CakePHP vs Laravel – Key Things You Need To Know

PHP server-side scripting language is one of the most popular programming languages on the Internet. And CakePHP vs Laravel is at the top of the food chain!

If all you think about PHP is poor syntax, you might be surprised to learn that you should reconsider it for your next project. And this simply because PHP provides you with a wide range of web development frameworks such as Symfony, CakePHP, Laravel, Yii, etc. to make your life much easier.

In this article, we’ll take a look at CakePHP vs Laravel and explore their respective advantages and disadvantages. Enjoy!

New frameworks such as CakePHP and Laravel have followers who use them for ease and stability. They’ve both got serious devotees, but which one should you choose for your projects?

CakePHP vs Laravel

We’ll examine our impressions in our CakePHP vs Laravel review to help you decide which one is better suited to your project. Let’s look at a few basics.

Laravel vs CakePHP: Model View Controller (MVC)

Both CakePHP and Laravel use MVC. This divides the design into three fundamental parts. The model or data provides the user with a list of objects and nothing else. The view is the presentation of information each user requests when interacting with a website. The controller interprets user actions.

Working with MVC produces code tha’s less clunky and is easily replicable. If you’re developing websites for clients, this allows you to modify code or add classes without having to alter every existing class. You can reuse code without the hassle. Less bulk equals fewer bugs.

CakePHP uses a newer subset of MVC called Hierarchical MVC (HMVC). It treats traditional MVC triads as one application independent of others.

HMVC allows you to scale websites quickly, simplify maintenance, and reuse code for other projects.

Winner: Depends. Laravel for enterprise solutions and CakePHP for small websites.

CakePHP vs Laravel: Object Relational Mapping

Both CakePHP and Laravel use eloquent ORM.

Laravel’s is fast and simple, helping you to organize the application’s database quickly. CakePHP’s ORM is robust and expressive as well.

ORM in CakePHP was a late development, so it’s a little bit more complicated to master. Laravel actually has two options, ORM and Data Query, which might make it confusing to operate because of minor inconsistencies.

For both, basic operations are intuitive. We sometimes prefer Laravel’s relationship creation process because we don’t have to use predefined relationships like we do in CakePHP.

However, Laravel has a higher rate of issues when retrieving results from queries because of Eloquent ORM and Query Builder inconsistency.

Winner: CakePHP

Laravel vs CakePHP: Templates

Laravel uses Blade, which leaves the MVC structure pretty much intact. It’s one of the better templates, rendering HTML without the spaghetti code. It’s nicely connected to controllers and various sub-templates.

CakePHP uses its own set of templates rendered with .ctp extensions. It’s a normal PHP file with predetermined methods to maintain it. It’s elegant because it can help us to set up different functions. However, there’s a higher chance of messing the MVC up as we’re applying it.

Winner: Laravel

CakePHP vs Laravel: PlugIns

CakePHP has a richer database of plugins to handle things like security. It’s easier to copy codes and keep your app folder clean.

Laravel offers plugins, but you aren’t going to find the variety or same ease of use as CakePHP. That keeps you from reusing as much code depending on your project.

Winner: CakePHP

Overall Framework Pros & Cons

Let’s take a quick look at the overall pros and cons when it comes to CakePHP vs Laravel.

CakePHP Pros

• CakePHP is flexible. You can do a lot more within templates, and robust plugins help keep your codes clean.
• Its built-in ORM is easy to learn and use immediately.
• CakePHP favors convention over configuration, meaning you can get into programming without worrying too much about what’s under the hood of your applications.
• Building queries is more comfortable and more consistent with fewer bad returns because of consistent ORM.
• The framework is strong and flexible with reverse routing capability. Developers can maintain link integrity by adjusting the URL structure in just one place instead of searching for each calling.
• Site location and configuration are done automatically. You just connect the database.
• Code generation and scaffolding allow developers to create prototypes and code that can be used for multiple projects.
• In addition, CakePHP is open source.

CakePHP Cons

• CakePHP is better suited to codes with different modules but isn’t as elegant for quick projects.
• It’s more complex than Laravel, so you’ll need more time to learn and implement its various aspects.
• CakePHP doesn’t support default routes for Fancy URLs. Most others support this. It makes CakePHP less efficient for modern web app development.

We recommend CakePHP if you’re a small team, for developing prototypes, or smaller websites that won’t require manual maintenance.

Laravel Pros

• It offers powerful templates through Blade. HTML is simple without the workarounds. Blade templates compile to raw PHP and process in the server. Overall, it’s more configurable.
• It’s easier to learn and implement immediately. There isn’t as much documentation with Laravel (they prefer that you poke around and figure things out) but it’s more intuitive.
• It comes with Artisan, it’s own CLI. Developers can clear the cache, seed databases, and so much more.
• You can perform unit testing, something not possible with CakePHP (which offers functional or UI testing only).
• It offers IOC support and other enterprise driven design patterns.
• It’s open source and free.

Laravel Cons:

• Inconsistency between ORM and Query Builder may cause issues when retrieving query results.
• Plugins aren’t as robust so your code might get messier.
• Documentation isn’t as robust, and the community hasn’t had as much time to develop as CakePHP

We recommend Laravel if you’re building an enterprise/B2B solution. We also recommend it for large teams or big solutions constructed over a longer period of time.

Final Thoughts

CakePHP vs Laravel is difficult to call without considering all unique circumstances. The best advice is just to start and allow your natural creativity and curiosity guide you.

Where do you stand in this Laravel vs CakePHP debate? Hash it out in the comments below.