Laravel is one of the most influential PHP frameworks of our time. How is Laravel transforming the Swiss tech landscape? We interviewed Stefan Zweifel, Co-President of the Swiss Laravel Association, and Serg Tonkoshkuryk, who has played a key role in building Xelon HQ, a Cloud management platform powered by Laravel.
Xelon:To start, how would you explain Laravel to people without a technical background?
Serg Tonkoshkuryk: Laravel is basically a framework, an open-source set of tools and best practices you can use to build applications. I like to compare it to a Lego set. Instead of starting from scratch, you already have pre-built pieces that you can put together to create something of your own. That “something” could be a website, a platform like the Swiss Cloud management platform Xelon HQ, or almost any kind of application.
Stefan Zweifel:I’ll use a similar analogy. For me, Laravel is like a big hardware store. If I’m a carpenter and want to buildsomething—say, sending emails or processing images—I can walk in and pick exactly what I need. The Laravel ecosystem and its community packages provide ready-made solutions built by developers all over the world. You just choose what fits and integrate it into your application.
How didyou personally get started with Laravel, and what still excites you about ittoday?
Serg:I started around 2015, working at an outsourcing company in Kyiv. We had many clients with different CRM and ERPsystems, and at the time our team lead was very skeptical of frameworks. We even built our own simple MVC framework, which worked but was hard to scale and difficult for new developers to understand. Eventually I discovered Laravel, and it just clicked. Compared to alternatives like Symfony, it felt simpler andmore efficient for our needs. When I became team lead, I decided to use Laravel for the next project. And it quickly became our framework of choice. What still excites me is that balance: simplicity, effectiveness, and scalability.
Stefan: My story is quite similar. I first looked at Laravel around 2014 or 2015, after seeing people talk about it on Twitter. At my previous job we were using CodeIgniter, and I found it complicated and unpleasant to work with. Laravel felt clean and intuitive. By 2016 we were rewriting our main application in Laravel. What excites me mosttoday is that Laravel gives you clear ways to build things. Whether it’s sending emails or running background jobs, most of what you need is already there. It keeps evolving, too, with new ideas like AI integrations, whileremaining stable and maintainable.
Whatkinds of companies in Switzerland are using Laravel today?
Stefan: We don’t have hard survey data yet, but from what we see in the Laravel Association, the range is wide. Hosting companies, for example, are rebuilding internal management systems with Laravel, everything from server provisioning to DNS management and billing. Agencies also use Laravel extensively, especially with CMS solutions like Statamic or October CMS, to build corporate websites and landing pages. We’ve seen large pharmaceutical companies use Laravel internally for tooling. So, it’s used by small two-person companies as well as organizations with thousands of employees.
Can you share a project where Laravel made a real difference?
Stefan: One example from my own work was rebuilding a marketing data platform. We aggregated data from Google, Meta, and Bing and built an automated ad-campaign system that could adjust budgets inreal time. The marketing teams loved it because the UI was fast and responsive;it was much faster than the native tools from big ad platforms. At another company, migrating from CodeIgniter to Laravel allowed us to introduce testing and scale the application more easily. Over a few years, the company tripled its revenue, partly because development became faster and more reliable.
Serg: At Xelon, it’s similar. Theoriginal MVP of Xelon HQ was built in Laravel by our founder, Michael. We’ve rewritten it multiple times since then, but Laravel made it possible to start quickly and then scale. That’s a real success story for us.
We see growing demand for open-source technologies. Why do you think that is?
Serg: Open source gives you control and transparency. At Xelon, we experienced vendor lock-in firsthand with proprietary virtualization software, which pushed us toward open-source solutions like Proxmox. With open source, you can inspect the code, contribute to it, or adapt it to your needs instead of waiting for a vendor to respond to a ticket. Community is another huge factor. With Laravel, you can find examples, libraries, and knowledge for almost anything, such as payments, emails, or integrations. That sharing accelerates development and innovation.
Stefan:I agree. Open source allows you to audit code for security issues and even fix problems yourself. Knowledge transfer is also much easier. I recently switched jobs, and because both companies used Laravel, I was productive within days. That kind of portability simply doesn’t exist with many proprietary systems.
The Laravel Association aims to bring the Swiss community together. How do you do that?
Stefan: We organize monthly meetups in cities across Switzerland: Zurich, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lucerne, Zug, and more. We also run a Discord server, WhatsApp groups, and a newsletter to keep people connected. Beyond that, we host special events, like a Christmas gathering, and organize group trips to conferences such as Laracon EU. In the future, we’d love to run hackathons or collaborate with schools to introduce Laravel to students.
Xelon is a sponsor of the Laravel Association. How does that support your mission?
Stefan: Xelon is a founding sponsor, and that support helps us cover essentials like food, drinks, and speaker gifts at meetups. You also provide locations, like your office in Zug, which is important for reaching developers who might not want to travel to larger cities. Beyond funding, there’s also support in terms of ideas, collaboration, and content creation, which we really appreciate.
What have been the most rewarding moments for you since joining the association?
Serg: For me, it’s meeting great people and being part of a community. Giving a talk at a meetup was especially rewarding. Even though time is limited—especially since becoming a father—it’s something I’d love to do more often.
Stefan: One moment that stood out was when a first-time attendee thanked us profusely for organizing a meetup in his region. He said he would never travel to Zurich or Basel, so having an event nearby meant a lot to him. Moments like that make the effort of bringing the SwissLaravel community together worthwhile.
How do you see Laravel evolving over the next few years?
Stefan: I hope and am pretty sure it stays relevant for the next decade. Laravel is investing heavily in AI and commercial products, but the core remains stable. The way you send emails today is almost the same as ten years ago, and that stability is powerful.
Serg: Laravel’s opinionated nature makesit especially well-suited for AI-assisted development. Because there’s a clear structure, AI tools can generate more maintainable code. Combined with tools like Laravel Cloud, it’s becoming easier than ever to ship and operate applications. I see a very bright future.
What advice would you give to someone starting with Laravel today?
Serg: Just start. The documentation is excellent; that’s one of Laravel’s biggest strengths. Use modern tools, including AI, to ask questions and learn, but stay curious and try to understand what’s happening under the hood.
Stefan: Learn the basics of PHP, read the Laravel documentation from start to finish, and then build something that solves a real problem for you. And most importantly: join the community, share your work, and learn from others.