PHP frameworks are robust solutions and organizations prefer to use these platforms. Some renowned PHP frameworks are Symfony, Laravel, CodeIgniter, Phalcon, Zend, etc. Every framework has its own peculiar quality. However, Laravel is the most popular among all these platforms.
Do you know, why?
Other frameworks are also efficient, but Laravel is more developers friendly. Research says Laravel download is much more than CodeIgniter or other PHP frameworks. Let’s find out the difference and if Laravel is ahead of CodeIgniter, shall we migrate to Laravel?
Laravel v/s CodeIgniter
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework based on MVC architecture. It is licensed under the MIT license and its source code is hosted on GitHub. It follows accurate and expressive language guidance; hence organizations trust this framework like anything. Routing, caching, authentication, and sessions are part of Laravel development to save resources and development time. Retrieving relational databases, and an integrated packaging system with a devoted dependency manager are some features of Laravel that help in application maintenance and deployment and its orientation toward syntactic sugar. Laravel is diverse framework for modern websites, enterprise web apps, ecommerce solutions, and more.
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CodeIgniter is a minimalistic PHP framework that is open source. It has a simple yet elegant toolkit for developers to create a full-featured web application. It allows using third-party plugins to apply complex functionalities. Moreover, CodeIgniter has one more impressive characteristic that it has amazing data encryption procedure and security.
Reasons Behind CodeIgniter to Laravel Migration
Laravel has MVC (model-view-controller) structure, which makes onboarding simple. It offers ease of work to developers and reduces development time. It comes with a command line tool called Artisan to run Laravel commands. It improves development speed by offering ready-to-use scaffolding.
Laravel framework has an in-built modularity feature using which developers can break projects into small modules. While using CodeIgniter developers have to use modular extensions to create and maintain modules.
It has a powerful template engine called Blade. This template engine allows developers to create master templates easily and they can manipulate views to enhance the performance of the web application as well. This facility is also missing in CodeIgniter.
Custom HTTPS routes can be done with Laravel. Every HTTPS route has its own URL, which is built by developers. On the other hand, CodeIgniter doesn’t support HTTPS completely, developers have to create pats to keep data transmission safe by using URLs.
Laravel has authentication class functionality, which simplifies the implementation of authentication and permission rules for developers. CodeIgniter doesn’t have an authentication feature therefore developers need to write extensions for the authentication process.
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Laravel PHP framework has Eloquent ORM (object-relational mapper), which makes database interaction easier. Each database table has a corresponding model to interact with the table when you use Eloquent. CodeIgniter doesn’t have an Eloquent feature.
Developers have the assistance of PHP Unit to test the application code continuously. However, CodeIgniter doesn’t have unit testing tools thus developers may need additional testing tools to test the code’s quality.
Both Laravel and CodeIgniter are open-source PHP frameworks, and both have an active community. However, it seems that Laravel has a more dynamic web devepers’ community than CodeIgniter. As mentioned above, Laravel is developer-friendly, most web developers prefer to use Laravel and believe that it is less difficult.
Laravel and CodeIgniter both support PHP 7, which is an upgraded version of PHP with myriad new features and improvements that helps web applications run faster and consume less memory.
Laravel supports Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, orient DB, and JDBC compatible. CodeIgniter supports PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and Microsoft BI. It also provides integration support for some prevalent databases such as Oracle, DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Features of Laravel and CodeIgniter
Laravel Features
- Exceptional session control
- Easy absorption with third-party libraries
- Improved IO
- In-built caching mechanism
- Modular packaging
- In-built authentication tool
- Composer-based dependency manager
- Query builder acts as a prospective ORM substitute
- Simplest Blade templating engine
CodeIgniter Features
- File uploading class
- Error logging
- Data and forms authentication
- It facilitates the hooks and class extensions
- Search engine friendly URLs
- Incorporation of session management module
- Image manipulation curriculum library
- In-built class support to send the emails
- Encrypted data
- Supports data paging
- Extremely lightweight
Which Framework You Should Choose for Your Web Application?
The above points show that Laravel is better than CodeIgniter for sure. It is tough to design modular code with CodeIgniter. If an organization has a small and less complicated web application, then using CodeIgniter is okay. However, other PHP frameworks are better than CodeIgniter.
Laravel framework has all the modern and updated functionality and coding technique. Other than that, CodeIgniter has not taken modern PHP advantages; it is using the same older techniques, which makes it security vulnerable. Hence migrating to Laravel is a better option. If you are still using CodeIgniter, now you must switch to Laravel.
You can choose Laravel if:
- Your website is large and complex with advanced features
- You have to manage large datasheets
- Your team is familiar with Laravel or ready to go for a steep learning curve
- You wish to go for full-stack web development
And you should opt for CodeIgniter if:
- You wish to develop an ecommerce website
- You need a minimalistic framework
- Your website is simple
Wrapping up
Laravel and CodeIgniter are two of the famous PHP frameworks to build web applications. Laravel is a bit difficult for beginners as compared to CodeIgniter, but it offers many advanced features and structured coding that are beneficial for a website or application.
Since Laravel is made for modern business needs, choosing Laravel and migrating from CodeIgniter is always advisable. We are also experienced in Laravel development and make your website more secure and top-notch with help of our certified Laravel developer. We provide all kinds of Laravel services including Laravel web app development and laravel eCommerce web development. Just fill out the form below to get a quick quote.