How do regular Event Listeners differ from Event Subscribers in Laravel?

Short answer

A Listener handles one specific event, while a Subscriber can subscribe to multiple events and define a handler for each one.

Explanation

Events help build a Decoupled Architecture. A Listener focuses on one event, such as OrderShippedListener. An Event Subscriber groups logic for a domain (such as UserEventSubscriber), handling login, password changes, and logout events in one class through subscribe($events).

Code example

class UserEventSubscriber {
    public function handleLogin($event): void {}
    public function handleLogout($event): void {}

    public function subscribe(Dispatcher $events): array {
        return [
            Login::class => 'handleLogin',
            Logout::class => 'handleLogout',
        ];
    }
}

Common mistakes

• Not implementing ShouldQueue on heavy Listeners, delaying the user's HTTP response.

Follow-up questions

• How do register() and boot() differ in Laravel Service Providers, and when should each be used?

Sources

• Laravel docs — Events and Subscribers