In the World of PHP MVC Frameworks: Codeigniter Vs Yii Vs CakePHP Vs Laravel

Lots of Tools

There’s a lot that contributes to this favorability, like the expressive coding that the framework offers. As it follows the MVC filing structure, it also carries sophisticated tools like Artisan (the command line tool) and Eloquent. The former allows easy creation of models, controls, queues, commands, and task scheduling. The latter simplifies database interaction a great deal.

Abundant Assistance

Laracast, Packagist, Stackoverflow- the sources of help don’t fall short. The official Laravel documentation is elaborate enough. Then, you can easily access several standard Laravel libraries and readily find guidance online through the community links.

The Best API Support Out There

In the Codeigniter vs Laravel vs CakePHP vs Yii battle, Laravel takes the cake for the one with the most advanced support for out of the block APIs.

You get Lumen, an elegant micro framework, that is fully compatible with the Laravel core. You can integrate it into the Laravel MVC stack, use Eloquent and other models from Laravel inside Lumen, and utilise authentication middleware as well as built-in oAuth 2 functionality.

Easy Development

A dependency management tool like Composer, programmatic query building, application logic available as an integral unit of developed applications, reverse routing, automatic creation of URIs, Blade templating, database seeding, automatic pagination- with so much to play with, Laravel makes web development quite enjoyable.

PHP 7 Support

PHP is considered exceptionally easy to upgrade, test, and deploy. Possibly reflecting on the same, the recent Laravel releases have extracted almost all support for PHP versions under 7.

Abundant Assistance

CI remained the first choice of web developers working with PHP for a long time. Owing to that, there is a large community online dedicated to the framework. The built-in CodeIgniter functionalities, handy guides, and third-party libraries are very well-documented.

Interesting Tools

CodeIgniter has somewhat limited database support. But, you do receive default relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL. And, it comes with its own ORM tool. In the name of API support, CI 2.0 offered a new base_controller named as Rest_Controller.

CI lets you define the routing criteria you need by using Regular Expressions or wildcards. It allows the creation of multiple application sets which can share a single CodeIgniter installation. It also offers an ‘auto-load’ function to automatically initialise classes, helper files, custom config files, models, and language files.

Ease of Development

Since there is no template engine and mostly pure PHP code, CodeIgniter is not only very easy to use but also facilitates simplified learning. It’s the perfect framework to begin with, even when you don’t know much about MVC architecture. It requires minimal configuration.

Updates

For a long time, CI was stuck in the 2.0 version because of lack of resources to develop it further. CodeIgniter 3.1 brought in refinements like encryption, database improvements, and session handling. It’s compatible with PHP 7+ versions with not many notable bugs to complain about.

CI 4 is currently in the pre-alpha 1 phase. Once released, it is expected to modify the PHP framework such that you’d see it competing on the same platform as Laravel and Yii.

Well-documented

Yii is about two decades old. The bright side to such an old framework is the abundance of documentation and tutorials available online.

Database Support

Yii lets you utilise different relational databases like SQLite, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, etc. You get built-in operational support for ActiveRecord ORM. And, it’s relatively easy to use third-party packages in case you find yourself working with MongoDB or Microsoft BI.

API Modules

Yii has worked hard to provide API routes, quick settings, JSON data inputs, and oAuth2 support. The only possible glitch you may face would be how the API looks more like an add-on than a built-in option.

Lots of Tools

In addition to a layered caching scheme, Yii also provides error logging and handling, Selenium and PHPUnit based functionality and unit testing, and XHTML standard compliance. Even though it doesn’t offer a default templating system, it lets you use third-party ones like Smarty and Twig with ease.

You have the Gii tool which facilitates automatic code generation for CRUD and skeletal applications. Gii supports the GUI interface as well as command line. You can include code from the Zend framework or PEAR, and the Yii design will work fantastically.

It also supports all PHP versions after 5.4 and app localisation. It also backs up out of the box client form validation, something Laravel doesn’t offer as a default feature. Yii also follows the MVC approach quite strictly. The naming conventions are equally well-strung.

What’s to Like?

CakePHP is often called one of the most comprehensive PHP frameworks because of its seamless configuration. It encourages the practice of creating reusable code with the help of robust plugins, components, behaviours, and helpers. It provides improved interoperability and has a lot of speed to offer.

Accessible Database Features

YCakePHP follows a methodical approach quite strictly. The naming conventions for files and databases are equally impressive. And, it dramatically simplifies database access.

You get a built-in ORM, more relaxed and simpler query building, and painless interactions with CRUD operations. You are allowed to pre-define callbacks in CakePHP. The version 3 also supports a PHP Package manager.

Minimal Hassle

CakePHP framework can auto-detect all necessary settings at the time of configuration. It carries built-in validation feature. And, you won’t have to fret over specifying library locations. Except for database settings, every other part of an initial installation is automatically taken care of by the software package.

Super Exhaustive Tests

CakePHP claims to test each application concerning all of their critical and fragile points. In addition to the core tests, you can create custom tests as per your requirements. It not only makes debugging easier but comes in very handy when you’re building a large application with different layers.

Security Tools

It offers built-in solutions for CSRF protection, user submission process SQL injection prevention, XSS prevention, form tampering protection, etc.

Security Tools

It offers built-in solutions for CSRF protection, user submission process SQL injection prevention, XSS prevention, form tampering protection, etc.

Updations

CakePHP in undergoing constant developments as we speak. This PHP framework follows an active release timeline on GitHub.

All CakePHP releases post 3.0 are compatible with PHP7+. The version 3.6.5 is the latest and was released in June 2018. It brought modifications around deprecation warning texts, auto-discovered shells, and Pagination metadata.

Cake Routing for API Support

It’s been created with an unnecessary layer of complications that, as you may find, often put off web developers. The one-way routing tends to create problems.

Database Issue

If you are planning to use a NoSQL Database, you’d need third-party libraries to make it work.

URL Creation

If you wish to create a different URL, you’d also need to update the default routes for the same. When compared to other frameworks, Symfony, for instance, CakePHP has this disadvantage.