Particularly, the most intriguing and interesting debates run around frameworks. The now-prevalent dilemma is that it lies in choosing a software package whose architecture suits you best. And, that’s where the question took roots- on the PHP framework list, which one is your best darling? Since as a programmer, I cannot possibly present the case for all candidates that are available, here’s one each for the four most prominent PHP frameworks you’ll find in the market currently. So let’s start with the comparison of Laravel vs Codeigniter vs Cakephp vs Yii. These framework can help you get the best solution for development of web projects. It helps you to put your best efforts for web development in whatever development projects you do
1. Laravel
The first version of laravel came out in June 2011. Taylor Otwell is the creator and was trying to develop a better alternative for the PHP framework CodeIgniter. Soon after, as the new and improved versions that were out, the open-source web framework took over the PHP development scene.
Laravel 5.6 was announced in February 2018. And, it still enjoys being one of the favourites and most preferred of web developers across the globe, especially in first-world countries.
Laravel is flexible. and robust It’s rich in features and tools. It’s continually updated.
Lots of Tools:
There’s a lot that contributes to this favorability, like the expressive coding that the framework offers is enormous. As it follows the MVC filing structure, it also carries sophisticated tools like Artisan (the command-line tool) and Eloquent. Artisan allows easy creation of models, controls, queues, commands, and task scheduling. Eloquent simplifies database interaction a great deal.
Abundant Assistance:
Laracast, Packagist, Stackoverflow- the sources of help don’t fall short. The official Laravel documentation is elaborate and very detailed enough. Then, you can easily access several standard Laravel libraries and readily find guidance or help online through the community links.
The Best API Support Out There:
In the Laravel vs Codeigniter vs Cakephp vs Yii battle, Laravel takes the cake as well as the lead for the one with the most advanced support for out of the blocking APIs.
You get Lumen, which is an elegant micro-framework, and this is fully compatible with the Laravel core. As a developer, you can integrate it into the Laravel MVC stack, use Eloquent and other models from Laravel inside Lumen, and utilize authentication middleware as well as built-in oAuth 2 functionality.
Easy Development:
A dependency management tool that is very much similar to Composer, as well as programmatic query building, application logic available as an integral unit of developed applications, as well as reverse routing, automatic creation of URIs, Blade templating, database seeding, automatic pagination. There is so much to play with, Laravel makes web development quite enjoyable and very easy to perform.
PHP 7 Support:
PHP is considered exceptionally easy to upgrade, as well as test, and deploy the working code. Possibly this is the main objective that is reflecting on the same, the recent Laravel releases have extracted almost all support for PHP versions under 7.
What’s to Hate?
If you compare the development service charges that are used for Laravel with that of CodeIgniter or custom PHP, you will discover that the former is costlier than the latter. Of course, the main point or objective lies in the fact that Laravel projects are purer examples of strong MVC than that of the other two. And, they are much less likely in order to cause engineering issues in your final product after a few years of use.
2. CodeIgniter (CI)
Since CodeIgniter is loosely modelled on the MVC development pattern. You’d come across many developers as well as programmers who prefer to call it an organised collection of POPOs than a PHP web development framework.
What’s to Like?
Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator and the primary developer of PHP, once said in 2008 that he liked CodeIgniter. Because it looked the least like a framework and a development tool yet was the fastest and lightest among all others. It’s easy to operate. And, since it only mandates and compulsorily makes use of controller classes while keeping models and views optional. You are free to let go of the added separation of complexity if you need to build a minimal coded application that has fewer lines to do the same thing.
Abundant Assistance:
CodeIgniter remained the first choice of web developers working with PHP for a long time. Owing to that, there is a large community online that is committed and dedicated to the framework. The built-inCodeIgniterfunctionalities, is able to provide handy guides, and third-party libraries are very well-documented and finely written.
Interesting Tools:
CodeIgniter has somewhat limited database support. But, as a developer do you do receive default relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL. And, it comes and is packaged with its own ORM tool. In the name of API support, CI 2.0 offered a new base_controller named as Rest_Controller.
CodeIgniter lets you define the routing criteria you need by using Regular Expressions or wildcards. It allows the creation of multiple application sets that is easy to manage and also which can share a single CodeIgniter installation. It also offers an ‘auto-load’ function to automatically initialize classes, as well as manages and provides helper files, custom config files, models, and language files.
Ease of Development:
Because there is no template engine and mostly pure PHP code, CodeIgniter is not only very easy to use but also facilitates simplified learning. It’s the perfect framework to begin with, even when developers and programmers don’t know much about MVC architecture. The framework requires minimal configuration.
Updates:
For a long time, CodeIgniter was stuck in the 2.0 version and this is just because of the lack of or available resources to develop it further. CodeIgniter 3.1 brought in refinements like encryption, database improvements, and session handling. It’s compatible with PHP 7+ versions with not many notable bugs to complain about.
What’s to Hate?
There is no Composer support. As a developer or a user, You’d find that getting third-party libraries for a few particular databases in CI is harder than you anticipated. You’ll probably end up copying and testing files manually.
Right now, CodeIgniter lacks proper middleware support. And, it doesn’t offer any Exceptions with a stack trace.
Also Read: What are the benefits of using Laravel over plain PHP?
3. Yii
Yii, meaning ‘simple yet evolutionary’ in the Chinese language. Yii was created in order to be a conceptual redesign of PRADO in 2006. While Yii was conceptualized and was in the initial design prototypes at the same time as CodeIgniter, it was formally released in 2008.
What’s to Like?
Well-documented:
Yii is about two decades old. The bright side to that exists to such an old framework is just the abundance of documentation and tutorials available online.
Database Support:
Yii lets you utilize different kinds of relational databases or also known as ORM databases for example SQLite, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, etc. Developers are able to get built-in operational support for ActiveRecord ORM. And, it’s relatively easy to use employing the third-party packages and libraries in case you find yourself working with MongoDB or Microsoft BI.
API Modules:
Yii has worked hard to provide API routes, as well as provide quick settings, JSON data inputs, as well as provide Auth2 support. The only possible glitch or minor drawback you may face would be how the API looks like and the features that it provides. More just like the option of having an add-on than a built-in option.
Lots of Tools:
In addition to a layered caching scheme that the framework provides, Yii also provides error logging as well as handling, Selenium and PHPUnit based functionality and unit testing, and support for XHTML standard compliance. Even though it doesn’t offer a default templating system and this cannot be provided. It lets you use third-party ones such as Smarty as well as Twig with ease.
You have the Gii tool which facilitates, provides and manages automatic code generation for CRUD and skeletal applications. Gii is able to provide support for the GUI interface as well as the command line. You can include the reusable code that exists when you make use of the Zend framework or PEAR, and the Yii design will work fantastically.
It also supports all PHP versions after 5.4 as well as features of app localisation. It also backs up out of the box client form validation, something Laravel framework is not able to offer as a default feature. Yii also follows and stringently makes use of the MVC approach quite strictly. The naming conventions are equally well-strung.
What’s to Hate?
Yii had stuck with its version 1 for two years and it also was in further development with 1.1 for another four years before it came up with the more stable and functional Yii 2.0. While that journey was arduous as well as ponderous enough, future updations for the PHP framework have been stuck in a loop of their own making.
The peak popularity season for the Yii framework came around when it sent out its version 2.0. Since then, the usage only seems to have declined for this particular web development framework as well as less attention for its users as well.
Must Read: Best PHP Frameworks For Startup Your Business in 2020
4. CakePHP
This framework has long been around the developer community since 2005.
It transitioned from ‘very much in-demand’ software that is freely available to ‘quite popular’ to ‘slightly downgraded’ to ‘respectable again’ in its over a decade-long life.
What’s to Like?
The CakePHP framework encourages and strongly dictates the practice of creating reusable code with the help of robust plugins, components, behaviours, and helpers. It provides improved interoperability and many other features as well as has a lot of speed to offer.
Accessible Database Features:
It follows a methodical approach quite strictly as it avoids developer making errors. The naming conventions for files as well as for databases are equally impressive. And, it dramatically simplifies database access using advanced features.
As a developer, you get a built-in ORM, a more relaxed and simpler query building, and painless interactions with CRUD operations. Version 3 also makes available and provides supports a PHP Package manager.
Minimal Hassle:
The CakePHP framework can auto-detect all necessary settings and proper values at the time of configuration. It carries a built-in validation feature. And, you won’t have to fret and worry about specifying library locations.
Super Exhaustive Tests:
It claims to test each application concerning all of their critical and fragile points. In addition to the core tests that developers do, you can create custom tests as per your requirements and needs. It not only makes debugging and programming much easier but comes in very handy when you’re building a large application that has many different layers.
Security Tools:
It offers built-in solutions and unique ways to manage CSRF protection, user submission process SQL injection prevention, XSS prevention, form tampering protection, and many more.
Well-Documented:
Because of the long history of fifteen years that CakePHP has lived so far, as a developer you’d easily stumble upon several tutorials online and huge community support. Plus, since it supports Composer, developers and programmers can also add third-party libraries without any trouble.
Updations:
CakePHP is undergoing constant developments and improvements as we speak. This CakePHP framework follows an active release timeline that is easily available on GitHub.
All CakePHP releases post 3.0 are compatible and can be used with PHP7+. It brought modifications and improvements around deprecation warning texts, auto-discovered shells, and Pagination metadata.
What’s to Hate?
Cake Routing for API Support:
It is a complicated framework. This often puts off-web developers and programms refrain from using this feature. The one-way routing tends to create problems for developers when making use of this feature.
Database Issue:
If you are planning to use a NoSQL Database and this setup, you’d need third-party libraries in order to make it work.
URL Creation:
If you wish to create a different URL, you’d also need to update the default routes manually. When compared to other frameworks, Symfony, for instance or example, CakePHP has this disadvantage.
A Steep Learning Curve:
Compared to Laravel and CodeIgniter, CakePHP is more difficult to learn and understand, thus having a steep learning curve.
Read More: Strong Features of CodeIgniter: Powerful PHP Framework
Conclusion on Laravel vs Codeigniter vs Cakephp vs Yii:
Subsequent to perusing a point by point examination between the structures, it might really work out for you to conclude which one you ought to settle on your undertaking. As a rule, the decision doesn’t rely on the list of capabilities of the PHP system. It depends on the whole usefulness of a specific structure and how successfully you can use them in your venture. Consequently, pick the previously mentioned systems as per your improvement needs and cut down the time and cost.
These are altogether great systems and any of them would suit you as opposed to the beginning without any preparation as they bring their own comfort and in-constructed esteem. In any case, its great that for your PHP web improvement, you should recruit a designer with structure abilities that are pertinent and present day. Our best PHP Framework is Laravel. Employ Laravel designers for your web application.
So there you have it, we have compared the best frameworks that are available(Laravel vs Codeigniter vs Cakephp vs Yii). If you have any requirements to hire Laravel developers, or to hire CakePHP developers or to hire CodeIgniter developers, or hire Yii developers, then do contact us at enquiry@nimapinfotech.com with your requirements. We have the most talented developers ready to onboard your project with a full customer satisfaction guarantee.
