CodeIgniter Vs Laravel: which one to choose in 2023?

Index:

1. Introduction
2. What is CodeIgniter
3. Significant features of CodeIgniter
4. Advantages of CodeIgniter
5. What is Laravel
6. Features of Laravel
7. Advantages of Laravel
8. Difference between CodeIgniter & Laravel
9. Conclusion: CodeIgniter Vs Laravel

First thing first, let’s understand what is CodeIgniter & Laravel. The debate for CodeIgniter Vs Laravel can be fought once we know what these frameworks comprise of & later we will dive deep into how both are different than each other & which one to be chosen in 2023.

Introduction:

CodeIgniter & Laravel, both are frameworks of PHP.
PHP is a scripting language used for web application development. It was created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. He wrote PHP in C programming language.
As per the recent study conducted by W3Techs, about 77.8% of websites are built on PHP language.
Latest version: Laravel 8.2.0
Framework link: https://laravel.com/’
Now, as we already explored what PHP is, let’s understand what is CodeIgniter & Laravel.
CodeIgniter is a fast & powerful open-source PHP framework that was created for developers to create dynamic web applications. It comes with a simple, elegant & complete powerpack toolkit to create robust & full fledge websites.
Release date: Feb 28, 2006 by EllisLab.
Latest version: 4.2.10
Framework link: https://codeigniter.com/
Applications built on CodeIgniter: Casio computers, Nissan

Below are some of the significant features provided by Codeigniter that’ll amaze you:

• Extremely Light Weight
• Search-engine Friendly URLs
• Flexible URI Routing
• Error Logging
• Pagination
• Robust security & data encryption
• Localization
• Image editing tools/ library
• MVC-based system
• Session management
• Database support
• Query builder
• Email sending class
• Full page caching & so many more to count.

From the above-mentioned features, you’d already had an idea of what this framework can do & what you can achieve if used the features in a right & rational manner. But that’s not it.

We will show you some more empirical advantages of why many big businesses have chosen CodeIgniter to build their websites.

Top 10 advantages of using CodeIgniter:

1. Clean code CodeIgniter is developed for developers to create dynamic websites with minimal code writing efforts. Less code=clean code. There is very minimal or almost no need to rewrite & overwrite the code hence giving a clean code structure environment for web app development.
2. MVC-based structure One of the biggest reason to choose CodeIgniter is that this framework is created on MVC model. This eases & enables quick, clean development & easy deployment of even big web applications. This also enables easy integrations with other Javascript frameworks.
3. SEO friendly One of the special reasons to go with CodeIgniter is that it uplifts good SEO-friendly traffic. It also generates SEO-friendly URLs which help sites discoverable.
4. Handling bugs & errors When it comes to developing & deliver quality & bug-free websites, CodeIgniter is often chosen framework. It has an amazing feature that automatically detects bugs & errors that developers can quickly identify without affecting the main work or website performance.
5. Security If you seek better security when your business has a requirement for adding a payment gateway in the website or involves confidential information of the users registered on the website then CodeIgniter is the wise choice of selection when selecting any tech stack. It gives enhanced security, encrypt & decrypt feature of data that saves users' data from a lot of spam to surpass the security system of the framework.
6. User friendly interface If a simple yet elegant web app development is in your mind then you can simply rely on CodeIgniter. It gives a smooth, simple, elegant & user-friendly interface that allows customers to engage more without any blockages. It has a very fluid flow so for developers developing & also for the customers using the web apps. You can search for companies that have good portfolios & hands-on experience in building CodeIgniter web apps.
7. Hassle-free data migration Be it server or data shifting, CodeIgniter is such a platform that makes data migration easy than you even think.
8. Quick development If you have clients who require an easy flow looking & quick development of their project then CodeIgniter is the solution. Developers seldom choose CodeIngiter because of its quick code efficiency, reusable of codes & quick deployment. This even doesn’t compromise on quality & security.
9. Easy testing facilities CodeIgniter offers an outstanding testing facility to the developers. Its step-by-step agile testing process ensures that the function & performance of the website remains intact. Every development stage can be analyzed step by step & one can expect complete testing of each phase of the development.
10. Community support Just like any other PHP framework, CodeIgniter also has its Community support present in CodeIgniter Forums. Apart from this, one can even find some good sources on social media & many professional experts can provide you best in class service for easy development & deployment. It also provides libraries of source codes that can be reused. The codes are such good in quality that many developers prefer reusing the old source codes.

Now that we have explored in-depth insights about CodeIgniter, let’s jump to Laravel.

Laravel, just like CodeIgniter is also a PHP open-source framework that was created by Taylor Otwell used for creating robust & highly efficient full-stack web applications. It is also based on MVP pattern & Symfony. Laravel is released after CodeIgniter so this means it is the latest framework with more powerful tools.

Release date: June 2011
Latest version: 9.X
Framework link: https://laravel.com/
Applications built on CodeIgniter: Disney, Warner Bros, The New York times

Here are the jaw-dropping features offered by Laravel:

• Artisan console
• Package development
• Task scheduling
• Rate limiting
• File storage
• Localization
• Unique URL generation
• Blade templates
• Error handling
• Request lifecycle
• Authentication & Encryption
• Email verification
• Query builder
• Pagination
• API resources & so much more.

Let’s see, how else Laravel is serving the developers with the advantages of using it:

Top 12 advantages of using Laravel PHP framework in 2023:

1. Fast development With laravel, one can develop any web application 35% faster. It is super lightweight & lightning fast loading capability making it the number one choice of developers. This saves huge costs as well, making it economical. What else one can want!
2. Easy collaboration & integration Most business sites have requirements to send notifications updates, password reset reminders, offers & discounts messages & emails. Laravel makes it possible by enabling easy & hassle-free integration with built it API servers & several other mailer libraries. This way web applications can send emails or texts to local or cross-cloud servers easily.
3. Supportive for multi languages One of the special qualities of Laravel is its capability of transitioning & translation for multiple languages. Laravel makes sure that whenever the website is opened in a specific country, it will display the content in the language of that specific country every time. But for that, the site needs to be created & coding needs to be written to accommodate this facility. You can find some very good companies that have hands-on experience in creating multi-lingual web applications.
4. Unbeatable beautiful design templatesOne more reason to love laravel. It comes with in-built beautiful template tools. You can find template for almost every mood the web application creation requires. It is loaded with dozen os templates that are super fluid, lightweight, robust & have layouts with content coding & seeding.
5. Faster URL routingLaravel allows the programmers/developers to easily & quickly create new packages & publish them quickly for the developer's community. They can do so by writing very minimal code & install a package from the package list. Hence, laravel has a very strong community support ecosystem.
6. Automated testing process Laravel is loaded with surprises, it comes with built-in PHP unit support testing. Developers can run tests in batches or in stages & this way they can ensure testing of every phase making it almost negligible chances of any errors being left unsolved.
7. Unsievable security Many web applications have businesses that have data-sensitive information stored. For eg, integration of payment gateway & different payment methods, storing of financial records & personal records of the users. We see these in the sites such as any fintech web application, e-commerce web application, or medical treatment application where the site receives & stores private data of the patient's medical condition or history. It becomes very necessary & obliged to protect these data at any cost & so with Laravel, one can rely for having the data safe. Laravel has built-in the codebase for creating a safe locker to store highly sensitive & private details of the users & makes it almost impossible for any threat or spammer to sieve through the security system & hack the system. This is like a boon to developers & businesses who are in constant worry about attacks on their private data.
8. Seamless user interface & authentication authorization Authentication & authorization is required prior to when any user is wishing to make a purchase or transaction to identify themselves as the genuine & real user of the account they are using. If the authentication takes more time, the customer will leave the website & will switch to another site, thus costing you the loss of customers & business. Laravel enables quick & easy authentication & authorization with its plug-and-play authentication system that is easy to access for customers. It’s lightning-fast & has a user-friendly interface.
9. Tried, tested & true After years & years of trying, worked & tested, developers, can now totally rely on the robustness, performance & efficiency of Laravel. Businesses that have made their web applications on this framework are happily satisfied too. Hence we can say, it’s tired, tested & yes, it's true!
10. Low code, clean code The basic & standard package of laravel comes with a bundle of these pre-programmed tools– mailer libraries, message queuing, bug handling, cross-site scripting, and web routing. With these ready-made & in-built tools, the need of writing fresh code is slashed down hence saving 35% of time & costs at a huge extent. Hence developers need to write minimum code & these codes are of high clean quality and can be reused again & again. Which will again, saves cost time.
11. Prioritize messages in Queue Some robust websites like e-commerce, marketplace, or fintech web application websites need to send their users & customers constant messages & notifications about the track order, payment, subscription renewal, new offers updates, etc. Laravel enables & handles this very smoothly. It comes with a pre-built prioritize message system facility so business owners don’t need to keep track record of everything as the system will prioritize the message for both the parties: for customers & for the business owners as well regarding their inventory, revenue, etc.
12. Robust & fast caching system integrations Developers relies on laravel for its speed & performance efficiency. Laravel comes with Redis Memcached backend system, which can be easily integrated that supports & stores caches in the files system. It makes heavy & big applications run smoothly without any blockages.

From the above-mentioned features & advantages of each framework, you can figure out some differences. But that’s not enough to make the right decision to choose the right framework for 2023.

Here’s how both, CodeIgniter & Laravel are distinctive from each other:

Conclusion: CodeIgniter Vs Laravel

We have studied everything from scratch about CodeIgniter & Laravel. They both have eloquent features & abilities for building powerful web applications.
However, Laravel is released after CodeIgniter so it makes obvious that Laravel being the latest framework has more capabilities than CodeIgniter in many aspects but one should wisely choose the right framework for their business requirement.
For example, if one has an existing website in CodeIgniter & requires upgradation or regular maintenance then they can hire CodeIgniter developers for such regular & minor tasks. But if one wants to revamp or redesign their existing website or want to create a new website from scratch then without any question Laravel is to be given the throne. In 2023, Laravel is the framework that will work best for any new project because of its highly supportive & easy integrations with cross clouds.
Both CodeIgniter & Laravel are robust frameworks of PHP & PHP itself is an efficient stack that requires very minimal to negligible maintenance. So you get excellent results & performance at less cost & maintenance.
If you still struggle to find & choose the right tech frame for your project then Nyusoft Solutions LLP can help you. We provide free 30 mins counseling for helping you choose the right framework & strategize your entire project in such a fluid manner that you wouldn’t feel a hassle. Connect with us now.