CakePHP vs. Laravel: What’s Your Pick?

The ability to create dynamic websites and web applications makes PHP the most preferred programming language among developers. It is the most powerful scripting language providing numerous frameworks, tools and libraries.

PHP framework offers easy upgradability, maintainability, ease of change of database and more, therefore it has become difficult to judge which framework is best for your website. Below is the comparison between two most popular frameworks CakePHP and Laravel:

CakePHP

CakePHP uses structured and bug-free coding for developing websites. Its components and objects are highly organized. CakePHP framework is very popular among the experts because of its ability to develop effective and robust web applications flexibly.

Pros of CakePHP

1. CakePHP has a clear set of conventions and a lean MVC architecture to build web application simpler and faster.
2. CakePHP comes with input validation and data sanitization security features to provide protection against form tampering, cross site scripting attacks and more.
3. With CakePHP you can build SQL queries easily and obtain results on server site as it is built on an object relation modal.
4. It offers personalized templates and great user management feature for flexibility and fast coding.

Cons of CakePHP

1. Strict naming conventions can be confusing and restrictive, but loss of functionality is possible while overwriting.
2. CakePHP has a large community, but the forum is not well formed and can make it hard to find relevant information.
3. Documentation is extensive, but somewhat overwhelming at times resulting in lack of vital information.
4. One is required to configure default path for URLS because of the routing problem of CakePHP.

Laravel

Laravel is the king of PHP frameworks supporting rapid application development. Laravel web development is trouble free as it comes with a bundle of features like migration, auto loading facility, object relational mapping and more.

Pros of Laravel

1. Laravel has an easy to use approach to routing, which can be easily activated with better control and flexibility.
2. Prevents regressions in the framework as unit test for own code can be easily written.
3. Laravel is made up of decoupled libraries to easily swap components with least efforts.
4. Allows to mix and match packages without hassle with its auto loading, namespacing and composer feature.

Cons of Laravel

1. It is necessary to be familiar with third party product while using laravel as it is too much dependent on other frameworks.
2. Laravel is new so it has instability with the coding and you cannot find much pertinent information regarding the same.
3. There is a compatibility issue with the laravel due to its fast development period.

Conclusion

Cakephp and Laravel are two of the most feature-rich frameworks in the world. Both frameworks are unique in their own ways, having set of advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, choose CakePHP if you want to develop a dynamic website in short time and use Laravel to build APIs and complex web application development.