said above I can conclude that:

Livewire - is for those who want to become full stack without learning any new front-end framework but also enjoy some SPA features. Also, apparently is not recommended for "big" projects and is not as efficient as others but in exchange has a linear learning curve.

Inertia mainly, except for a few futures, acts as a glue between the front-end (Vue/React) and backend and allows building SSR websites with Laravel and Vue/React. Is powerful enough to allow building powerful websites but has a steeper learning curve (if there is much to learn about it - many because it requires a new frontend framework). Also abstracts out all that Vue rout building hussle.

Therefore, for my future and for someone who has some experience with Vue and is looking to get better with Vue it's better to go for Inertia (if SSR is aimed). Or just keep things module and work with API-based Laravel and Vue.

Sinnbeck's avatar
Sinnbeck
Best Answer
Level 102

@tudosm A few things

Livewire: Not a SPA. Just blade with interactive elements using ajax. It can be made into a SPA with something like turbolinks, but it isnt native to Livewire. Also I think the thing about it not being good for big projects, is mostly down to people not using it properly. Use debounce etc. to keep the requests to a minimum. Finally it pairs with AlpineJS, for all your js needs.

Inertia: Exactly. And it takes a bit of getting used to getting all data in through props instead of inside the ajax calls themselves (you can still mix in plain ajax if needed). And every page should have all the data it needs from a single controller method.

I would pick Inertia as well. And it does SSR if you want that. You just need to run the built in node server :)

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tnort's avatar
Level 4

@Sinnbeck, thank you for making it clear.

Two out of the topic questions:

  1. When is best to get a Laracast subscription as I am looking to renew mine to a lifetime one?
  2. How do I get to increase my Level? :D
tnort's avatar
Level 4

@Sinnbeck, thank you for helping out again. Just clocked on a few of them. I see some ppl like you and a few others that always answer. If that's not discretionary, is it like a job for you or you are doing it all out of a passion for the community?

Promise, last question on this topic lol

Sinnbeck's avatar

@tudosm I work as a solo developer so I do this to learn myself. By challenging myself to find answers I learn a lot. And often others give some answers that I didnt think of, which helps me learn. And yes, a lot of it is just passion for the community. Others write open source code.. I help people

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