Laravel vs. Symfony: A Side-by-Side Comparison - Part 1

Special contributor to Scout APM  on September 06, 2022

Overview: Laravel vs. Symfony

The modern world, which is full of mobile devices, requires more responsive web applications that provide real-time interactions. As a result, you require a practical backend framework to synchronize information in real time and develop a robust database link with the user interface. 

For example, let's consider your smartphone's live soccer game score that provides instant entry into all the player statistics. To create this app, you have to select a blackened framework featuring practical tools and a reliable architecture to create scalable website apps. 

Symfony and Laravel fall under the PHP frameworks featuring similar characteristics. With these features, you can create multi-user and multi-language content featuring cross-platform capabilities.

In this two-part comparison, we’ll go over the advantages and disadvantages of each framework. First, we’ll provide a general overview, and then get into more specifics using the following to guide us. 

Laravel Overview

Laravel refers to an open-sourced website framework highly known for server-side routing handling, templating, HTML authentication, and more. It's the product of Taylor Otwell, written in PHP. 

Besides being based on Symfony, Laravel also offers PHP libraries or components. Being a server-side PHP framework, Laravel makes it easy to create apps with customized backend logic, templates, pre-defined architectures, web portal, full-stack applications, and managing SaaS products. 

Market Usage Statistics

Use Cases

Applications Using Laravel Framework as Backend Technology

Symfony Overview

Symfony refers to an open-source PHP framework that utilizes the Model View Controller project design structure. With this framework, developers can develop scalable apps and even experiment with the Rapid Application Development environment. 

Besides this, the Symfony PHP framework enhances the easy debugging, documenting, and testing of enterprise-grade apps. In addition, the Model View Controller makes it easy to separate the business logic and the presentation layer. 

Through this, you can maintain the application's performance even when making business logic changes. Moreover, you can use Symfony with frontend technologies, such as React or Angular Js. 

Market Usage Stats

Use Cases

Applications Using Symfony Framework

Key Similarities and Differences

When it comes to making choices, it is important to compare them with as much detail as possible. Leaving no stone left unturned, we deep-dive into Laravel and Symfony to find the differences that make them unique, as well as look at the similarities. This way, we equip you with the information to make an informed choice. 

Similarities

Let’s talk about similarities. Laravel and Symfony both provide a cross-platform PHP framework with a deluge of templates to make your app-making process smooth and easy to do. They make your workflow easy so that you do not have to start from scratch. It is no wonder PHP frameworks are popular among developers. It’s also fairly obvious that the two use PHP as the primary programming language. You should note that Laravel is based on components that use Symfony. Both Laravel and Symfony are open-source PHP frameworks, so that means they are cost-effective for you and your organization.

It is also important to note that both the frameworks support multi-user content that is also supported in multiple languages. Through the framework, it is possible to get a skeleton of an application that you can build on. You can also find patterns for various interfaces and create applications that support text search. Both work on the MVC architecture, which is extremely handy for developers that are working on building scalable web applications. 

Differences

One of the key differences that Laravel and Symfony have is the level of complexity. Laravel helps make coding shorter and makes the framework simple. Symfony, on the other hand, can be modified in C# and Java language as well, despite primarily being a PHP-based framework. It is also important to note that Symfony can handle designing large-scale and more complex projects. These projects could demand bigger features and the need to support a large number of clients at a time. Simultaneously, another important thing to note is that Symfony provides multiple platforms for scalability, but Laravel requires you to be able to write code to handle scalability. 

Here are more specific differences to consider:

Head to Head: Laravel vs. Symfony

With the similarities out of the way and general differences set aside, we have also pitted the two frameworks against each other with a head-to-head comparison. As a reminder, here’s what will be compared:

Laravel Advantages

Laravel has many advantages that may delight you:

Symfony Advantages

Conclusion

In our next blog, we'll go over 

Finally, we'll conclude this two-part series with which framework might be right for your particular use case! If you have a PHP application, consider utilizing Scout APM to monitor your performance. Start your 14-day free trial today!