Updated March 23, 2023
Difference Between Codeigniter vs Laravel
In this article, we will see an outline on Codeigniter vs Laravel. PHP is a programming language used for dynamic web page development. The term PHP was meant to stand for Personal Home Page, that was later renamed to Hypertext Preprocessor. Over three quarters, websites are developed using this scripting language. It has gained rapid popularity as it can be executed as CLI (Command Line Interface), Embedded into Hypertext, or used in combination with Web Framework, Web templates or content management systems. This efficiency has brought PHP on the focus point quite a few free, open-source web framework have been developed around it. This includes CodeIgniter and Laravel. CodeIgniter was designed by EllsiLab in 2006 with the objective of creating a faster and lighter web framework. It was later maintained by developers from BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology). In 2011, Taylor Otwell found CodeIgniter lacking key features like User Authentication and Authorization and hence realized the need to develop Laravel. It included these features much more. Both are free, open-source PHP web frameworks, that works on MVC Architecture. They have great benefits and relevance depending on the developer and the project that he is working on.
Head to Head Comparison between Codeigniter vs Laravel (Infographics)
Below are the top 9 comparisons between Codeigniter vs Laravel:
Key differences between Codeigniter vs Laravel
Let us discuss some key differences between Codeigniter vs Laravel in the following points:
1. CodeIgniter is considered to be Simple and fast for a learner to pick up and start developing. Laravel is still popular as the best PHP web framework for its more advanced features. Laravel syntax and style are considered to be elegant.
2. While CodeIgniter has shared the attention for 14 years, the newbie, Laravel has gained massive popularity over less than a decade and holds double the market share than CodeIgniter.
3. While both are being used globally for web development, CodeIgniter has been popular in 43 countries against Laravel leading with 113 countries.
4. Developers have used Laravel in creating 141K websites so far, while CodeIgniter was opted for 125K websites in almost double the period.
5. CodeIgniter is well known for having a small footprint, thus making it a faster and lighter web development framework. Laravel, however, is known for its features and elegance.
6. Additional codes are to be written by the developer to create and integrate APIs or other web services, however, Laravel has modules that can be plugged in for these services to add the benefits and features onto the website. It allows the creation of API with the Rest of the assortment.
7. CodeIgniter is a developer-friendly tool that offers faster performance, easy configuration, secure and organized structure. However, it does not support the Inbuilt module creation. On the other hand, Laravel is planned and executed as per the developer’s creativity. He needs to select the module as per the service needed on his website and can integrate it through his development.
8. The programmer gets Modular extensions for the creation and maintenance of modules in CodeIgniter as built-in modules are not supported. However, Laravel allows the reuse of modules.
9. For data migration, Laravel has wider support in terms of formats. CodeIgniter has a limitation and can support limited formats. There is no default composer on this framework and a third-party library is a time and effort-consuming option.
10. An Easy to learn a framework that’s based on pure PHP with no template engine, CodeIgniter has a less learning curve. Laravel is a fairly simple tool to start with however, with the increasing capability and expertise of developers, his awareness to use different available modules would impact the benefits and features incorporated in the website.
11. While the documentation is available for both PHP frameworks for training and guidance, Laravel has abundant training and guidance available through documentation and videos on Laracast. These tutorials cover the complete information to learn and adapt to Laravel. Their repository on Github is extensive. It helps a newcomer to pick up this tool quickly and perform the task. As the community of CodeIgniter isn’t as big, the support is also comparatively less.
Comparison Table of CodeIgniter vs Laravel
The table below summarizes the comparisons between Codeigniter vs Laravel:
| CodeIgniter | Laravel |
| Introduced in 2006, This framework was built to create faster and lighter websites that takes less time to load. | User Authentication and Authorization was the objective to develop this framework. It also offers modularity. |
| With the introduction, it gained popularity as fire, however, could not sustain it because of lacking features and benefits. | This is the most popular PHP framework and has a larger user base due to its compatibility and module availability. |
| Smaller community and limited documentation available. | Over 1500 videos are available to enthusiasts willing to learn Laravel through Laracasts. |
| CodeIgniter does not support inbuild Module creation. | A developer has wide option of modules and a higher number of packages to be used in Laravel. |
| The programmer gets Modular extensions for the modules creation and maintenance in CodeIgniter. | The blade has options for code reusability that helps developers work on their project efficiently. |
| Being a fast and light framework, CodeIgniter enables faster web page loading. | As there are integrated modules in Laravel, it takes longer for a web page to load. |
| Code reusability is a challenge in CodeIgniter. | Customized Reusable components may be developed in Laravel. |
| CodeIgniter does not have any templating Engines. | There are templating engines available in Laravel for the web developer to choose from, as per the website requirement. |
| Limited data formats are supported that makes data migration a challenge in CodeIgniter. | Wide range of data formats support in Laravel simplifies data migration. It doesn’t need field definitions which helps the manual data migration be more efficient. |
Conclusion
Laravel and CodeIgniter are both Free to use, Open source PHP framework that uses MVC structure. They come with different usability and features. The developer can choose it basis his capabilities and business requirement. While CodeIgniter is a preferred choice for MVC, easy Setup and quick learner, Laravel is opted for clean Architecture, elegant style and larger community support. While Laravel has been more popular among developers and have over 53K GitHub stars against CodeIgniter which has 17K GitHub stars. They vary by usability and capability of tools and the features that developer wants to use. With the efficiency of website being a priority, CodeIgniter will be a preference while for functionality, Laravel will be preferred.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to the top difference between Codeigniter vs Laravel. Here we discuss the Codeigniter vs Laravel Key differences with Infographics, and Comparison table. You may also look at our other related articles to learn more –
