CakePHP vs Phalcon

People are more eager to use new technologies and this brings in the need for faster development, so writing each line of code from scratch is not an efficient way. Hence frameworks were launched so to cater to the demand of people. Frameworks are efficient tools that help in fast development without compromising quality and security features. CakePHP and Phalcon are PHP frameworks that are very popular so we will use the two for a detailed comparison.

What is CakePHP? 

CakePHP is an open-source PHP web framework. It is software that has an MIT license. The development credit for this software goes to Cake Software Foundation, Inc. It uses HMVC (Hierarchical Model View Controller) architecture. Initially, it was released in 2005 and the stable release was in 2022. This software is written using PHP language. It is a cross-platform software. It is available in multiple languages.

Advantages of CakePHP

• Auto configuration manager helps in doing all the settings so developers do not need to do that manually.
• It provides good compatibility with old PHP versions along with the latest ones.
• It has testing functionalities so to ease the developers in testing applications and hence saving time.
• Databases like SQL Lite, PostgreSQL, MYSQL, etc. are supported by CakePHP.

Disadvantages of CakePHP

• Learning CakePHP is a difficult task due to fewer resources and confusing documentation.
• It lacks multi-way routing functionality.

What is Phalcon?

Phalcon is a PHP framework developed by Andres Gutierrez using C and PHP programming languages. It utilizes an MVC pattern for fast working. It was first released in 2010 with a BSD license and its latest version was launched in 2022. It has ORM technology for interacting with databases resulting in better performance than other PHP frameworks.

Advantages of Phalcon

• Using loosely coupled architecture helps in better integration and maintaining a simple coding structure.
• It can handle around 1400 requests per second which are very high compared to other frameworks.
• It utilizes memory efficiently as fewer files are required for making requests.
• The logic layer and presentation layers are separated which enhances security.

Disadvantages of Phalcon

• It has a small community as compared to Symfony or Laravel.
• It lacks compiled plugins due to which custom features are difficult to implement.
• It has low popularity due to poor marketing.

Below is a table of differentiation between CakePHP and Phalcon:

Categories	CakePHP	Phalcon
Definition	CakePHP is a web framework for developing PHP-based applications using less code with the help of an object-oriented paradigm.	Phalcon is an open-source PHP web framework that uses an MVC pattern for quick application development using Zephir, PHP, and C.
Official Website	CakePHP can be accessed using the following URL https://cakephp.org/	Phalcon can be accessed using the following URL https://phalcon.io/en-us
Installation	CakePHP installation requires root access to the system.	Phalcon installation can be done without giving root access.
Routing	Routing can be implemented with fewer lines of code.	Lots of code is required to implement routing.
Exception Handling	It implements exception handling in a better way.	Exception handling is implemented normally, with no advanced features.
PSR Compatibility	Initial versions of CakePHP do not support PSR but the latest version is compatible with PSR.	It is compatible with PSR.
Popularity	It is one of the top 5 most used PHP web frameworks worldwide.	It is highly popular but not compared to CakePHP.
Launch	CakePHP was first launched in April 2005.	Phalcon launched its first version on 14 November 2012.

Conclusion/Summary

We have seen different advantages and disadvantages of both frameworks so on comparing their features in detail we can say that both frameworks are good and the choice depends on the user’s requirements like high security, performance, resource consumption, etc.