Laravel vs Codeigniter vs Fuelphp

[AustinS28]

General question from someone who knows little about coding!

Keeping it short and sweet, while discussing with a firm a software solution I am looking to have developed, I was asked what platform I wanted my product built on.

I thought I had all my questions lined up, but obviously I didn’t. After the basics — who will own the code, what will the work flow and communication be like, list of references etc etc, I had no idea about the actual tech (hence why I am outsourcing a firm in the first place).

I am currently writing up a flow chart/detailed product description and after reading several online reviews Laravel has popped up as the best platform for coding a functional site with PHP.

If anyone has some more insight or experiences on the matter, I’d love to hear. A general answer of, “they’ll all work,” is cool too.

 

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[Digamma]

Laravel. It it basically the only opinionated PHP framework that is modern.
CodeIgniter has been a dead project for years, no matter how much they try to save it, because it is fundamentally broken.
FuelPHP has not even by far the user base of the other two, nor the support.

If the choices is between those three, it's not even a choice. One is the best framework for PHP out there, the other two are not even in the good ones. Simple as that.

It is worth spending a couple more words here. PHP is a flawed language. 99% of the PHP code out there sucks. Modern PHP development is done very well defined practices. If you don't follow those practices to the letter, the end result sucks (read: more bugs, less secure, harder to maintain, harder to keep updated).

That said, I find this a weird question for a firm to ask. That's their domain, they should know. Not you.

 

[Green Destiny]

General question from someone who knows little about coding!

Keeping it short and sweet, while discussing with a firm a software solution I am looking to have developed, I was asked what platform I wanted my product built on.

I thought I had all my questions lined up, but obviously I didn’t. After the basics — who will own the code, what will the work flow and communication be like, list of references etc etc, I had no idea about the actual tech (hence why I am outsourcing a firm in the first place).

I am currently writing up a flow chart/detailed product description and after reading several online reviews Laravel has popped up as the best platform for coding a functional site with PHP.

If anyone has some more insight or experiences on the matter, I’d love to hear. A general answer of, “they’ll all work,” is cool too.

My first thoughts would be, does it have to be in PHP? Unless you are building a WordPress site, then there are probably better options to go for. I say this mainly from a hiring point of view in that if you are eventually looking to bring this software development in house, then attracting top talent to work in a PHP environment will be tricky.

The vast majority of PHP developers out there work on WordPress or SME e-commerce type sites and while this is a big market the work isn't that interesting to the top developers. But if the software you require isn't that complicated and you have no intention of bringing this in house so to speak, then this may not be a problem. My friend is currently doing an internship in PHP shop this summer and he hates every minute of it, but like I say, still lots of money up for grabs in serving this market.

If you have to go with PHP then as @Digamma says, Laravel is pretty much the only serious option these days.

 

[AustinS28]

Laravel. It it basically the only opinionated PHP framework that is modern.
CodeIgniter has been a dead project for years, no matter how much they try to save it, because it is fundamentally broken.
FuelPHP has not even by far the user base of the other two, nor the support.

If the choices is between those three, it's not even a choice. One is the best framework for PHP out there, the other two are not even in the good ones. Simple as that.

It is worth spending a couple more words here. PHP is a flawed language. 99% of the PHP code out there sucks. Modern PHP development is done very well defined practices. If you don't follow those practices to the letter, the end result sucks (read: more bugs, less secure, harder to maintain, harder to keep updated).

That said, I find this a weird question for a firm to ask. That's their domain, they should know. Not you.

My first thoughts would be, does it have to be in PHP? Unless you are building a WordPress site, then there are probably better options to go for. I say this mainly from a hiring point of view in that if you are eventually looking to bring this software development in house, then attracting top talent to work in a PHP environment will be tricky.

The vast majority of PHP developers out there work on WordPress or SME e-commerce type sites and while this is a big market the work isn't that interesting to the top developers. But if the software you require isn't that complicated and you have no intention of bringing this in house so to speak, then this may not be a problem. My friend is currently doing an internship in PHP shop this summer and he hates every minute of it, but like I say, still lots of money up for grabs in serving this market.

If you have to go with PHP then as @Digamma says, Laravel is pretty much the only serious option these days.

Hey guys, thanks for the prompt and detailed responses. This is making me rethink things a bit.

If I choose to not go the route of PHP, what would you suggest for a piece of functional software that may become complex.

A client of mine is a software engineer and he just texted me that same thing as you guys - PHP is not recommended and old. He said to look for javascript, html css combo.

 

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[Green Destiny]

Hey guys, thanks for the prompt and detailed responses. This is making me rethink things a bit.

If I choose to not go the route of PHP, what would you suggest for a piece of functional software that may become complex.

A client of mine is a software engineer and he just texted me that same thing as you guys - PHP is not recommended and old. He said to look for javascript, html css combo.

I'm using a JavaScript full stack architecture for my app.....so node.js for the back end with express framework and the doT.js engine and Angular.js in the front end with a document based NoSQL database. I've used Python, Java and .Net/C# for past projects as well and a little PHP to design WordPress themes for people. I'm really impressed with Node and would recommend it.

I'd say Node, Python and Ruby are the main ones to consider or if you don't mind boxing yourself into a Microsoft environment .Net/C# is nice and popular with many developers.

http://www.codingdojo.com/blog/9-most-in-demand-programming-languages-of-2016/

Above is an interesting read.

 

[Jon L]

I'd say that language/framework is the least important concern (ok ok ... don't use LISP).

First, find a development team you can trust that will do good work for what you need. If they do PHP, that's fine, as long as they build good stuff. My PHP team has built stuff used by fortune 500 companies, across many thousands of users, so its definitely possible to do.

Second, don't build for scale. Build for what you think you'll be able to accomplish in the first year or two. When you're raking in your millions, rewrite the thing with an in-house team of the best developers money can buy using whatever hot new language you fancy.

 

[Digamma]

Hey guys, thanks for the prompt and detailed responses. This is making me rethink things a bit.

If I choose to not go the route of PHP, what would you suggest for a piece of functional software that may become complex.

A client of mine is a software engineer and he just texted me that same thing as you guys - PHP is not recommended and old. He said to look for javascript, html css combo.

I did not, in any way shape or form, suggested that you should not use PHP. And whoever says that "PHP is not recommended and old" is simply incompetent.
Man, don't let this discussion get in your head. Find someone to do the work and trust them.

 

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[Green Destiny]

I'd say that language/framework is the least important concern (ok ok ... don't use LISP).

First, find a development team you can trust that will do good work for what you need. If they do PHP, that's fine, as long as they build good stuff. My PHP team has built stuff used by fortune 500 companies, across many thousands of users, so its definitely possible to do.

Second, don't build for scale. Build for what you think you'll be able to accomplish in the first year or two. When you're raking in your millions, rewrite the thing with an in-house team of the best developers money can buy using whatever hot new language you fancy.

This is good advice.