Laravel vs Symfony: the PHP framework you should choose in 2022

PHP frameworks have become the most popular when it comes to creating and developing an application or a web page. Although there are several frameworks that work with this programming language, Laravel and Symfony are the most used by experts in this language.

Developing and creating an application from scratch is a complicated task, an impeccable job must be done and at the same time keep the client satisfied with what they want, so it is vital to choose a framework that offers all the facilities and functions to reach an impeccable and functional final product.

Why choose Laravel?

Among the benefits that Laravel offers to develop applications in PHP, the following stand out:

• Facilitates development as it integrates BackEnd tools
• Combining the best packages in the PHP ecosystem to offer a robust and developer-friendly framework.
• The ability to create dynamic sites with an innovative template engine.
• A very secure and bulletproof migration process.
• Pre-installed and goal-oriented libraries.
• Laravel uses a PHP unit with which it automates code testing when developing web applications.

Why use Symfony?

Symfony has some features that could be interesting and attractive for some developers, among these, are:

• Your system based on Model-View-Controller
• The high performance achieved when developing a web application
• A flexible URI routing
• Create a code that is reusable and therefore easier to maintain
• It allows you to manage sessions and track errors.
• Full-featured database classes with cross-platform support
• It has a large community of developers that remains active
• It has a set of decoupled and reusable components.
• Standardization and interoperability of applications
• Security against cross-site request forgery and other attacks

Differences between Laravel and Symfony

Let's see some differences between both frameworks in key aspects for development:

Performance and scalability

While Symfony caches views and source code by default, Laravel already comes with a set of standardized APIs that work for caching views. In this section, a website developed with Symfony will take longer to load, while one developed with Laravel can take approximately 60 milliseconds.

The database support system

In this section, Symfony uses Doctrine for its data processing, while Laravel uses Eloquent. In the former, the database transfer is automatic, but the developer has to identify the particular fields within the code. In Laravel, there is no need to declare fields when migrating a database.

Data Modeling

To access data in Laravel, the developer is required to have a deep understanding of SQL. Because it's based on Eloquent, it tends to tie your application to your database schema design, so if you change the name of a single column, the entire database can be affected. In Symfony, based on Doctrine, the mapper pattern is used, allowing you to distinguish between your database schema and your business objects and logic.

Maintenance

Symfony's development framework enhances the structure and functionality of website applications. When challenges arise with the website, updated functionality is easier to maintain. It's also easy to add a new developer because website maintenance is made easy using this Symfony PHP framework. Developers can improve their efficiency while delivering smooth, bug-free applications.

Both frameworks allow for excellent and successful Symfony web development, as the reasons above indicate, Symfony outperforms Laravel in some areas.

In conclusion, with what is presented in this blog, it is up to the developer to choose the framework that best suits the application or website to be created. At Rootstack we have used both to solve our clients' technological problems and the results have been successful in both cases.

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