Laravel v/s WordPress - Which One You Should Choose For Your Next Project?

If you are the owner of a web development company and one tech-savvy client comes to you to develop a website or web app for his online business, he might ask you whether you will develop it using WordPress or Laravel. Agree?

Nowadays, Laravel and WordPress both are competitive platforms; having their own advantages and disadvantages depending on various factors such as:

• Which kind of website or web application your client wants?
• For whom are you developing?
• What is the budget of your client?
• Which level of complexity involves in a particular project?

So, it becomes crucial to identify the difference between these platforms and explain the same to your client. 

However, if you are a fresher and don’t know how to differentiate and choose the best one for your client, we must say you landed in the right place. This article will be your complete guide. But if you are already an experienced player in the field of website development, you must add certain new things in your knowledge diary, for sure!

So, let’s get started…

Before diving into the difference between WordPress and Laravel, let’s know the basics of both platforms.

The Basics:

WordPress:

WordPress is a PHP and MySQL-based free and open-source content management system (CMS) created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little on May 27, 2003. WordPress provides plug and play-based architecture with ‘N’ number of already designed & developed themes (templates) and plugins that you can use and/or customize as per your requirements.

According to the statistics by Kinsta, 40% of websites on the internet have been developed on the WordPress platform. You must be surprised knowing that many of the notable brands such as Sony Music, Time Magazine, CNN Press Room, Disney Books, Spotify Newsroom, and a lot more have used WordPress as their content management system.

Laravel:

Laravel is a PHP-based free and open-source framework founded by Taylor Otwell, who released its beta version on June 9, 2011. Laravel is an MVC-based PHP framework; most preferred for fully customized and complex web application development.

It was created to take the most complex custom tasks, including data authentication, verification, payment gateway integration, etc., to the easy level of development. This is why Laravel has achieved great success in the developers’ community within a very short period from its launch date.

WordPress v/s Laravel: Which One For Next Project?

WordPress is a PHP-based CMS (Content Management System), while Laravel is a PHP-based framework.

WordPress is most suitable for developing content-based websites or blogs, while Laravel is most preferred for developing data-based complex websites or web apps.

WordPress provides plug and play-based structure while Laravel lets you build fully customized websites or web apps from scratch.

WordPress is more suitable for small and short-term projects, while Laravel is used for high-level and long-term projects.

WordPress is commonly used for building a blog and small/medium scale e-commerce websites; however, if you want to build a big e-commerce website that will attract vast traffic in the future, Laravel is the best option to choose!

WordPress lets you customize already developed themes and plugins, or you can fully develop them from scratch as per your requirements. However, it becomes easy to choose Laravel technology in case of vast customization as it becomes cost-savvy compared to WordPress.

If your client is not tech-savvy, WordPress could be the best choice compared to Laravel as WordPress is a client-friendly system, while Laravel is a developer-friendly framework.

Concluding Thoughts…

Considering all the facts about WordPress and Laravel, we can say that:

WordPress could be a handy platform if:

• You want to build content-based websites or blogs.
• You want to develop small/medium scale e-commerce websites.
• You have less time to develop a website.
• Your client is not much more aware of the technology.
• The budget of your client is low

Laravel would be your go-to framework if:

• During the development phase, there is a chance of arising complexity from data authentication, validation, online payment gateway integration, etc.
• You want to develop an e-commerce website having a good amount of traffic in the future.
• You have sufficient time to develop any website or web app.
• The budget of your client is sufficient

Thus, the above are the basic parameters that you can use to decide which platform will be better for your next project. However, it will depend upon the client’s requirements and the complexity level involved in a particular project.

Suppose you receive any requirement which seems complex and hard to customize in pre-built WordPress themes/plugins. In that case, we as a Laravel Development Company must suggest opting for the Laravel framework rather than WordPress CMS.