PHP frameworks are popular for web development, with Symfony and Laravel leading the pack. These two are the most popular PHP frameworks, with 28.1k and 72.9k stars on Github, respectively. Yet, deciding whether to choose Symfony or Laravel is a constant battle.
This blog will discuss the pros, cons, and differences between the two frameworks to help you pick the best framework for your web development project- Symfony or Laravel.
Overview of Laravel and Symfony
Contents
Symfony
Before we get into the depth of the topic, let us first understand what is Symfony framework?
Introduced in 2005, Symfony is an open-source PHP web application framework designed to simplify and speed up the maintenance of web applications and replace repetitive coding tasks to develop robust, complex enterprise applications. It provides a set of reusable PHP component libraries and follows the MVC architecture pattern. It also has features such as routing, templating, dependency injection forms, and security.
Let’s now take a look at the Pros and cons of Symfony.
Advantages of Symfony
- Largest support community
- Well-established platforms like drupal, magneto use symfony
- Up-to-date
- Excellent quality code
Disadvantages of Symfony
- Steeper learning curve for beginners
- It relies on other technologies, which may cause a slower application load time.
- The development process slows down due to the need to build code for multiple uses, requiring more testing time.
Laravel
Let us now learn what is Laravel framework to get an explicit knowledge of the topic.
First introduced in 2011, Laravel is a PHP web application framework that offers a robust set of tools intended to create modern and scalable web applications that follow the MVC architecture pattern using symfony components. It also has an elegant syntax and is richly featured with routing, middleware, and authentication, making it developer friendly for rapid application development.
Let’s now learn the Pros and Cons of Laravel.
Advantages of Laravel
- Largest support community
- Well-established platforms like drupal, magneto use symfony
- Up-to-date
- Excellent quality code
Disadvantages of Laravel
- Steeper learning curve for beginners
- It relies on other technologies, which may cause a slower application load time.
- The development process slows down due to the need to build code for multiple uses, requiring more testing time.
Comparison Parameters: Symfony vs. Laravel
The key difference in this battle of Symfony vs. Laravel is their approach to programming design principles. Laravel adopts a convention over configuration principle, while Symfony employs a configuration over convention approach, meaning Laravel has more streamlined beginner-friendly syntax while Symfony offers more flexibility and customization. Let us now look at the detailed comparison between the two.
1. Basic Performance
Laravel framework uses symfony components and has an average loading time of 60 milliseconds, making it highly beneficial for restrictive timeline projects.
Symfony takes 250 milliseconds to achieve optimal performance, requiring more time and effort than Laravel.
2. Template engine
Laravel uses Blade, which is one of the most effective template engines that allow for reusability. It also lets developers write clean, cached PHP code to improve performance. Lumen is another sub-framework it uses to create APIs.
Symfony uses the Twig template engine, combined to write simple PHP code but with a different syntax than the Blade. It allows developers to design more designer-friendly templates.
3. Modularity and Scalability
Laravel enhances scalability with modular structure and code reusability, with easy-to-add features and functionality to your application.
With the use of reusable components,symfony offers modularity to build scalable applications that can adapt to changing business needs.
4. Database support
Both Laravel and symfony framework support (ORM) object-relational mapping for data access. Laravel uses the Eloquent database for migrations manually. For access to any data, you need to use the eloquent system that performs all the CRUD operations. With databases, three languages are used: MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.
The doctrine database in symfony automatically manipulates and migrates all the data. Developers have to create respiratory functions for database support and access to data. Multiple options are available for database support such as MySQL, SAPsy base SQL, Drizzle, and oracle.
5. Learning curve
Laravel’s learning curve is easy; developers can easily use this framework.
Symfony’s learning curve is steeper as extensive community support is unavailable.
6. Scaffolding
There is no scaffolding tool available with Laravel. Regardless, you can integrate multiple tools with it.
Symfony has a scaffolding tool known as the sensio generator bundle pack that contains all commands pre-requisites for scaffolding.
Which framework wins: Symfony or Laravel
While Laravel and Symfony are robust frameworks for web app development, Laravel wins the race comparing all the points. However, the choice between the two competing frameworks depends on specific business needs and features you want to add to your app. Hire Laravel developer who understands your needs if you have a project with tight deadlines. On the contrary, Symfony may be well-suited for long-term maintenance in commercial environments.