Here, let us make a brief analysis and know the differences between Laravel and CodeIgniter.
Laravel pros and cons
It is common knowledge that, for web application development, Laravel offers expressive, elegant syntax. Such has been its design. The laravel developer will enjoy the development process. Routing, authentication, sessions are some tasks, which are commonly performed, and are made easier, thanks to Laravel.
Importantly, this framework is designed for the PHP's latest version. Therefore, unit testing support and authentication, which are the base development components, are inbuilt. It is commendable that Laravel framework folds with the blade template engine in a smooth manner.
One area where Laravel outdoes CodeIgniter is it has got exceptions. These, with exceedingly detailed stacktrace aren't available for developers who use CodeIgniter..
Use of libraries and models is easier as Laravel has object-oriented libraries. These libraries are supported with autocomplete feature.
Laravel has its own command-line interface. Called as Artisan, it enables developers to perform abundant tasks. So what tasks? Tasks like migrating databases and seeding databases. Also performed is clearing the cache, etc.
Object-Relational Mapping or ORM in Laravel is simple, eloquent and fast. That said, developers will find it very easy to organize the application's database.
Laravel is best suited for building RESTful APIs. Apart from that, Laravel handles event queuing.
However, Routing in Laravel may be odd at times. Owing to the recent entry of Laravel, it may be a bit tougher if not altogether, to get to find answers. Notwithstanding this fact, the numerous forums and IRC are very much active in helping people find answers.
CodeIgniter pros and cons
It is simple, and also quick to set up CodeIgniter. Just download the preferred version from CodeIgniter homepage. Otherwise, from GitHub. Thereafter, unzip the contents.
Nothing can beat CodeIgniter in terms of documentation, which is clear and very well structured. It is such that all the particular concepts of CodeIgniter which are commonly used are explained clearly, that too, with examples.
CodeIgniter is stable. The popular framework has the advantage of having been tested by the developers in large number. Having said that, the chances of bugs or any other problems going unnoticed is minimal.
The templating engine, which is inbuilt in CodeIgniter, is easy to use and is based on mustache-like templating language. Learning this language is simple even for new developers.
No matter whether you know anything about MVC architecture or not; it is very easy to use CodeIgniter.
CodeIgniter offers output caching. Web pages can be cached so that the loading time can be reduced. Besides, efficiency and performance can be enhanced.
Developers using CodeIgniter can easily seek support. Because this framework has a very big community which uses the framework for smaller projects and also very large projects.
It may be an overstatement to call CodeIgniter obsolete. However, it is to be noted that the framework has been released at the time of PHP 4. Many new features were added later to PHP. Hence, the need for extending code files arises to make this framework work.
Another drawback of CodeIgniter is that it does not offer default modular separation.
Both frameworks, which are unique and similar in many ways have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. However, it is the requirements of the developers that decide which is to be preferred. All that said, if you are a developer working on modern apps, it is suggested you go for Laravel. Every Laravel developer company attributes their ease of web development to this framework.
