Laravel vs Yii

Difference Between Laravel and Yii

To build some good web applications, PHP frameworks are in demand. The famous frameworks for the same are Laravel vs Yii. Laravel is used when a sophisticated syntax application is to be built. Yii is used as a high-performance framework that provides swift development. Let us compare both Yii vs Laravel frameworks to see how they are different.

What are Laravel and Yii?

Following are some points of difference between Laravel vs Yii:

• Validation

Whenever a user wants to perform scenario-based validation, then there is no package available in Laravel. It does not provide any construct to validate a model in different scenarios. Yii can be used for the assignment of a model from request parameters and also its validation. Both of these scenarios can be managed by using Yii. You can customize your code as per your requirement.

• Client-Side Validation

To make validations on the client-side, there is no default support provided by Laravel. Yii provides very good client-side validation of the forms. Once you define a set of rules, it can be used at both client and server-side.

• Routing

When using Laravel user needs to declare a route to every action of the controller. Also protected, a controller’s function can be accessed from anywhere outside if a route is already defined. Laravel believes that the framework should be providing a default route. In Yii, simple routing is possible as a route for every action is not required. All route actions are picked up by default.

• Crud Generation

For the admin panel, there exists a CRUD functionality for different tables that are present. There is no default support for this activity in Laravel. Yii has a separately dedicated tool known as Gii, which provides a web-based interface where interactively code can be generated. In addition to this, it also provides a command-line interface that prefers working on console environments.

• Documentation

Laravel has very well prepared documentation. It is organized and written in a generic way so that everyone can understand it and can also learn it well. Yii does not have strong documentation like Laravel. Using the documentation for Yii, you can easily start with basic coding and work upon it.

• Resources and Support

Many people use Laravel and, as a result, has a large community that provides very good support. This community is growing larger day by day. On the other hand, Yii came before Laravel and had more developers using it, resulting in a larger community compared to Laravel.

Head to Head Comparison between Laravel and Yii (Infographics)

Below is the top 5 difference between Laravel vs Yii

Key Differences between Laravel and Yii

Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference :

• Generic Comparison: Laravel is used when an application requires sophisticated syntax. It makes it easier to authenticate, route, create sessions and caching. Laravel is a combination of all PHP frameworks. It provides many reliable applications like Superb IoC, convenient migration system and Integrated system for module testing. On the other hand, Yii is a high-performance PHP framework that can be used for the fast development of all modern applications. Yii uses MVC architecture and has a simple code. It provides a full-stack framework that has a query builder, NoSQL databases, RESTful API and many other features.
• Templating: Laravel provides a blade template system. This system lets you use PHP code in your views. Blade also does not keep any overhead so that application performance is increased. This is achieved as blade view files are stored in the system in the .blade.php extension. All this code is changed into raw PHP files while processing. Yii, on the other hand, uses a default template system. The choice of template is given to the development team using it. The templates that it provides are Twig and Smarty.
• Frameworks: The framework that Yii vs Laravel frameworks uses is different at the backend. Yii uses the MVC framework. As a result, Yii is able to utilize all components easily. Laravel, on the other hand, does not provide a modular approach.
• Performance: The performance of any application depends on real-time when it works with real and critical data. Web applications are not based on performance often. But the performance of these frameworks plays an important role. When compared for best coding high-performance application, Yii seems to be standing out and the best frameworks with respect to PHP. Laravel is comparatively slow, and there are resources present online, which help in speeding up performance.
• Implementation of form validation: Validation is applied differently in both these applications. Laravel has a distinctive class to perform validation which enables database validation anytime and anywhere. Unification can be extended easily by using its Eloquent CRM. While in Yii, form validation is handled by the class of a model and all rules which can be easily stored in the model or form that is created. Once you receive an update from data, you can easily check the rules and validation scripts for making changes in the model that is created. This may get complicated when validation is done within a controller.
• Advantages: Laravel has easy authentication. It also has a clean and straightforward API that will help the user send emails using cloud-based services. It integrates all applications very easily. Yii comes equipped with CRUD generators. It also has AJAX helpers that come in a GRID format. Also, it does not require repetitive code writing and is reusable.

Laravel vs Yii Comparison Table

Let’s look at the top comparison

The basis Of Comparison	Laravel	Yii
Requirements	PHP 5.4 or higher version PHP JSON extension MCrypt PHP extension	PHP 5.4 or higher version
Object Relational Mapping ORM	DAO ActiveRecord Pattern (Eloquent ORM) and Doctrine 2 via plugins	Data Access Objects (DAO) Active Record Pattern (ActiveRecord) and doctrine 2 via plugins
Testing	Here testing is required to be Out of box PHPUnit with Symfony components like HttepKernel, DomCrawler, etc.	Here testing requires only PHPUnit and Codeception.
Migration	For migration, it requires a migration class and data filling tool.	This requires only the migration class.
Caching	It has the following components for caching: APC Database File Memcached (in version 5) Redis (in version 5)	It has the following components for caching: APC Database File Memcached Redis WinCache XCache

Conclusion

Both Laravel vs Yii frameworks can be used in full-stack development. They both are good and bad in their areas. With this, Laravel is mostly considered a winner between these two. With this, Yii also provides a robust environment and great security. Hence, selecting between the two would be the developer’s choice on his requirements and choose the best between the two.

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