Why Eloquent Is Good Enough 90% of the Time (And When It’s Not)

There’s a moment in every Laravel developer’s journey when they wonder:
“Should I ditch Eloquent and just use raw queries or switch to something like Doctrine?”
Maybe you’re debugging a slow query. Maybe you’ve fallen into the N+1 trap for the fifth time. Or maybe you’re just trying to prove you’re “serious” about performance. It’s tempting to think Eloquent is the problem.
But here’s the truth:
Eloquent is good enough 90% of the time. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s a superpower.
Let’s talk about why. 👇
Eloquent is Expressive, Readable, and Fast (Enough)
Eloquent isn’t just an ORM. It’s a developer experience.
$user = User::where('email', $email)->first();
You instantly know what that line does. No boilerplate, no ceremony—just clean, readable code that does exactly what you expect.
And real magic? Eloquent handles so much under the hood:
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Intuitive query building
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Elegant relationship management
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Automatic timestamp handling
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Dirty checking for model changes
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Protection against mass assignment vulnerabilities
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And so much more
It’s built for developer speed, maintainability, and approachability. When your goal is to move fast and onboard junior developers without handing them a 200-page ORM manual, Eloquent delivers.
“But What About Performance?”
Here’s the thing: most Laravel apps aren’t built to handle 1,000 requests per second. They’re not Netflix, Amazon, or Stripe.
They’re CRMs, SaaS dashboards, internal tools, admin panels—apps with a few hundred users at most, and often far fewer concurrent requests.
In those contexts:
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Eloquent is fast enough
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Queries are rarely the bottleneck
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A few milliseconds here or there don’t matter as much as shipping the damn feature
And when you do hit performance hiccups, Laravel gives you tools to handle them without rewriting your entire data layer:
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Eager load relationships with
with()
to avoid N+1 problems -
Process large datasets with
chunk()
instead of loading everything into memory -
Make sure your DB indexes are solid - Eloquent can’t fix a bad schema
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Cache query results when you really need to squeeze out extra speed
In most real-world cases, you don’t need to abandon Eloquent at the first sign of lag. You just need to use it wisely.
Premature optimization is the enemy—maintainable code and fast iteration are the real wins.
When Eloquent Isn’t Enough
That said, there are times when Eloquent starts to fall apart. Let’s call them what they are:
1. Complex Aggregates & Reports
If your query has 6 joins, 3 subqueries, and window functions…
Don’t fight Eloquent. It’s okay to drop down to raw SQL or DB query builder.
DB::select("SELECT ... complex query here");
Eloquent was built for models and relationships, not pivot-heavy reports. Use the right tool.
2. High-Traffic, Performance-Critical Endpoints
If you're building a public API that’s serving 10k+ requests per minute, and milliseconds matter, Yes, you’ll probably want to bypass Eloquent for hotspots.
You might:
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Use raw queries
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Hydrate custom DTOs instead of full models
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Cache the response entirely
Eloquent wasn’t designed for squeezing every last drop of performance.
3. Bulk Inserts / Updates
Eloquent’s elegance becomes overhead when you’re trying to insert 10,000 records.
DB::table('items')->insert([...]);
That’s where raw queries or the query builder shine. No model events, no per-record timestamps, no unnecessary overhead—just a bulk insert that gets the job done fast.
Use the right tool for the job. Keep the pretty syntax for one-offs - reach for the query builder when speed is the priority.
Final Thoughts
Eloquent gets a bad rap sometimes, especially from performance purists. But most of the time, it’s not the ORM that’s slow, it’s:
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Unindexed columns
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N+1 queries
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Unoptimized logic
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Or… our own overengineering
Before you blame the tool, look at the query. Then decide.
Because more often than not, Eloquent is exactly what you need:
Readable, reliable, and productive.
Keep building great things! 💪