I'm exploring the development of an on-demand application that connects customers with service providers for bookings and real-time service updates.
For a platform with features such as user registration, service listings, booking management, provider availability, payment integration, and notifications, would Laravel be a suitable backend framework?
How would you structure the database to manage bookings and service provider schedules efficiently? Also, what caching techniques and background job strategies would help improve performance as the number of users grows?
I'd appreciate suggestions from PHP developers who have experience building similar applications.