Eloquent is Laravel’s object-relational mapper. It represents database tables with PHP model classes, so application code can query, create, update, delete, and relate records through objects instead of writing SQL for every common operation.

An Eloquent model usually maps to a table and exposes attributes and relationships such as hasMany or belongsTo. It also provides features including scopes, casts, accessors, mutators, events, factories, and route model binding. Query Builder remains useful when a lighter SQL-oriented abstraction is a better fit.