What are Gates and Policies for authorization in Laravel?
Jul 29, 2025 am 01:54 AMGates is suitable for simple permission checks without the need for a model, while Policies is suitable for complex scenarios related to the model. Gates defines simple yes/no checks through closures, which is suitable for quickly processing global basic permissions; Policies is a model-based structured class used to manage permissions for operations such as editing, deletion, etc., keeping the logic clear and extensible; the two can be mixed in the same application, and policy classes can be generated through the Artisan command and tested and optimized.
In Laravel, gates and policies are two mechanisms for handling authorization — basically, they help you decide who can do what in your application. Gates are simpler and more direct, while policies are better suited for complex scenarios tied to specific models.

What Are Gates?
Gates are like simple yes/no checks for whether a user can perform an action. You define them using closings (functions) that return true or false.
For example:

Gate::define('update-settings', function ($user) { return $user->isAdmin(); });
Then, in your code, you can check it like this:
if (Gate::allows('update-settings')) { // Proceed with the action }
Gates are great when:

- The action isn't tied to a specific model.
- You want a quick way to handle basic permissions.
You can also group gates inside service providers or dedicated authorization files if things get bigger.
How Do Policies Work?
Policies are more structured and work well when dealing with models , like checking if a user can edit a post or delete a comment.
Each policy is a class that corresponds to a model. For example, PostPolicy
would handle actions related to the Post
model.
Here's how a method might look in a policy:
public function update(User $user, Post $post) { return $user->id === $post->user_id; }
To use it in a controller:
$this->authorize('update', $post);
Laravel automatically matches the model ( Post
) with its corresponding policy ( PostPolicy
) and runs the right method.
This approach keeps your authorization logic organized and scalable, especially as your app grows.
When to Use Gates vs Policies
Use gates when:
- The permission doesn't involve a specific model.
- You need a lightweight check (like "can-access-admin").
- It's something global or not tied to CRUD operations.
Use policies when:
- You're working with a model and common actions (view, create, update, delete).
- You want clean separation of concerns and reusable logic.
- Your app has multiple roles/users with different access levels per model.
Also, you can mix both in the same app — no conflict there.
A Few Tips for Working with Authorization
Here are some practical tips:
- Use the Artisan command to generate policies:
php artisan make:policy PostPolicy --model=Post
- Always test your gates and policies in different roles to avoid access issues.
- If a gate or policy gets too complicated, extract the logic into a separate class or helper function.
- Don't forget to register gates manually in a service provider if you're not using policies.
One thing people often miss: you can name gates whatever you want , even matching policy method names like 'update', but they don't have to be tied to any model unless you want them to.
So, gates are good for small, general checks, and policies help manage model-based rules cleanly. They both fit nicely into Laravel's ecosystem and work well together.
The above is the detailed content of What are Gates and Policies for authorization in Laravel?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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