Is Laravel spaghetti programming?

There is a comment left to me that caught my attention where someone claims that Laravel is spaghetti programming.

Note: I obviously disagree, but I do want to talk a little bit about the context and acknowledge that I understand your point of view.

Why might it seem that way?

Until I read that comment, I hadn't stopped to think about how complex a view in Laravel can look, especially for someone just getting started. And it's not just Laravel: client-side development has also become very complex, to the point of surpassing the backend in many cases.

For example, if we open a typical Laravel view (like a list view), we see that it has everything:

• Helper methods (__, session(), etc.)
• Accessing translations (__('Translate').
• Blade directives (@if, @foreach, @include, @component, etc.)
• Importing your own or third-party components like Flux. flux:button
• Conditionals and expressions directly in PHP.
• Slots and validations.

And the data that reaches those views can come from the server, the session, cookies, an API, etc.

And this is just in one view. So I understand that it may seem "chaotic" if you don't know the entire ecosystem behind it.

It's not spaghetti, it's dynamic

But that doesn't make it spaghetti programming. What Laravel offers are tools for generating dynamic HTML, just like other frameworks like Django, Flask, or even Vue do on the front end.

What is spaghetti programming?

This is an example of "spaghetti programming" in pure PHP, and it's exactly what I always criticize. I don't like working with pure PHP because it's very easy to get disorganized, especially if you don't follow conventions:

<?php

// This is a mix of business logic, presentation, and data access,
// all in a single file and with uncontrolled jumps.

// Simulation of a database "connection"
function get_user_data($id) {
    // Imagine a SQL query here
    $usuarios = [
        1 => ['nombre' => 'Alice', 'email' => 'alice@example.com', 'activo' => true],
        2 => ['nombre' => 'Bob', 'email' => 'bob@example.com', 'activo' => false],
        3 => ['nombre' => 'Charlie', 'email' => 'charlie@example.com', 'activo' => true],
    ];
    return $usuarios[$id] ?? null;
}

// Improvised validation logic
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
    $userId = (int)$_GET['id'];

    if ($userId <= 0) {
        echo "<h1>Error: ID de usuario inválido.</h1>";
        // Salto incondicional, mala práctica
        goto end_of_script;
    }

    $userData = obtener_datos_de_usuario($userId);

    if ($userData) {
        echo "<h1>Detalles del Usuario</h1>";
        echo "<p><strong>ID:</strong> " . htmlspecialchars($userId) . "</p>";
        echo "<p><strong>Nombre:</strong> " . htmlspecialchars($userData['nombre']) . "</p>";
        echo "<p><strong>Email:</strong> " . htmlspecialchars($userData['email']) . "</p>";

        // Otra condición y más lógica mezclada
        if ($userData['activo']) {
            echo "<p style='color: green;'><strong>Estado:</strong> Activo</p>";
            // Más código aquí si el usuario está activo...
            if (isset($_GET['mostrar_mensaje'])) {
                echo "<div style='background-color: lightblue; padding: 10px;'>¡Bienvenido de nuevo, " . htmlspecialchars($userData['nombre']) . "!</div>";
            }
        } else {
            echo "<p style='color: red;'><strong>Estado:</strong> Inactivo</p>";
            // Más código aquí si el usuario está inactivo...
        }
    } else {
        echo "<h1>Usuario no encontrado.</h1>";
    }
} else {
    echo "<h1>Por favor, proporciona un ID de usuario en la URL (ej: ?id=1).</h1>";
}

// Etiqueta para el goto
end_of_script:
echo "<hr><p>Fin de la ejecución.</p>";

?>

While you could implement MVC manually, why reinvent the wheel? If there are already frameworks like Laravel that give you structure, or even lighter ones like CodeIgniter if Laravel is too big for you, then there's no point in complicating things.

Problems and what makes it spaghetti programming:

• Business logic, presentation, and database access all in the same file.
• SQL embedded directly within HTML.
• No layer separation or flow control.
• Impossible to maintain.

Laravel does have structure

Laravel, on the other hand, follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern, although it has adapted it in its own way. You can retrieve data from:

1. Traditional controllers.
2. Blade components.
3. Livewire or any other stack you use.

The idea is to separate responsibilities, like any serious framework. Therefore, it's unfair to call code organized in layers and simply leveraging the framework's features spaghetti.