Symfony Vs Laravel
When we think of starting a new project, first decision that one have to make is to pick the right framework. When we talk about PHP and web applications, it would be unreal to code them from scratch. So, our web developer uses various frameworks and tools to speed up their work. Today we will be comparing two major PHP frameworks, symfony vs Laravel.
There are some factors that help you choose a right framework for you:
1. First most, features and functionality of the framework.
2. Scalability of the framework.
3. How the framework is developed and maintained.
4. Does the framework provide Long term support.
5. Does it have a strong community.
Generally both symfony and Laravel uses PHP still there are many features that sets them apart. Here we will compare them on the basis of some factors:
1. Installation:
There are different installation procedures available for both the frameworks. symfony uses symfony installer or composer. Connections to database are also configured during its installation which is an advantage for symfony. While for Laravel is documentation offer several ways: Laravel Installer, Composer, and also a simple cloning from the github repository.
The installing is quite easy. Also we need to say that Laravel has such useful thing as Laravel Homestead, it lets you run ready environment for development. Homestead – is a simple virtual machine, made specially for Laravel. It includes all required tools: Ubuntu, PHP, nginx, mysql, even redis and memcached. If you want to run all this stuff you need also to install VirtualBox and Vagrant.
Laravel Installation Read Here.
symfony Installation Read Here.
2. Programming Language:
symfony uses common PHP, that means it’s written using universal code, so that can be changed to any other language and still they will work well. Whereas Laravel uses traits and magic methods (present in PHP), which not only makes the code precise and short but much easily understandable. Not using some pre-built constructs is a disadvantage for symfony.
3. Template Engines:
The task of template engines is to minimize the developer effort and provides better functionality for the front end coding. symfony uses Twig and Laravel is using Blade template engine. Twig is a modern templating system which helps to write nicer looking code, have good community and variety of keywords. On the other hand, Blade has an advantage of code re-usability.
If you are working on small project you will find Laravel more suitable and for complex ones you can use symfony.
Read more about Latte, templating engine. Click Here.
4. Performance and Cache:
Caching is generally considered very important. Both symfony and Laravel cache their views but symfony caches the source code also. Still, Laravel works faster than symfony. Generally performance are measured with real time applications so, While loading same sized website, Laravel uses 60ms whereas symfony uses 250ms.
This shows the performance of Laravel is faster than symfony and it wins in this context.
5. Database:
When we talk about database, symfony wins the race. As symfony supports majorly all the databases available, whereas Laravel supports some of them.
| Framework | symfony | Laravel |
| Database | Microsoft BI, MongoDB, MySQL, NoSQL, PostgreSQL, CouchDB, DynamoDB, GemFire, GraphDB Membase, MemcacheDB, Oracle, Apache Jackrabbit | SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Microsoft BI, MongoDB |
6. Extendibility:
Frameworks are supporting structures which may require extendibility in order to increase their functionality as per the requirement.
When it come comes to extendibility of Laravel, it has more than 9000 packages available, on the other hand symfony has approx. 2830 bundles. This makes Laravel become better in the race of extendibility.
See top security features of Laravel. Click Here.
7. Documentation and Learning Curve:
In regards to documentation and learning, Laravel documentation is written very clearly, its tutorials covers everything and it is simple to understand for new users. Whereas for symfony, documentation is written very poorly, which make it difficult to understand for beginner.
While finalizing a framework, it should never be only about features but focus should be on the functionality it provides and how you can use that functionality in your project, in order to save time, money and have great outcome.
So now you can understand the differences between symfony vs Laravel which will in turn help you choose a better framework.
