--- title: Domain-Driven Design in Laravel: Stop the “God Model” Mess description: Laravel's default folder structure (Models, Controllers, Services) leads to bloated 'God Classes' as apps scale. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) solves this by... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/domain-driven-design-in-laravel-stop-the-god-model-mess-oql9qaums twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Domain-Driven Design in Laravel: Stop the “God Model” Mess | daily.dev og:description: Laravel's default folder structure (Models, Controllers, Services) leads to bloated 'God Classes' as apps scale. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) solves this by... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/domain-driven-design-in-laravel-stop-the-god-model-mess-oql9qaums og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/oQl9QaUms.png og:image:alt: Domain-Driven Design in Laravel: Stop the “God Model” Mess og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Domain-Driven Design in Laravel: Stop the “God Model” Mess **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Laravel's default folder structure (Models, Controllers, Services) leads to bloated 'God Classes' as apps scale. Domain-Driven Design (DDD) solves this by organizing code around business domains instead of technical layers. The approach involves creating domain-specific directories (e.g., app/Domains/Members/), using single-action classes to replace fat controllers, keeping models lean with traits, and centralizing shared UI components. Benefits include easier testing, predictable structure, and linear scalability. Key pitfalls to avoid include over-engineering small features into domains, circular dependencies between domains (use events instead), and manual file moves that break namespaces. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Front-End Architecture with Domain-Driven Design](https://daily.dev/posts/front-end-architecture-with-domain-driven-design-pzbik3lbx) · iO tech\_hub · 139 upvotes · 11 comments - [DDD: A Toolbox, Not a Religion](https://daily.dev/posts/ddd-a-toolbox-not-a-religion-eoyxw48ah) · Three Dots Labs · 71 upvotes · 1 comments - [Driven Development](https://daily.dev/posts/driven-development-we9oonqib) · The Daily WTF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php), [#laravel](https://daily.dev/tags/laravel), [#domain-driven-design](https://daily.dev/tags/domain-driven-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/domain-driven-design-in-laravel-stop-the-god-model-mess-oql9qaums) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Domain-Driven Design in Laravel: Stop the “God Model” Mess","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/domain-driven-design-in-laravel-stop-the-god-model-mess-oql9qaums","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/domain-driven-design-in-laravel-stop-the-god-model-mess-oql9qaums"},"datePublished":"2026-07-12T11:24:04.204Z","dateModified":"2026-07-12T11:26:09.848Z","description":"Laravel's default folder structure (Models, Controllers, Services) leads to bloated 'God Classes' as apps scale. 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