CakePHP vs Symfony

Developers utilize different tools and techniques for building applications efficiently and frameworks are one of those tools. Frameworks provides necessary components and libraries along with security features to avoid writing code from scratch and this saves lot of time. Frameworks also contains basic testing tools so that developers can test the functionalities of applications for correct output. There a number of frameworks in market so lets compare two commonly used frameworks CakePHP and Symfony for finding the right one.

What is CakePHP?

CakePHP can be understood as a rapid development framework of PHP which is used for building and maintenance of web applications. It utilizes MVC concepts to implement object oriented paradigm with less code. It was developed by Cake Software Foundation in 2005 to support different operating systems.

Advantages of CakePHP

• It supports integrated CRUD which makes database interaction simpler and faster.
• It allows scaffolding which automatically write codes for database tables to classes and saves time.
• It is compatible with the latest versions of PHP like version 4 and 5.
• It comes with data sanitization capabilities which enhances security.

Disadvantages of CakePHP

• Latest framework does not support older versions of PHP.
• Lack of comprehensive documentation makes it less popular.

What is Symfony?

Symfony is an MIT licensed web framework of PHP used to build modern applications at a fast pace using PHP libraries. It is an open source framework developed by Symfony community using MVC architecture. It is available for free so it has a large user base. Good documentation and community support makes it the first choice for beginners.

Advantages of Symfony

• It provides large number of design features.
• It allows plugin creating functionality so to add custom features.
• It supports interoperability.
• It has fabulous caching management which increases performance while interacting with databases.

Disadvantages of Symfony

• It is hard to handle file parsing.
• It is efficient for large web applications mainly and not so good for smaller ones.

Below is a table of differentiation between CakePHP and Symfony:

Category	CakePHP	Symfony
Definition	CakePHP is an HMVC based free framework that is used in making PHP written web applications.	Symfony is a PHP framework that is used in making complex applications and projects.
Source Code	Its source code is available at https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp	Its source code is available at https://github.com/symfony/symfony
Maintenance Cost	It has low maintenance cost.	The cost of maintenance is high as compared to CakePHP.
Community Support	It has good community support.	It has a community of experienced developers which provides better support.
Developer(s)	It was developed by Cake Software Foundation, Incorporation.	It was developed by Symfony community.
Version Control	It does not have a proper version control system.	A proper version control system is available and migration can be done easily.
Data Backup	Data backup is not considered as one of the priority features so options are limited.	It provides good data backup options.
Scalability	It is comparatively less scalable.	Symfony is really flexible in terms of scaling and it can be easily scaled.

Conclusion/Summary

On comparing CakePHP features with Symfony features, it is clear that Symfony is one of the best framework for designing large and complex web applications but when it comes to small applications or personal projects, CakePHP serves the purpose easily so any of the framework can be used by the developer depending on the customer requirement.