Choosing The Right PHP Framework: Laravel Or CodeIgniter?
Today, everybody is on the internet and they want everything on their fingertips. And it’s much more common to not have an appealing websites. Such fascinating and complex website building is not an easy task.
PHP is considered a master in the field of web development and considered the most frequently used programming language. According to a recent study about 78.8% of all websites are using PHP for their server side.
Although PHP is proved to be a versatile programming language, the core PHP may not be suitable for developing complex applications. To maintain an efficient approach to streamline development and ongoing maintenance, better approach is to use PHP frameworks.
|PHP Framework
A PHP Framework is a platform to build PHP web applications. PHP frameworks makes your job easy by offering a collection of various prebuilt components and libraries. In other words, it provides a basic foundation for the development of web applications in PHP.
In PHP development world, Laravel and CodeIgniter are considered industry giants.
So, which option should you choose? Let’s make a comparison…
Features | Laravel | CodeIgniter |
Unit Testing | A built-in unit testing feature named PHPUnit. | Does not offer any built-in unit testing support. |
Learning Curve | A steep learning curve, with developers taking some time to learn and practice with Laravel. | A shallow learning curve making it easier for developers to learn and practice with CodeIgniter. |
Modularity features | In-built modules that allow developers to divide parts of a big project into smaller modules. | CodeIgniter framework does not have any in-built modules |
Authentication | Laravel offers the authentication class feature to execute authentication and authorization for web applications. | Developers must write custom CodeIgniter extensions for user authentication and authorization. |
HTTP routes | Developers can define custom HTTP routes. | CodeIgniter uses the response and request mechanism to set up HTTP routes. |
DBMS support | Laravel framework offers support for Oracle, IBM, DB2, PostgreSQL OrientDB, JDBC, and MYSQL among others. | CodeIgniter also offers support for the almost all database management systems, excluding IBM and JDBC. |
JS Library | While Laravel doesn’t includes JavaScript library, it support another popular library such as jQuery. | The JavaScript library available with CodeIgniter CI_JS, is simple to build JavaScript codes. |
Why Choose Laravel Framework?
- Blade Template Engine
- Eloquent ORM
- Laravel MVC Architecture
- Open Source and Wide Community
- Object-Oriented Libraries
Why Choose CodeIgniter Framework?
- Better Search Engine Optimization
- Quick Development
- The MVC-Based System
- User-friendly Interface
- Handling Bugs/Error Handling
Conclusion: Which Framework To Choose?
This is a close war between Laravel and CodeIgniter. Developers should choose between CodeIgniter and Laravel as per the project requirement, framework knowledge, use cases, etc.