htaccess file can be used to load customized error pages (such as 404 pages), create URL redirects, implement password-protected authentication for specific directories on your server, and more.

The route is a way of creating a request URL for your application. These URLs do not have to map to specific files on a website, and are both human readable and SEO friendly.

When you start a new Laravel project, error and exception handling is already configured for you; however, at any point, you may use the withExceptions method in your application's bootstrap/app.php to manage how exceptions are reported and rendered by your application.