Complete Guide to Laravel 11/12 Multi-Authentication (Multi-Auth) for FreshersIndian

Multi-authentication is a common requirement in modern web applications. In this tutorial, we will walk through setting up a Laravel project with multiple authentication guards — one for the default user, one for candidates, and one for employers. This guide is tailored for the freshersindian project.

✅ What You’ll Learn

• Setting up Laravel
• Creating models, migrations, and guards
• Configuring auth.php
• Middleware and route grouping
• Separate login forms and dashboards
• Custom authentication guards
• Adding auth protection
• Final testing and polish

🛠️ Step 1: Install Laravel

composer create-project laravel/laravel freshersindian
cd freshersindian

You’ll now have a fresh Laravel 11 or 12 application.

🔑 Step 2: Configure the Database

Open .env and update your DB credentials:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=freshersindian
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Run the migration to get the default users table:

php artisan migrate

👥 Step 3: Create Models and Migrations for Candidates and Employers

php artisan make:model Candidate -m
php artisan make:model Employer -m

Update the migration files:

database/migrations/xxxx_create_candidates_table.php

public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('candidates', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('full_name');
        $table->string('email')->unique();
        $table->string('password');
        $table->string('country')->nullable();
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

database/migrations/xxxx_create_employers_table.php

public function up(): void
{
    Schema::create('employers', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->id();
        $table->string('company_name');
        $table->string('email')->unique();
        $table->string('password');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
}

Run migrations:

php artisan migrate

🔒 Step 4: Update Models to Use Authenticatable

Make both models implement authentication:

app/Models/Candidate.php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;

class Candidate extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable;

    protected $guard = 'candidate';

    protected $fillable = ['full_name', 'email', 'password', 'country'];

    protected $hidden = ['password'];
}

app/Models/Employer.php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;

class Employer extends Authenticatable
{
    use Notifiable;

    protected $guard = 'employer';

    protected $fillable = ['company_name', 'email', 'password'];

    protected $hidden = ['password'];
}

⚙️ Step 5: Configure config/auth.php

Update guards, providers, and passwords.

'guards' => [
    'web' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'users',
    ],

    'candidate' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'candidates',
    ],

    'employer' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'employers',
    ],
],

'providers' => [
    'users' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => App\Models\User::class,
    ],

    'candidates' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => App\Models\Candidate::class,
    ],

    'employers' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => App\Models\Employer::class,
    ],
],

🌐 Step 6: Add Middleware to app/Http/Kernel.php

Add guards to route middleware:

protected $routeMiddleware = [
    // ...
    'auth.candidate' => \App\Http\Middleware\AuthenticateCandidate::class,
    'auth.employer' => \App\Http\Middleware\AuthenticateEmployer::class,
];

Now let’s create the middleware files:

php artisan make:middleware AuthenticateCandidate
php artisan make:middleware AuthenticateEmployer

app/Http/Middleware/AuthenticateCandidate.php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class AuthenticateCandidate
{
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        if (!Auth::guard('candidate')->check()) {
            return redirect('/candidate/login');
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

app/Http/Middleware/AuthenticateEmployer.php

namespace App\Http\Middleware;

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class AuthenticateEmployer
{
    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        if (!Auth::guard('employer')->check()) {
            return redirect('/employer/login');
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

🧠 Step 7: Create Auth Controllers

php artisan make:controller CandidatesController
php artisan make:controller EmployersController

Example for CandidatesController

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class CandidatesController extends Controller
{
    public function loginForm()
    {
        return view('frontend.candidates.login');
    }

    public function login(Request $request)
    {
        $credentials = $request->only('email', 'password');
        if (Auth::guard('candidate')->attempt($credentials)) {
            return redirect()->route('candidate.dashboard');
        }

        return back()->withErrors(['Invalid credentials']);
    }

    public function dashboardView()
    {
        $user = auth('candidate')->user();
        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'Candidate Dashboard',
            'user' => $user,
        ]);
    }
}

🛣️ Step 8: Define Routes

Separate the logic into files like routes/candidates.php, routes/employers.php, and include them in web.php.

routes/web.php

require __DIR__.'/candidates.php';
require __DIR__.'/employers.php';

routes/candidates.php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\CandidatesController;

Route::get('/candidate/login', [CandidatesController::class, 'loginForm'])->name('candidate.login');
Route::post('/candidate/login', [CandidatesController::class, 'login'])->name('candidate.login.submit');

Route::middleware('auth.candidate')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/candidate/dashboard', [CandidatesController::class, 'dashboardView'])->name('candidate.dashboard');
});

routes/employers.php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use App\Http\Controllers\EmployersController;

Route::get('/employer/login', [EmployersController::class, 'loginForm'])->name('employer.login');
Route::post('/employer/login', [EmployersController::class, 'login'])->name('employer.login.submit');

Route::middleware('auth.employer')->group(function () {
    Route::get('/employer/dashboard', [EmployersController::class, 'dashboardView'])->name('employer.dashboard');
});

🧪 Step 9: Testing It Out

You can use Laravel Tinker to manually create test users:

php artisan tinker

\App\Models\Candidate::create([
    'full_name' => 'John Doe',
    'email' => 'john@example.com',
    'password' => bcrypt('password'),
    'country' => 'India'
]);

\App\Models\Employer::create([
    'company_name' => 'Tech Inc.',
    'email' => 'employer@example.com',
    'password' => bcrypt('password')
]);

Then navigate to:

• /candidate/login – Login as candidate
• /employer/login – Login as employer
• /candidate/dashboard – Protected candidate area
• /employer/dashboard – Protected employer area

🧼 Bonus: Logout Methods

Add these to CandidatesController and EmployersController:

public function logout()
{
    Auth::guard('candidate')->logout();
    return redirect('/candidate/login');
}

public function logout()
{
    Auth::guard('employer')->logout();
    return redirect('/employer/login');
}

🧠 Recap

✅ What we did:

• Installed Laravel
• Created three auth systems: default user, candidate, employer
• Set up guards, providers, middleware, and dashboards
• Added proper routing and testing
• Fully separated login and session flow

✨ Final Thoughts

This setup is robust, scalable, and fully modular. You can now add more features like registration, password resets, profile editing, and dashboards using Blade or Vue.

📌 Make sure to secure routes, validate inputs, and follow best practices when deploying.