Why We Use Eager Loading in Laravel (Backend) — But Lazy Loading in Vue, React or any Frontend

Performance is everything — whether you’re writing backend logic or frontend interfaces.

But have you noticed something interesting?

In Laravel, we try to eager load everything.

In Vue, we prefer lazy loading.

Two opposite strategies.

Both for the same goal: Speed.

Let’s break it down.

Backend (Laravel): Eager Loading

In Laravel, when we fetch models with related data — like blog posts with comments — we usually use eager loading:

Post::with('comments')->get();

Why? Because without it, Laravel will run one query for the posts — then one query per post to get its comments.

That’s called the N+1 query problem.

🔁 N queries for N posts + 1 for the initial list = bad performance.

Eager loading solves it:

It pulls everything in a single optimized query using joins or nested eager loading.

Result: Fewer database hits, faster API, happier users.

Frontend (Vue): Lazy Loading

On the frontend, we flip the idea.

In Vue (or React), we often split our code using lazy loading — especially with routes or heavy components.

const AboutPage = () => import('./pages/About.vue')

This means the AboutPage component is not loaded unless the user visits that route.

Lazy loading helps:

• Reduce initial bundle size

• Speed up the first paint (especially on mobile)

• Avoid loading things the user may never even see

Result: Faster UX, smoother navigation, lower memory usage.

Summary: Different Worlds, Same Goal

Both are about performance optimization — but each framework does it in a way that fits its own world.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re working on backend queries or frontend routes, always ask:

“What data or code does the user actually need — and when?”

That question can guide you to the right loading strategy.

Written by Rameez Bhatti

Laravel + Vue Developer | Building fast, scalable tools

🛠 Currently contributing to open source projects like BookStack and Monica.