Software Development Updates

PHP is the go-to programming language for web development, providing numerous frameworks and libraries. PHP frameworks are designed to streamline the development process but two in particular, Laravel and CodeIgniter, stand out. 

Each comes with its unique capabilities suitable for different projects. By collaborating with a top PHP development company, you can effectively leverage a suitable framework to build high-end web solutions. 

However, before you embark on the development journey, it’s important to know your options, as this knowledge will help you pick the right framework for your project. This article on Laravel vs CodeIgniter gives an overview of both PHP frameworks, explaining their features and use cases. It also provides a detailed comparison between them against common industry parameters.

1. About Laravel

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework popular for building web apps. The induction of Laravel revolutionized the PHP development space as it introduced custom web apps and Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) development. The number of live websites using Laravel has risen above 1,235,487 with over 303,739 websites in the US region.

Laravel follows an MVC-based architecture and offers robust features. It stays updated with the PHP practices and provides an elegant, expressive syntax, making it easy for PHP developers to build highly efficient web solutions. 

Laravel’s MVC architecture is responsible for the separation of concerns, which enables independent development and improves code maintenance. There are many reasons to use Laravel for web development as it comes with extensive documentation, robust security features, database integrations, and more. 

2. Key Features of Laravel

Laravel provides a large array of features for web application development. Here are the most important ones: 

2.1 Blade Templating Engine

It offers a simple and user-friendly syntax for creating app views. It encourages developers to write clean and easy-to-maintain code. Also, blade templates are directly compiled into PHP code, which effectively reduces the rendering time. 

2.2 Eloquent ORM

A robust Object-Relational Mapping offers Eloquent methods, that enable developers to interact seamlessly with databases using PHP objects and classes. Creating and executing database queries becomes simple with its active record implementation. 

Here’s what web developer Bogdan had to say about Laravel’s eloquent ORM on Twitter.

2.3 Built-in Packages

Laravel provides numerous built-in packages that help developers extend the functionality of the PHP framework. It includes packages for validation, routing, caching, and authentication. Adding functionalities to PHP applications is easy by using these relevant built-in packages. 

2.4 MVC Architecture

Laravel framework is based on the MVC architectural pattern. It helps write maintainable and clean code. With the MVC design pattern, the concerns between the Model, View, and Controller are easily separated. 

2.5 Artisan CLI

The Artisan Command-Line tool in Laravel allows you to automate repetitive tasks, such as database migrations and code generation. It also keeps the database schema in sync and handles database seeding for testing purposes.

3. About CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter is one of the most popular PHP frameworks. It prevents you from writing repetitive lines of code and leaves a minimal footprint. It’s a simple PHP toolkit that allows developers to build a fully functional web application. 

This PHP framework comes with a pre-built database connectivity library. It also offers a standard set of libraries with all the necessary functions a developer needs for web development. 

On top of that, it provides a long range of plugins, helpers, and other resources. Using CodeIgniter helps developers simplify complex functions while maintaining high app performance. Because it is based on the MVC design pattern, the CodeIgniter architecture also promotes flexibility and innovation. 

4. Key Features of CodeIgniter

The use cases of CodeIgniter depend on its features. Some of its primary feathers include: 

4.1 Strong Security

CodeIgniter offers built-in security features, such as input data validation, password handling, CSRF protection, and XSS filtering. You can trust CodeIgniter with the security of your PHP application because it has some exceptional encryption and decryption capabilities. It protects your PHP web applications against remote code execution, XSS attacks, SQL injections, and other common security threats. 

4.2 MVC-Based System

CodeIgniter is an MVC-based framework that enables rapid app development. It also enhances the app’s performance by separating logic and presentation modules. The MVC approach of the CodeIgniter framework simplifies the process of building and maintaining complex PHP applications. It allows developers to craft and test modules with high accuracy. 

4.3 Community Support

CodeIgniter has strong support from a large community. So, if you face any problem while using the CodeIgniter framework in your project, you can easily reach out to the community through online forums to help you out. 

4.4 Seamless Migration

Using CodeIgniter, web developers can quickly make a transition from one server to another. You won’t face any difficulties during data migration when using the CodeIgniter framework. It simplifies the entire process for you and if any issue arises, then it’s helpful community can provide instant solutions. 

4.5 Test-Driven Development

CodeIgniter supports test-driven development, a methodology in which web developers thoroughly test the product at every stage of the development process. This approach ensures optimal performance and functionality for the application. In a test-driven development approach, whatever work is done in each stage is tested and validated at the end. 

5. CodeIgniter vs Laravel: A Head-to-Head Comparison

After knowing our options and their features, it’s time to understand the differences between them. For that, we will compare Laravel and CodeIgniter against the most important industry parameters. 

5.1 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Performance (Speed)

In terms of speed, Laravel lags behind CodeIgniter. However, don’t mistake its low speed with less power. Laravel handles complex tasks effortlessly. However, its speed can be improved by following performance optimization best practices.

You can start by implementing routes caching and smart config, limiting unused libraries. Additionally, optimizing classmap and composer outload, and utilizing the JIT compiler. This can improve your app’s loading time by 20ms at a minimum.

CodeIgniter is a lightweight framework with a core that includes only a few small libraries. When it needs more, the core system can easily request an additional library. This is what makes CodeIgniter faster than Laravel. 

CodeIgniter also has a higher execution rate compared to Laravel. The number of concurrent users is the defining factor in the performance of the CodeIgniter framework.

5.2 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Database Support

Laravel supports multiple databases, such as SQL Server, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Its Eloquent ORM with fluent syntax helps simplify database operations and allows you to work with different database systems. 

CodeIgniter is also compatible with various databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MongoDB, Oracle, and more. Its simple query builder makes it easy for you to interact with various database systems. Although the querying approach of CodeIgniter is more traditional, it’s easier to use compared to Laravel’s.

5.3 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Built-in Tools

Laravel’s large offerings of built-in modules encourage developers to divide large projects into small modules, making them easy to maintain. The modular approach also helps with better code and folder organization. 

Some of the popular built-in tools in Laravel include Task Scheduling, Queue Management, Built-in Authentication and Authorization, Blade Template Engine, Eloquent ORM, and Artisan CLI. 

CodeIgniter provides various built-in modules for email handling, session management, form validation, and more. However, it lacks both modular functionality and advanced features that come with Laravel. As a result, developers have to manually add the tools and functionalities. This can be called an advantage of flexibility, but it demands a lot of extra effort.

5.4 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Error Handling

Laravel has an exceptional built-in error-handling system. It automatically identifies and logs every error and exception and sends you a report for further action. Its wide array of built-in error-handling functionalities enables Laravel developers to handle exceptions, logs, and displays. 

Laravel facilitates monolog which provides error logging in various formats. You can also deliver an enhanced user experience by creating custom error pages. Laravel also simplifies the task of configuring error detail levels based on the environment. This ensures comprehensive error reporting during development and protects sensitive information in production. 

CodeIgniter has a simple error-handling system. It helps detect errors and resolve issues efficiently. It provides functionalities for custom error handling and allows users to configure error reporting levels. 

In CodeIgniter, error messages are shown in development and testing but not in production. This PHP framework generates three kinds of messages namely, informational messages, debug messages, and error messages. You can also save errors as text files in CodeIgniter using its error logging features.

5.5 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Scalability

It is easy to scale with Laravel because of its MVC architecture. Laravel allows developers to scale up their applications without any limitations. Using good load balancers and databases helps with huge horizontal scaling. Moreover, you can scale your app as required using advanced caching methods with AWS and MySQL. 

CodeIgniter is a lightweight framework with no overhead. It loads conventions only when they are requested. Caching modifications provide better scalability and it wouldn’t affect the app performance as well. 

Although it might demand manual intervention, you can handle scaling an app on a large scale using its built-in tools. However, the issue of scalability mostly depends on the system architecture, so it’s essential to adopt best practices that favor vertical and horizontal scaling. 

5.6 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Security

Laravel offers robust security features that protect your app against common threats like CSRF, XSS attacks, and SQL injection. It also provides a built-in authentication system known as Sanctum. It uses API token generation for user authentication. 

Additionally, packages like Laravel-UI, Breeze, and JetStream help implement an automatic verification system. This saves developers time by writing additional code for user authentication. 

CodeIgniter offers a built-in authentication library called Shield, which offers flexible authentication features such as role-based control, access tokens, and session-based logins. These features are easily extensible to fit different kinds of websites. 

However, due to being lightweight, CodeIgniter can’t prioritize more on security. The rest of the responsibility falls upon developers. Although this provides flexibility, a CodeIgniter developer needs to be diligent when implementing security best practices. 

5.7 CodeIgniter vs Laravel: Community Support 

As the most popular PHP framework, Laravel has a large community of web developers on any online forum, including  StackOverflow, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, and GitHub. These community hubs are very active, where experts provide endless support. These forums exist to help Laravel developers and contribute to the advancement of the Laravel framework. On top of that, you can also refer to the official documentation which is well-organized on Laravel’s official website. 

CodeIgniter offers detailed documentation explaining all of its features. You can easily use it as your primary resource for learning and support. Apart from that, you can also seek support from the active online communities on GitHub, LinkedIn, StackOverflow, Reddit, and Facebook. 

These communities include thousands of members sharing advice and posts relevant to Codeigniter and PHP development. So if you are a beginner or even an expert facing a problem in using the framework for your project, the Codeigniter community always has your back.

6. When to Use Laravel? 

Use Laravel for the following:

• Large, Complex Project: Laravel is an ideal option for managing large systems and high traffic. It helps keep multiple operations running simultaneously without affecting your app’s performance. 
• High Security: Laravel comes with built-in security and authentication systems that protect your app and the sensitive information in it. It also prevents you from saving the passwords in a database as plaintexts. 
• Numerical Computations: On top of handling large projects, Laravel is also capable of carrying out large-scale numerical analysis without affecting app performance. For Laravel, performing complex calculations, and managing large sets of data is a daily chore.

7. When to Use CodeIgniter? 

CodeIgniter is a better choice in the following use cases: 

• Web Application Development: The primary purpose of CodeIgniter is to create a wide range of web apps including custom web apps, eCommerce websites, CRM systems, CMS platforms, social media applications, and more. The MVC architecture of this framework helps separate concerns and organize code which makes development easy and the app more maintainable. 
• API Development: CodeIgniter allows developers to create RESTful APIs and other web services that help software applications communicate with each other. 
• Rapid Prototyping: Another use case for CodeIgniter is rapid prototyping. PHP developers can leverage this framework’s simplicity and ease of use to quickly build prototypes. This helps validate the concept before going for full-scale development.

8. Conclusion

Laravel and CodeIgniter are inherently part of the PHP ecosystem. Both are reliable when it comes to web development. Still, each framework has something unique to offer. That is why the verdict of Laravel vs CodeIgniter highly depends on your project requirements. 

Laravel is a good option for building feature-rich or complex applications with well-organized and easy-to-maintain code. Meanwhile, you can pick CodeIgniter while working on small but performance-critical projects, ones where you need flexibility and simplicity.  

So, considering the size of your project, and its complexity, it is essential to identify your long-term goals are necessary to make an informed decision.

FAQs 

Is Laravel better than CodeIgniter?

Laravel is better than CodeIgniter when you are working on a large, complex project. However, CodeIgniter would be a better choice than Laravel if you are working on a small project. Your project’s size and the team’s expertise are considerable factors in making this decision.

Why choose Laravel over CodeIgniter?

Choose Laravel over CodeIgniter for the purpose of rapid development. It also helps with error management and search engine optimization. Laravel’s MVC structure helps simplify the process of creating, maintaining, and scaling the web application.