Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks — and for good reason. Its elegant syntax, built-in tools, and vibrant community make it an excellent choice for building web applications, including RESTful APIs. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to build a basic REST API using Laravel, ideal for your startup's backend or MVP.

🔧 What You’ll Need

• PHP 8.0 or higher

• Composer

• Laravel CLI

• A database (MySQL or SQLite for local dev)

• Postman or curl for testing

🛠 Step 1: Create a New Laravel Project

Open your terminal and run:

composer create-project laravel/laravel rest-api-demo
cd rest-api-demo

This will create a new Laravel project in the rest-api-demo directory.

🗄 Step 2: Set Up the Database

Open .env and configure your database:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=rest_api_demo
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword

Then create the database in MySQL.

📦 Step 3: Create a Model and Migration

Let’s say we’re building an API for managing tasks.

php artisan make:model Task -m

In the generated migration file (database/migrations/xxxx_xx_xx_create_tasks_table.php), define the table schema:

public function up()
{
    Schema::create('tasks', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('title');
        $table->text('description')->nullable();
        $table->boolean('completed')->default(false);
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Run the migration:

php artisan migrate

🧠 Step 4: Create a Controller

Generate a resource controller:

php artisan make:controller TaskController --api

Open app/Http/Controllers/TaskController.php and define basic CRUD methods:

use App\Models\Task;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class TaskController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        return Task::all();
    }

    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $validated = $request->validate([
            'title' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'description' => 'nullable|string',
        ]);

        return Task::create($validated);
    }

    public function show(Task $task)
    {
        return $task;
    }

    public function update(Request $request, Task $task)
    {
        $validated = $request->validate([
            'title' => 'sometimes|string|max:255',
            'description' => 'nullable|string',
            'completed' => 'boolean',
        ]);

        $task->update($validated);
        return $task;
    }

    public function destroy(Task $task)
    {
        $task->delete();
        return response()->noContent();
    }
}

🛣 Step 5: Define API Routes

Open routes/api.php and add:

use App\Http\Controllers\TaskController;

Route::apiResource('tasks', TaskController::class);

Laravel will automatically create all the typical RESTful routes: index, store, show, update, and destroy.

✅ Step 6: Test Your API

Start the server:

php artisan serve

Test with Postman or curl:

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/tasks

🔐 (Optional) Add Authentication

Laravel offers API authentication out of the box with Laravel Sanctum or Passport. If your app needs auth, install Sanctum:

composer require laravel/sanctum
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Sanctum\SanctumServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

Then add HasApiTokens to your User model and protect routes with middleware.

🧾 Final Thoughts

Laravel makes building APIs clean and efficient. This simple Task API is a great starting point, and you can scale it with features like validation, relationships, pagination, authentication, and more.

Perfect for MVPs, admin panels, or mobile backends — Laravel has your startup covered.