I've used Codeigniter since its early days and stayed in version 3 for a very long time. Recently I moved to version 4 which is fabulous, as it embraces namespaces, no more strange $this->load to use classes, and myriad little new things like a nice layout system (you can add twig of course). But it stays simple, fast, non invasive. I like that. Laravel is amazing, but for my use at least may be overwhelming but I think both have their uses and are very solid.
I worked with each framework. But here my take for symfony vs laravel: Symfony is more flexible (more low level) than Laravel. But for data I prefer Laravel Eloquent than how Symfony deals with data (Doctrine). Personally I would prefer Laravel for new projects as it is more fun. But bigger projects like Shopware are using Symfony. No idea why. I heard that Laravel introduces many breaking changes between Minor versions.
Laravel Eloquent is an implementation of the ActiveRecord ORM pattern. Doctrine2 is an implementation of the Data Mapper pattern. The larger the application and the more you use these two, the more you tend to see that Data Mapper is a far superior pattern to ActiveRecord. ActiveRecord appeals to neophyte developers with code like $model->save() , but is simplistic and antithetical to the features of modern relational databases like transactions. ActiveRecord is a little bit like the way a lot of beginning developers used to use the MySQL database engine with MySQL, give that it didn't have support for referential integrity, row level locking or transactions. No serious company that understands this uses the Mysql engine, as even the default gave way to InnoDB which actually has those features built into it. When you don't know what those features are good for, or how they empower better data integrity and system design, you might think that "simpler is better". I also have to say, this video found a good way to barely scratch the surface of this topic, while also saying almost nothing relevant.
Great comparison. Laravel is great for employment opportunities and freelance gig, for personal project or project which you are part of discussion maker, Codeigniter 4 is the way to go. So flexible and malleable 🎉
Symfony is insanely easy to learn. Saying it has a steep learning curve is beyond ridiculous. This video was probably written by AI but I'm responding anyway because of the other comments... Everybody says Symfony is great for enterprise level apps... yea ok... this is true, but if you spend literally one hour reading documentation or are even just a somewhat (i.e., just 1 year) experienced developer with PHP in any real world situation, it's also spectacular for essentially any PHP project at all, big or small. It's best all around for any conceivable project in PHP as long as you aren't a third-rate garbage tier developer. Companies hire people from India that have no actual experience besides LITERAL scam projects and then wonder why Symfony isn't working out... yea ok dude. PHP 8 + Symfony 6.4+ or 7.x+ = best possible PHP experience. Even freshmen college interns can do awesome stuff with Symfony, and that's zoomer devs... now that's saying A LOT considering the state of current undergrads (it's bad... it's REALLLLL bad).
Bro I'm so lost with all those languages or framework which one you think is the best combination to learn for a full stack developper beginner ? Thank you
