What is the difference between Eloquent ORM and Query Builder?

 Difficulty: Intermediate

Both can interact with the database, but their abstraction levels differ.

Eloquent

Works primarily through models:

$users = User::where('status', 'active')->get();

Query Builder

Works more directly with database queries:

$users = DB::table('users')
    ->where('status', 'active')
    ->get();

Eloquent is particularly useful when your application uses:

Models
Relationships
Scopes
Casts
Model events
Accessors
Mutators
Business behavior

Query Builder can be useful for:

Complex SQL-style queries
Aggregations
Specialized joins
Performance-sensitive query construction
Queries that don't map naturally to a model

The appropriate choice depends on the problem rather than treating one as universally superior.