Laravel vs. Symfony: Which Is Right for Your Web App?

When it comes to choosing a PHP framework, Laravel and Symfony are among the most popular and widely used options. Each framework brings its own philosophy, features, and strengths to the table, making them suited for different projects and use cases. Understanding their differences and similarities is critical to selecting the right framework for your development needs.

In this blog, I compare Laravel vs. Symfony, beginning with an overview of each framework. I then examine the key similarities and differences, and I recommend the best use cases for each to help you decide which is the right option for your web application.

Laravel vs. Symfony: Overview

Before choosing Laravel or Symfony, it is critical to understand what each framework has to offer, and how they differ from one another in terms of functionality. While both will result in reliable web applications, they serve different purposes and require varying developer skill sets.

What Is Laravel?

At its core, Laravel is a MVC (Model – View – Controller) framework that is designed for quick automation allowing for fast development of smaller projects. 

Laravel's ORM is called Eloquent – which provides a useful and flexible query builder, using SQL-like syntax.

First released back in 2011, this open source framework has really hit its stride in the last few years, taking off in popularity. Laravel has developed a reputation as being easy to use and having great performance right out of the box. 

A big factor in Laravel’s explosive growth lies its simplicity, with powerful session management tools and great performance. It is easy to see how it has become the tool of choice for setting up many straightforward applications.

What Is Symfony?

Symfony is an extensive PHP framework based upon a system of modules or components. 

First written in 2005, Symfony has grown and evolved over time, moving beyond being a simple PHP framework. Designed with modularity from the ground up, its components are frequent members of any good sized dependency list. 

Today, Symfony has established itself as a incredibly powerful framework, adaptable for both simple and complex enterprise projects. Also based on the MVC pattern, Symfony is structured to produce a much easier flow of logic with its active record pattern, mapping models to tables on a 1:1 basis. 

Beyond offering robust Form building tools and quite flexible routing, Symfony's focus on modularity lends itself to far more reusable components, a valuable time-saving factor when building multiple or complex platforms.

At-A-Glance Comparison of Laravel vs. Symfony

Laravel vs. Symfony: Key Similarities

Laravel and Symfony share several key similarities, with both frameworks filling the same niche. They are each built on the MVC pattern, run as community-supported open source projects, and provide many of the expected and standard tools for web development. This includes a templating engine, CLI interface, testing tools, localization features, and many more things you would expect from any well-built PHP framework. 

Additionally, I would be remiss to note that an additional similarity between the two frameworks is that they both use Symfony components. Symfony’s modularity has lent its components to being used by many other platforms and projects. 

Laravel vs. Symfony: Key Differences

Despite the many similarities between Laravel and Symfony, and while they can both function in the same general roles, it might be better to look at what distinguishes each of them from the other. This includes examining performance, security, scalability, and other features.

Performance

Performance is a category that has changed over time when choosing between Laravel or Symfony. Older versions of Symfony (v3 and lower) had noticeable performance issues compared to Laravel, but versions 4 and 5 of Symfony have addressed that. Today, the two frameworks are both very similar in performance.

However, each approaches performance from a different direction, which will show when we consider scalability. It is when you get to large-scale projects that some differences are more apparent. Symfony’s focus on modularity lends itself to large-scale projects, where Laravel will require a little more tweaking to produce the same performance at scale.

Scalability

When comparing the scalability of Laravel vs. Symfony, Symfony comes out ahead. Its basic design is geared towards modularity and reuse, which naturally lends itself to scaling. This isn’t to say Laravel cannot scale, simply that Symfony’s design lends itself to large projects more than Laravel's. 

An example of this would be how each framework handles models. In Symfony, each model correlates to a table and the SQL is not involved in the class, lending it towards reuse. Contrast this with Lavavel’s Doctrine, which uses its SQL-like language in its models and would require some refactoring before reuse.

Security

There are several similarities to consider when comparing the security of Laravel vs. Symfony. Both use all the industry standards, and both are good with security. While Laravel's simplicity out of the box can make setting up basic security a bit easier and quicker than Symfony, the latter’s extra features can give greater control. 

As a result, it is hard to say one is strictly better than the other as it depends upon your use case. That being said, both platforms have strong security tools and are not lacking in that department. 

Learning Curve

When choosing Laravel or Symfony, the learning curve for each framework is a major consideration. Laravel's ease of learning is one of the main factors that has propelled Laravel into its position of popularity today. While both frameworks have a lot of well-sourced documentation, Laravel is quite simply easier to set up and get going. Its simplicity lends itself to smaller or straightforward projects more than all the options that Symfony offers.

However, in the hands of experienced users, Symfony will offer a superior list of capabilities, but again, using it effectively requires time and experience. 

Choosing Laravel or Symfony by Use Case

Laravel and Symfony both deliver reliable results for PHP web applications, yet they are still suited to different use cases. Which is best for your team, project, and goals?

• Choose Laravel for projects that require rapid development, fast learning curves, easy setup, and behind-the-scenes automation. It is ideal for lightweight and straightforward applications, making it a popular choice for startups and smaller projects.
• Choose Symfony for larger or complex projects requiring enhanced flexibility and security, particularly in enterprise environments. That being said, Symfony is still an excellent tool for any task.

Final Thoughts

When comparing Laravel vs. Symfony, your choice will ultimately come down to the needs and requirements of your web application. Where Laravel is ideal for projects needing rapid development and simplicity, Symfony thrives in large-scale applications that demand modularity, flexibility, and scalability.

Both frameworks are exceptional tools in their own right, and understanding their strengths and weaknesses will help you select the one that aligns best with your development goals and long-term vision.

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Additional Resources

• On-Demand Webinar - Developing Robust 12-Factor Web Applications
• On-Demand Webinar - Modernizing Legacy Web Apps
• White Paper - The Costs of Building PHP In-House
• Blog - Headless CMS vs. Traditional CMS for PHP Web Apps
• Blog - When to Rewrite vs. Refactor Your Web App