Should I use Laravel or Node.js for my project?

Pick Laravel when the product is a conventional web application with database heavy CRUD, business logic, admin tooling, and standard request response patterns: SaaS platforms, eCommerce, internal systems, content driven products, fintech, healthcare. Pick Node.js when the product is dominated by real time communication, high concurrency long lived connections, or shares a JavaScript codebase across frontend and backend: chat systems, collaborative editing, live dashboards, streaming, game backends, or teams committed to a single JavaScript language across the stack. Many systems use both: Laravel for the application core, a small Node.js service for the real time layer.