I Made My Laravel API 83% Faster by Rethinking Database Queries

The Problem Everyone Knows ## The "Aha!" Moment ## The Solution: JSON Aggregation ## The Results ## Why Is It So Fast? ## 1. Network Latency (80% of the gain) ## 2. Avoiding Eloquent Hydration (15% of the gain) ## 3. Optimized SQL (5% of the gain) ## Real-World Impact ## How It Works ## Installation ## Output ## When Should You Use This? ## ✅ Perfect for: ## ⚠️ Not recommended for: ## Performance vs. Eloquent Models ## Trade-offs ## What's Next? ## Try It Out! How I solved the N+1 query problem using JSON aggregation instead of traditional eager loading tags: laravel, php, performance, database. Last month, I was debugging a slow admin dashboard. The page loaded 500 partner records with their profiles, countries, and promotional codes. Each page load took over 2 seconds. The culprit? The classic N+1 query problem. Even with Laravel's eager loading, I was still hitting the database 5 times per request: Each query means another round-trip to the database. With 50 records, that's 4 network round-trips, adding 15-20ms of latency each. I asked myself: "Can we load everything in ONE query?" That's when I remembered MySQL's JSON_OBJECT and JSON_ARRAYAGG functions. What if instead of multiple queries, we could aggregate all relations into JSON directly in SQL? I built a Laravel package that does exactly this: This generates a single optimized query: One query. All the data. I ran benchmarks on a dataset of 2,000 partners with 4 relations each, fetching 50 records: That's not a typo. 83% faster. The performance gain comes from three factors: Database round-trips are expensive. Even on localhost, each query adds 5-10ms. On a remote database? 15-20ms each. Before: 4 queries × 15ms = 60ms in network time After: 1 query × 15ms = 15ms By returning arrays instead of Eloquent models, we skip: The database does the aggregation work using highly optimized C code instead of PHP loops. On my dashboard handling 10,000 API requests per day: Add the trait to your model: The data structure is predictable and clean: The package offers two modes: Array mode is fastest because it skips Eloquent's hydration overhead. But even in Eloquent mode, you still save 1 database query, which gives a significant boost. Let's be honest about limitations: For read-heavy operations like APIs and dashboards, this trade-off is absolutely worth it. I'm currently working on v1.1.0 with: If you're building APIs or dashboards with Laravel, give it a try: 🔗 GitHub: rgalstyan/laravel-aggregated-queries 📦 Packagist: composer require rgalstyan/laravel-aggregated-queries I'd love to hear your results! Have you tried optimizing N+1 queries in other ways? Drop a comment below. P.S. The package has been featured in Laravel News! If you find it useful, a GitHub star would mean a lot ⭐ Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'country', 'promocodes'])->get(); Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'country', 'promocodes'])->get(); CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'country', 'promocodes'])->get(); CODE_BLOCK: SELECT * FROM partners -- Query 1 SELECT * FROM profiles WHERE partner_id IN... -- Query 2 SELECT * FROM countries WHERE id IN... -- Query 3 SELECT * FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id IN...-- Query 4 Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: SELECT * FROM partners -- Query 1 SELECT * FROM profiles WHERE partner_id IN... -- Query 2 SELECT * FROM countries WHERE id IN... -- Query 3 SELECT * FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id IN...-- Query 4 CODE_BLOCK: SELECT * FROM partners -- Query 1 SELECT * FROM profiles WHERE partner_id IN... -- Query 2 SELECT * FROM countries WHERE id IN... -- Query 3 SELECT * FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id IN...-- Query 4 CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile') ->withJsonRelation('country') ->withJsonCollection('promocodes') ->get(); Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile') ->withJsonRelation('country') ->withJsonCollection('promocodes') ->get(); CODE_BLOCK: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile') ->withJsonRelation('country') ->withJsonCollection('promocodes') ->get(); CODE_BLOCK: SELECT base.*, JSON_OBJECT('id', profile.id, 'name', profile.name) AS profile, JSON_OBJECT('id', country.id, 'name', country.name) AS country, (SELECT JSON_ARRAYAGG(JSON_OBJECT('id', id, 'code', code)) FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id = base.id) AS promocodes FROM partners base LEFT JOIN profiles profile ON profile.partner_id = base.id LEFT JOIN countries country ON country.id = base.country_id Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: SELECT base.*, JSON_OBJECT('id', profile.id, 'name', profile.name) AS profile, JSON_OBJECT('id', country.id, 'name', country.name) AS country, (SELECT JSON_ARRAYAGG(JSON_OBJECT('id', id, 'code', code)) FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id = base.id) AS promocodes FROM partners base LEFT JOIN profiles profile ON profile.partner_id = base.id LEFT JOIN countries country ON country.id = base.country_id CODE_BLOCK: SELECT base.*, JSON_OBJECT('id', profile.id, 'name', profile.name) AS profile, JSON_OBJECT('id', country.id, 'name', country.name) AS country, (SELECT JSON_ARRAYAGG(JSON_OBJECT('id', id, 'code', code)) FROM promocodes WHERE partner_id = base.id) AS promocodes FROM partners base LEFT JOIN profiles profile ON profile.partner_id = base.id LEFT JOIN countries country ON country.id = base.country_id CODE_BLOCK: composer require rgalstyan/laravel-aggregated-queries Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: composer require rgalstyan/laravel-aggregated-queries CODE_BLOCK: composer require rgalstyan/laravel-aggregated-queries CODE_BLOCK: use Rgalstyan\LaravelAggregatedQueries\HasAggregatedQueries; class Partner extends Model { use HasAggregatedQueries; public function profile() { return $this->hasOne(PartnerProfile::class); } public function promocodes() { return $this->hasMany(PartnerPromocode::class); } } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: use Rgalstyan\LaravelAggregatedQueries\HasAggregatedQueries; class Partner extends Model { use HasAggregatedQueries; public function profile() { return $this->hasOne(PartnerProfile::class); } public function promocodes() { return $this->hasMany(PartnerPromocode::class); } } CODE_BLOCK: use Rgalstyan\LaravelAggregatedQueries\HasAggregatedQueries; class Partner extends Model { use HasAggregatedQueries; public function profile() { return $this->hasOne(PartnerProfile::class); } public function promocodes() { return $this->hasMany(PartnerPromocode::class); } } CODE_BLOCK: // Instead of this: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'promocodes'])->get(); // Do this: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile', ['id', 'name', 'email']) ->withJsonCollection('promocodes', ['id', 'code', 'discount']) ->where('is_active', true) ->get(); Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: // Instead of this: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'promocodes'])->get(); // Do this: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile', ['id', 'name', 'email']) ->withJsonCollection('promocodes', ['id', 'code', 'discount']) ->where('is_active', true) ->get(); CODE_BLOCK: // Instead of this: $partners = Partner::with(['profile', 'promocodes'])->get(); // Do this: $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery() ->withJsonRelation('profile', ['id', 'name', 'email']) ->withJsonCollection('promocodes', ['id', 'code', 'discount']) ->where('is_active', true) ->get(); COMMAND_BLOCK: [ 'id' => 1, 'name' => 'Partner A', 'profile' => [ 'id' => 10, 'name' => 'John', 'email' => '[email protected]' ], 'promocodes' => [ ['id' => 1, 'code' => 'SAVE10'], ['id' => 2, 'code' => 'SAVE20'] ] ] Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode COMMAND_BLOCK: [ 'id' => 1, 'name' => 'Partner A', 'profile' => [ 'id' => 10, 'name' => 'John', 'email' => '[email protected]' ], 'promocodes' => [ ['id' => 1, 'code' => 'SAVE10'], ['id' => 2, 'code' => 'SAVE20'] ] ] COMMAND_BLOCK: [ 'id' => 1, 'name' => 'Partner A', 'profile' => [ 'id' => 10, 'name' => 'John', 'email' => '[email protected]' ], 'promocodes' => [ ['id' => 1, 'code' => 'SAVE10'], ['id' => 2, 'code' => 'SAVE20'] ] ] CODE_BLOCK: // Array mode (default, fastest - 83% faster) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get(); // Eloquent mode (still faster - 27% improvement) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get('eloquent'); Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: // Array mode (default, fastest - 83% faster) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get(); // Eloquent mode (still faster - 27% improvement) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get('eloquent'); CODE_BLOCK: // Array mode (default, fastest - 83% faster) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get(); // Eloquent mode (still faster - 27% improvement) $partners = Partner::aggregatedQuery()->get('eloquent'); - Object instantiation - Attribute casting - Relationship binding - Event firing - 40,000 fewer database queries - 4 minutes saved in total response time - 19GB less memory usage - Better server resource utilization - Relations are array or null (never undefined) - Collections are always array (never null) - No surprises in your code - API endpoints with multiple relations - Admin dashboards with complex queries - Mobile backends where every millisecond counts - Read-heavy applications (90%+ reads) - High-traffic services needing optimization - Write operations (use standard Eloquent) - When you need model events/observers - Complex nested relations (coming in v1.1!) - Model events (no created, updated, deleted events) - Accessors/mutators (in array mode) - The ability to call save() or update() (read-only) - 83% faster response times - 91% less memory usage - Simpler, more predictable data structures - Better scalability - Nested relations (profile.company.country) - Conditional loading with query constraints - Relation aliasing - Enhanced debugging tools