Are you stuck on making a final choice between Laravel and Magento for your e-commerce business?
Worry not! This guide will help you clear your mind on which framework to choose for your e-commerce business website.
Introduction
Every e-commerce business has different requirements. Thus, it requires a distinct framework to build a website that satisfies all its demands at once. Given the umpteen features of both frameworks, it becomes hard to choose from the two.
Let’s check out a detailed comparison between both frameworks. You can later decide which technology you should prefer for your e-commerce business.
Market record
Magento was released way before Laravel. It makes Magento gives an edge over Laravel. Since the beginning, Magento has been the first choice of e-commerce developers whose development package has been downloaded more than 25 million times.
#Fact: Over 100,000 e-commerce websites are built using this full-fledged e-commerce development platform.
Laravel is a new framework that was released in 2011 and was re-written in 2013. It is comparatively a new framework with advanced development. As one of the most famous PHP frameworks around, it is a universally accepted e-commerce development framework that is widely recognized by the market for its extensive features.
Code complexity
Since Magento was released decades ago, it couldn’t beat the code complexity even after undergoing several iterations. With a lot of convenient and beneficial features to build a rock-solid e-commerce platform, the code written in the Magento framework often gets sluggish, which further makes it difficult to read, debug and troubleshoot.
In the case of Laravel, the MVC architecture and the code structure has come as a blessing in disguise for the developers. The developers can easily write and understand the code. Even if it is not written by them, they can fix issues in the code without any hassle.
#Fact: Laravel utilizes PHP-based syntax with ORM-based coding, which simplifies the database administration.
The simplicity and the maintenance of code make it the most preferred platform in the industry.
Community support
Community support is massive in Magento as it is one of the oldest PHP development platforms. It has been widely accepted between enterprises and programmers as a reliable framework. Since many forums and communities are also related to the Magento platform, resolving queries during the development phase is not much of a challenge.
Laravel is a comparatively newer framework and thus has a lesser number of contributors. It has a definite number of supporters and resolving queries while developing an e-commerce platform can be a daunting task.
Developer’s availability
Qualified developers are readily available while choosing to work with Magento. Since this framework has been around for years, well-experienced and qualified developers are greater in number in the market.
As a comparatively new PHP framework, Laravel has a dearth of well-experienced developers in the market. So, while opting for Laravel web development, you might face a hard time finding the right developers. Although, the number is still increasing, given the popularity of the framework in the industry.
Development cost
Magento developed years ago and has been advancing over the years. Given the code complexity, it includes, the developers often charge a fortune to build an e-commerce platform.
On the contrary, Laravel turns out to be a pocket-friendly choice in the long run. Be it the customization cost or the installation of necessary plugins, hiring Laravel developers with extensive experience in e-commerce MVP development comes as a cost-effective choice.
Security
Magento has become robust in terms of security over the years given the security breach hit it has dealt with in the past. Its core updates released independent security patches that deliver 360° security to your e-commerce platform.
Laravel also guarantees full security to its customer’s e-commerce platforms. With the use of the bcrypt hash algorithm, it offers resistance to any security threat.
Integrations and extensions
Magento is unbeatable in terms of integrations and extensions. Its marketplace is so massive that it offers nearly 3800 extensions and integrations that are developed by the partners of Magento.
Laravel has a limited number of extensions as compared to Magento. Many extensions from third parties are available, along with various products and integrations. Some of the outstanding integrations of products worth using in this framework are:
- Debug assistant: Telescope
- Subscription billing integration: Cashier
- Real-time events: Echo
- Administration panel: Nova
- Serverless platform: Vapor
- Micro framework: Lumen
- Queue monitoring: Horizon
Ease of usage
In Magento, the tiresome task of troubleshooting and debugging follows the developer. It not only kills productivity while working but also tests one patience in building the online platform. It is one of the shortcomings that one would face while working with this framework.
On the other hand, Laravel’s basic structure is easy to decipher. One faces no such problems while working with Laravel, given its high-end features.
Pricing
Magento offers three different pricing plans to its users getting to the different needs they have for their online business. Magento community edition is ideal for businesses that are small to medium-sized. You can leverage the most basic functions to set up your online platform with this price plan that is available both for mobile as well as website.
If you wish to further customize your online shop, Magento enterprise edition, as well as Magento commerce cloud, are the best possible choices for you. The pricing plan will fit well based on the revenue of your store you would earn with great tools in this edition.
Laravel offers its first plan Laravel lite which starts at $499. It is an ideal plan for anyone who is looking forward to integrating exceptional functions into their web stores, such as payment gateways, product filters, and others. You can also enjoy free technical support for three months with this pricing plan.
Another plan up the ladder is Laravel smart price plan. In this plan, all the features of Laravel lite are included, along with additional payment gateways, custom design, iOS mobile applications, a front-end store available, and an independent admin panel. If you wish to avail of this plan for your web store, you can start by simply getting in touch with the vendor, who will customize the plan for your specific needs.
If you are comfortable with any budget, Laravel e-commerce is a one-time purchase plan with which you can end the hustle of monthly recurring payments. You can seamlessly develop your webshop with abundant features available.
What’s your say?
Now that we have explored all the influential factors of both platforms, you can decide on a framework for your e-commerce platform development.
On one side, you have a decade-old platform that has a strong reputation and is widely accepted in the market which is Magento. On the other side, you have Laravel which is not only simple and fast but is evolving at a rapid pace in the marketplace.
Even though both have unbeatable advantages, they do include downside too. But is it going to affect your business? Give it a thought and then conclude any decision.
Before rushing to make a decision, do understand that building a custom e-commerce website would require an efficient workforce that can help you accomplish any of your business requirements.
When in confusion, you can always get in touch with our experienced consultants to get expert advice. The right talent will help you understand what exactly your business needs.
We hope you build a high-performance and outstanding e-commerce platform for your business.
Author – Rajesh Bhimani is the Founder of Skynet Technologies, a web development agency. He has 20 years of experience in the Technology and Marketing industry. When he isn’t working, you can find him cooking for his family or reading some fiction.