Laravel Vs. Codeigniter: A Head to Head Comparison?

PHP framework?s undisputed sovereignty in the digital landscape is known to all and sundry. That pretty much explains why it is the most sought-after framework for the development of cutting-edge and enterprise-grade web applications.

Laravel and Codeigniter are two such PHP frameworks that are widely used by developers across the globe. And if you are looking to build a web application and wondering which framework to go for, this post is for you.

We have compared the two frameworks on various factors including performance, community support, usage statistics, ease-of-use, database support, and scalability to name a few.

Let?s dive right in!

Laravel framework at a Glance

Written in PHP and based on Symfony, Laravel is an open-source framework that is simply outstanding. Being a server-side framework Laravel can be counted on for building robust web applications with a completely customized back-end and pre-defined architecture.

You can also develop web applications with full-stack apps and expect flawless server-side handling of routing, templating, and HTML authentication to name a few.

How popular is Laravel?

Laravel?s market share stands at 0.37% which is significantly good. It has got more than 63 thousand Github stars with approximately 21 thousand live projects. Laravel became popular for web development as it supports MVC (model view controller) patterns. It comes with a built-in module and contains eloquent ORM.

No wonder, it is preferred by the biggest of brands. To give you an idea, below are listed some of the most renowned Laravel based web applications.

• Asgard  CMS
• Laracasts
• Barchart
• World Walking

Laravel is considered ideal for:

• Web management systems involving stock trading
• Multi-language support CMS?
• E-learning web apps
• Web applications based on SaaS
• Web apps with rewards and recognition features
• On-demand streaming web apps

Why Laravel framework for web app development?

Let?s take a look at some of the major features of the Laravel framework.

• Excellent  templating system

Laravel uses Blade- a templating engine possessing immeasurable power to format complicated layouts and data with easy navigation. Besides, developers can add new modules and/or features without having to make any modifications to the core part.

• Routing

Another noteworthy feature of Laravel is reverse routing. This feature facilitates the automatic creation of URIs that stands for Unique Resource Identifiers.

• Automated testing

Testing becomes a less time-consuming task with Laravel as it has expressive testing methods with a PHP Unit simulating user-behavior. Through this feature requests are made to the application?s functions and the majority of your testing load is cut-off.

Apart from these features, the Laravel framework is also known for automation with Artisan CLI.

There are a few cons of the Laravel framework. For instance, it is lightweight and due to this reason, there is excessive congestion of database queries in the backend; however, it can be easily taken care of if you hire professional Laravel developers from a reputed software development company such as Citta Solutions.

An Introduction of Codeigniter Framework

Codeigniter is another robust PHP framework that is famous for its minimum digital footprint. It is ideal for web application developers looking for a straightforward and less complicated framework with a rich toolkit.

This framework came into existence in 2006 and caught on owing to the degree of freedom it gives to web developers. It has absolutely no reliance on the MVC pattern and since it facilitates 3rd party integration with sheer ease you can achieve the most complex functionalities quite easily.

Codeigniter?s popularity at a glance

With more than 1,410,088 websites across 39 countries, Codeigniter has 17.7 thousand stars on Github. And if you are looking to create a web application on Codeigniter, you must consider a few factors before making a decision.

Benefits of Codeigniter

• User-friendly interface

Codeigniter offers an exceptional UI and makes for a good pick if you are looking to create responsive websites or feature-rich web apps.

• Security

Make security protocols with sheer ease and take application customization to another level with Codeigniter.

• Modularity

Codeigniter is known for its expression engine that enables developers to make the most of built-in authentication. Modular applications are a strong point of this framework.

There are a few downsides of Codeigniter too. It has unstable code maintaibility and there are lesser updates that have an impact on the growth and development aspect of it.

Summing it up

Both Laravel and Codeigniter are popular PHP frameworks with their own set of advantages and a few downsides. We highly recommend you take into account your development needs and consult a reliable Laravel development company such as Citta Solutions.

If you have any queries about Laravel or Codeigniter, feel free to touch base with us and we will answer all your queries.