Absolutely, Laravel is designed with flexibility and scalability in mind, making it a top choice for many developers and businesses. If you're considering extensive customization and want to keep the core Laravel Framework updated, working with a mobile app development company in NYC can provide you with the expertise and guidance you need. Here's a breakdown of your concerns:

1. Customization: Laravel is highly customizable. Its modular architecture allows developers to build upon it without altering the core. You can add new features, integrate third-party services, and modify existing functionalities as per your requirements.

2. Updates: Keeping your Laravel application updated is crucial for security, performance, and leveraging new features. However, when you heavily customize an application, updates can become challenging. Here's why:

   • Breaking Changes: New versions might introduce changes that break existing functionalities. Before updating, you'll need to review the update notes and ensure your custom code is compatible.
   • Deprecated Features: Some features or functions might be deprecated in newer versions. If your application uses these, you'll need to refactor your code.

3. Best Practices:

   • Service Providers: Use service providers to bind classes into the service container, register services, and create powerful, flexible, and composable applications.
   • Packages: If you're building features that might be reused across projects, consider developing them as separate Laravel packages. This way, they can be added or removed without affecting the core application.
   • Version Control: Use tools like Git to track changes. This will help you roll back to a previous state if an update causes issues.
   • Testing: Before updating, run tests to ensure your customizations work as expected. Laravel has robust support for PHPUnit.

4. Continuous Development: Laravel is well-suited for projects with multiple milestones. You can develop, test, and deploy iteratively, ensuring each phase meets your standards before moving on.

5. Expertise: Given the complexity of your project and the need for continuous updates, hiring experienced Laravel developers or collaborating with a mobile app development company is a wise decision. They can guide you through best practices, ensure your customizations are update-friendly, and help troubleshoot any issues that arise.

In conclusion, Laravel is designed to be both robust and flexible, making it an excellent choice for your project. With the right development practices and expertise, you can achieve your customization goals while benefiting from the continuous improvements of the Laravel framework.