Inertia vs Livewire vs React starter kits in Laravel 12

Livewire keeps more of the interaction model inside Laravel and is often the lowest-friction path for teams that want server-driven development with modern UX. Inertia gives you a classic frontend framework experience while preserving a Laravel-shaped backend. The React starter kits lean further into a full client-side component model.

There is no universal winner. The question is whether your team wants most complexity to live in PHP, in the browser, or explicitly across both layers.

Starter kits save time early, but they should be chosen for the architecture they imply later. That is where the real cost sits.