The difference between Policies and FormRequest::authorize()

In Laravel, both policies and the FormRequest::authorize() method are used to control access to specific resources or actions within your application. However, they serve slightly different purposes and are typically used in different contexts.

Policies

Policies are a way to encapsulate and centralize authorization logic for specific models. You define a policy class for a model, and in that class, you specify the authorization rules for that model’s actions. For example, you might create a PostPolicy for the Post model to define who can create, view, update, or delete posts.

Policies are typically used in conjunction with the authorize method of the controller. In your controller, you can call the authorize method to check if a user is authorized to perform a specific action on a model. The authorization logic is then defined in the associated policy.

Policies are a great way to keep your authorization logic organized and maintainable, especially as your application grows and you have more complex authorization requirements.

public function update(Post $post)
{
    $this->authorize('update', $post);
    // The user is authorized to update the post, proceed with the update.
}