Overview

Laravel

Stacks28.7K

Followers23.8K

Votes3.9K

GitHub Stars82.6K

Forks24.6K

API Platform

Stacks85

Followers128

Votes8

API Platform vs Laravel: What are the differences?

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between API Platform and Laravel. Both API Platform and Laravel are popular frameworks used for developing web applications.

1. Front-End Support: API Platform is primarily focused on providing a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) for building APIs. It offers built-in support for creating RESTful APIs and GraphQL APIs, but does not provide extensive support for front-end development. On the other hand, Laravel is a full-stack framework that offers robust support for front-end development with features like Blade templating, asset compilation, and Vue.js integration.

2. ORM and Database Support: API Platform uses the Doctrine ORM by default for data storage and retrieval. Doctrine is a powerful Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tool that maps database tables to PHP objects. Laravel, on the other hand, uses its own ORM called Eloquent, which provides a simplified and expressive syntax for working with databases. Eloquent also supports database migrations out of the box, making it easier to manage database schema changes.

3. Authentication and Authorization: Laravel provides a comprehensive authentication and authorization system out of the box, with features like user registration, login, password reset, and role-based access control. API Platform, on the other hand, does not provide built-in support for user authentication and authorization. It expects developers to implement their own authentication and authorization logic using Symfony components or third-party libraries.

4. Routing and MVC Architecture: Both API Platform and Laravel follow the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern for designing web applications. However, Laravel provides a more robust routing system with support for named routes, route parameters, route groups, and middleware. API Platform uses the Symfony routing system, which is also powerful but may require a steeper learning curve for developers not familiar with Symfony.

5. Community and Ecosystem: Laravel has a large and active community of developers, with a vibrant ecosystem of packages and libraries available for extending the framework's functionality. API Platform, on the other hand, has a smaller community but is gaining popularity in the Symfony ecosystem. While Laravel has a wider range of resources and tutorials available, API Platform benefits from being built on top of Symfony, which is a mature and widely-used PHP framework.

6. Development Speed and Learning Curve: Laravel provides a more beginner-friendly experience with its intuitive syntax and extensive documentation. It allows developers to quickly build web applications with its scaffolding tools and pre-built features. API Platform, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve due to its reliance on Symfony components and conventions. It may require more time and effort to get up to speed with API Platform, especially for developers new to Symfony.

In summary, API Platform is primarily focused on providing a BaaS for building APIs, while Laravel is a full-stack framework with extensive front-end support. Laravel offers a comprehensive authentication and authorization system, a robust routing system, and a larger community and ecosystem compared to API Platform. However, API Platform benefits from being built on top of Symfony, and development speed and learning curve may vary between the two frameworks.

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Advice on Laravel, API Platform

John

Jun 28, 2019

Reviewon

Laravel

I use Laravel because it has integrated unit testing that making TDD a breeze. Having a View (Blade engine) making me easier to work without too many efforts in front-end.

I do recommend going into the root of programming once getting stable on any framework. Go beyond Symfony, go beyond PHP, go into the roots to the mother of programming; c++, c, smalltalk, erlang OTP. Understand the fundamental principle of abstraction.

A framework is just a framework, it helps in getting feedback quickly; like practicing dancing in front of a mirror. Getting fundamentals right is the one true key in doing it right. Programming is not hard, but abstract-programming is extremely hard.

3.81k views3.81k

Comments

Eva

Fullstack developer

Jul 28, 2020

Needs adviceon

Java

Spring Boot

JavaScript

Hello, I am a fullstack web developer. I have been working for a company with Java/ Spring Boot and client-side JavaScript(mainly jQuery, some AngularJS) for the past 4 years. As I wish to now work as a freelancer, I am faced with a dilemma: which stack to choose given my current knowledge and the state of the market?

I've heard PHP is very popular in the freelance world. I don't know PHP. However, I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to learn since it has many similarities with Java (OOP). It seems to me that Laravel has similarities with Spring Boot (it's MVC and OOP). Also, people say Laravel works well with Vue.js, which is my favorite JS framework.

On the other hand, I already know the Javascript language, and I like Vue.js, so I figure I could go the fullstack Javascript route with ExpressJS. However, I am not sure if these techs are ripe for freelancing (with regards to RAD, stability, reliability, security, costs, etc.) Is it true that Express is almost always used with MongoDB? Because my experience is mostly with SQL databases.

The projects I would like to work on are custom web applications/websites for small businesses. I have developed custom ERPs before and found that Java was a good fit, except for it taking a long time to develop. I cannot make a choice, and I am constantly switching between trying PHP and Node.js/Express. Any real-world advice would be welcome! I would love to find a stack that I enjoy while doing meaningful freelance coding.

826k views826k

Comments

washie

Developer at Bytecom

Jun 14, 2020

Decided

i find python quite resourceful. given the bulk of libraries that python has and the trends of the tech i find django which runs on python to be the framework of choice to the upcoming web services and application. Laravel on the other hand which is powered by PHP is also quite resourceful and great for startups and common web applications.

758k views758k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Laravel	API Platform
It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.	It is a set of tools to build and consume web APIs. You can build a fully-featured hypermedia or GraphQL API in minutes. Leverage its awesome features to develop complex and high performance API-first projects. Extend or override everything you want.
Template Engine; MVC Architecture Support; Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping); Security; Artisan; Libraries & Modular; Database Migration System; Unit-Testing	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 82.6K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 24.6K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 28.7K	Stacks 85
Followers 23.8K	Followers 128
Votes 3.9K	Votes 8
Pros & Cons
Pros 555 Clean architecture 392 Growing community 370 Composer friendly 344 Open source 325 The only framework to consider for php Cons 54 PHP 33 Too many dependency 23 Slower than the other two 17 A lot of static method calls for convenience 15 Too many include	Pros 1 Automated api-docs 1 Microframework 1 Easy to use 1 Headless 1 Composer Cons 2 Easy only for easy task like normal crud on entity
Integrations
PHP Django CodeIgniter CakePHP	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Laravel, API Platform?

Node.js

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.

Android SDK

Android provides a rich application framework that allows you to build innovative apps and games for mobile devices in a Java language environment.

Phoenix Framework

Phoenix is a framework for building HTML5 apps, API backends and distributed systems. Written in Elixir, you get beautiful syntax, productive tooling and a fast runtime.