For over a decade, Laravel has been dominating other PHP programming language frameworks, making it the first choice for those providing backend development services. Why not choose another framework? Let's compare Laravel to another popular PHP framework, Symfony, and then discuss the reasons for Laravel's popularity.
Overview
Laravel
Laravel is a modern, open-source PHP framework that embraces the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. It is celebrated for its elegant syntax and developer-centric features, offering a rich ecosystem of tools and packages designed to speed up application development.
Symfony
On the other hand, Symfony is a mature and robust PHP framework, also based on MVC architecture. Known for its emphasis on reusable components and flexibility, Symfony is often the go-to framework for enterprise-level scalability and complex, large-scale applications.
Popularity and community
Laravel
Laravel boasts a large and active community, full of resources, tutorials, and third-party packages. According to the annual Stack Overflow survey, a whopping 56.4% of developers admire Laravel, with many choosing to stick with it due to its user-friendly approach and emphasis on developer happiness.
Symfony
Symfony also has a strong and well-established community, particularly in enterprise environments. It's highly adopted in Europe, especially by companies that value long-term support and stability in their development process.
Syntax and learning curve
Laravel
Praised for its elegant and expressive syntax, Laravel simplifies common tasks such as routing, authentication, and database management. This accessibility makes it a great choice for beginners while still being efficient for seasoned developers.
Symfony
Symfony tends to have a steeper learning curve due to its flexible nature and extensive configuration options. Developers are required to perform more initial setup, but this ultimately offers fine-grained control over application architecture, benefiting more complex projects.
Ecosystem and built-in features
Laravel
Laravel features a rich ecosystem supported by tools like Laravel Forge for server management, Envoyer for deployment, and Nova for admin panels, along with seamless integration with front-end frameworks such as Vue.js, React, and Angular. Out of the box, it provides Eloquent ORM, Blade templating engine, RESTful routing, authentication, Artisan CLI, database migrations, caching, and testing support. This makes it ideal for backend & API development services.
Symfony
Symfony offers extensive reusable components such as HTTP Foundation, Routing, and Security, which can be used independently or together. Symfony Flex simplifies package management and setup. Its built-in features include Doctrine ORM, Twig templating engine, robust routing, security bundle, console commands, and database migrations via Doctrine Migrations, along with comprehensive caching and testing tools.
Development speed and productivity
Laravel
With ready-made packages, elegant syntax, and tools like the Artisan CLI for automating routine tasks, Laravel hastens development significantly. Its modular architecture and comprehensive ecosystem minimize boilerplate, making custom web development a breeze.
Symfony
While Symfony’s flexibility allows for highly customized applications, this often requires more effort and time upfront. The introduction of Symfony Flex and standardized bundles helps streamline development, but it may not match Laravel's rapid prototyping speed.
Flexibility and extensibility
Laravel
Through its support for modular development with service containers and providers, Laravel makes it easy to extend functionality and integrate third-party APIs. Eloquent ORM simplifies complex database interactions.
Symfony
Designed with a modular approach, Symfony revolves around reusable components that can integrate seamlessly into any PHP project. This flexibility makes Symfony well-suited for projects with custom architecture or those requiring integration with other systems.
Performance and scalability
Laravel
Laravel includes advanced caching and optimization features, lending itself well to startups and mid-sized applications. With the right architecture, it can scale efficiently.
Symfony
Symfony is noted for its performance optimizations and is often chosen for large-scale, enterprise-grade applications where high scalability and maintainability are critical.
Testing and maintenance
Laravel
With testing as a core focus, Laravel provides support for PHPUnit and tools for both unit and feature testing, ensuring high code quality and maintainability.
Symfony
Symfony also supports PHPUnit, offering extensive testing capabilities that include functional and integration testing, with an emphasis on writing maintainable code.
Cost and licensing
Both Laravel and Symfony are open-source frameworks, meaning they come without licensing fees.
Laravel’s extensive array of free and paid packages can reduce development costs through faster delivery and minimized need for custom coding.
Symfony’s component-based approach allows selective feature usage, optimizing resource consumption. However, it might require more upfront investment in setup time.
Use cases and industry adoption
Laravel is favored by startups and companies needing rapid development and elegant codebases. It’s utilized by organizations like Pfizer, BBC, and Liberty Mutual Insurance for custom web applications.
Symfony is preferred by enterprises and projects demanding complex workflows, long-term support, and smooth integration with legacy systems. It powers platforms like Drupal CMS and various enterprise-grade applications.
6 reasons for Laravel's continued popularity
Laravel's widespread acclaim in the development community can be attributed to several compelling factors. Here are the reasons why developers and businesses frequently opt for Laravel over Symfony:
1. Gentler learning curve and developer friendliness
Laravel offers an elegant, expressive syntax and requires less configuration compared to Symfony, making it more accessible for beginners and faster for developers to start building applications. Its built-in features like authentication, routing, and ORM (Eloquent) are straightforward and easy to use, which accelerates development and reduces complexity.
2. Rich ecosystem and built-in tools
Laravel provides a comprehensive ecosystem with first-party tools such as Laravel Nova (admin panel), Laravel Forge (server management), and Laravel Vapor (serverless deployment). Its Artisan CLI automates common tasks, enhancing developer productivity. This extensive ecosystem addresses most backend development needs out of the box, making it convenient for developers.
3. Performance and rapid development
Laravel generally delivers better out-of-the-box performance with faster page load times. Its opinionated structure and ready-to-use components enable rapid prototyping and development, which appeals to startups and small to medium projects.
4. Larger and more active community
Laravel has a larger global developer community, reflected in a significant number of GitHub stars and greater popularity in developer surveys. This vibrant community contributes to a wealth of tutorials, packages, and third-party tools, supporting developers at all levels.
5. Simpler ORM and templating engine
Laravel’s Eloquent ORM uses the Active Record pattern, which is easier to learn and use compared to Symfony’s Doctrine ORM based on the Data Mapper pattern. Laravel’s Blade templating engine is also favored for its simplicity and powerful features, making UI development more intuitive.
6. Out-of-the-box authentication and authorization
Laravel includes built-in authentication scaffolding that requires minimal setup, providing login, registration, password reset, and email verification features by default. Symfony’s authentication setup is more manual and flexible but requires more initial effort.
Bonus: open source packages for Laravel
As mentioned, one of the advantages of Laravel is its large community, which is committed to making development with the framework faster and more convenient. Since our foundation in 2007, our backend developers have been working with Laravel and have created multiple packages to expedite client projects using our backend app development services. These packages are open source, meaning they are freely available to the community. Some of our key developments include:
Entity generator
Automates entity creation in Laravel, generating components from database migrations to API endpoints. Enhances development speed, maintains uniform architecture, reduces errors, and allows custom flexibility.
Project initializator
Simplifies new project setup by automating initial configurations and installations. Focuses developers on application features by handling groundwork and cleaning up unnecessary parts.
Swagger
Automatically generates API documentation via tests, providing reliability and accuracy. Integrates with existing testing processes, saving time and minimizing errors.
Media
Enhances media file management in Laravel applications with automatic route setups and customization options. Integrates with OpenAPI for easier understanding and use of media functionalities.
Helpers
A suite of tools offering Functions, Iterators, Services, and Traits to simplify and enhance Laravel application development, emphasizing efficiency and code maintainability.
Conclusion
Laravel and Symfony each bring unique advantages to the table, but Laravel's popularity persists due to its rapid, cost-effective approach to custom web development, supported by elegant syntax and a robust ecosystem that enhances productivity and ease of use. This makes it especially appealing to developers and businesses looking for efficient, straightforward solutions. In contrast, Symfony shines in scenarios requiring complex, enterprise-level applications, offering extensive customization, scalability, and long-term maintainability. Ultimately, the choice between these frameworks should be influenced by the complexity of your project, your team's expertise, and your specific business requirements.
Ronas IT has been developing on Laravel for 18 years. We have dedicated our efforts to making development on this framework speedier and more efficient. We are ready to assist those who want high-quality applications with a robust backend on Laravel.
Top comments (4)
I always laugh when I read complex, enterprise applications are the only use case for Symfony.
You can even build single file applications with Symfony.
That Laravel has faster load times than Symfony is false.
I would suggest to do some more research before you compare the two frameworks.
I have no problem that you want to promote Laravel and your expertise. But I don't think it is correct to add false information about another framework.
Thank you for your feedback and for pointing that out! You're completely right; Symfony is indeed versatile and can handle various use cases, from small projects up to complex enterprise-level applications, efficiently. Also, the performance comparison between Laravel and Symfony really depends on several factors and configuration nuances—it's not accurate to state unequivocally that Laravel always loads faster.
I appreciate you highlighting this aspect and will make adjustments to ensure the information provided about Symfony and Laravel is balanced, accurate, and fair.
been cool seeing steady progress with laravel - it adds up. you think habits or just showing up every day is what really keeps a tool like this ahead for so long?
I think you're onto something important here. Steady progress—consistently showing up day after day—is definitely key to Laravel's continued strength and success. Habits like maintaining regular updates, keeping a close connection with the developer community, and consistently refining user experience have helped Laravel not only remain relevant, but also continuously improve over time.
Of course, innovations and breakthroughs matter too, but in the long run, it's this daily commitment, thoughtful incremental improvements, and the habit of genuinely listening to users that consistently sets tools like Laravel apart.
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