Laravel already renders a custom error page automatically for any HTTP status code, as long as a matching Blade view exists at a specific path — no route registration or controller wiring required.
The file Laravel looks for
resources/views/errors/404.blade.phpWhen a 404 occurs anywhere in the app (an abort(404) call, an unmatched route, a model-binding lookup that finds nothing), Laravel renders this file automatically if it exists. The same pattern applies to other status codes — 500.blade.php, 403.blade.php, and so on.
A basic custom 404 view
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Page Not Found</title></head>
<body>
<h1>404 — We couldn't find that page</h1>
<p>The page you're looking for doesn't exist or has moved.</p>
<a href="https://readerstacks.com/">Return home</a>
</body>
</html>Using your app's normal layout instead of a standalone page
The error view is just a normal Blade file, so it can @extends your application's regular layout the same way any other page does — showing the real site header and navigation on the error page instead of a bare standalone design, so a user who hits a dead link isn't dropped onto a page with no way back into the site.
Passing the exception to the view
Laravel automatically makes the triggering $exception variable available in the error view — useful for a 500 page in a context where you want to log or display limited detail, though for a 404 specifically there's rarely anything useful to show from it beyond the fact that nothing matched.
Testing it locally
With APP_DEBUG=true (typical for local development), Laravel shows its own detailed debug error page instead of your custom error views — set APP_DEBUG=false temporarily, or trigger the error view directly by returning it from a test route, to actually see your custom design while developing it.