title: Where to put not Eloquent related SQL queries
body: <p>I use Eloquent to implement my models. It has a lot of methods that makes working with models much easier. However, in some cases I have to implement functionality that is accessing the database, but doesn't return an Eloquent model.</p>
  
  <p>For example, imagine a common User model. Eloquent helps me a lot in CRUD operations for the User model, but what if I have to implement a method that returns some statistics about users (ex. how many total users, how many active users, etc.).</p>
  
  <p>Where should I implement this functionality? In the Eloquent model, as a <code>public static</code> function, (e.g. <code>User::getStats()</code>), or should have a different class for this.</p>
  
  <p>It seems a little bit unnatural to have these methods on a Eloquent model, because they are not Eloquent related.</p>