What is Laravel database query builder vs Eloquent performance trade-offs?

Query Builder is faster and lightweight, while Eloquent provides rich ORM features but adds overhead.

Laravel Query Builder interacts directly with the database using fluent SQL-like syntax, while Eloquent adds abstraction layers like models, relationships, and events. Eloquent is easier to use but slightly slower due to hydration and model instantiation overhead. Query Builder is preferred for large-scale reporting queries.