WordPress vs Laravel – Which One to Choose and Why?

Introduction

When trying to grow and prosper the business, developing a bespoke website can go a long way. It can help you create awareness about your business and sell your products and services more efficiently. 

Now, to create a website, you have the option of choosing among the several content management systems. But which one should you choose? WordPress, arguably the biggest, most popular CMS powering more than 43% of all websites on the internet, or Laravel, is an excellent platform for creating unique websites and web applications. As a PHP developer, you might have to choose between making a custom WordPress site or using Laravel to make something less common.

Even though you may think WordPress is more popular, so it would be a better choice, selecting between the two can be a bit tricky. But it’s imperative you compare the two before choosing the best one, between WordPress and Laravel for your website. 

So in this article, we’ll compare WordPress vs Laravel, and conclude the final outcome, which is better. 

What is WordPress?

Launched in May 2003, WordPress is a content management system created by the WordPress Foundation using the PHP platform. It supports both Windows and Unix-like (macOS) operating systems. One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is that it offers many features to create attractive, custom, and high-performance websites for business owners. WordPress can also be useful for blogging. 

With WordPress, you can easily manage, edit or update the content on your website. Then, there are several themes and plugins available in the WordPress repository to help increase your website’s functionality and improve its appearance. Hiring a WordPress development company can help you create the best website through free and premium themes and plugins. 

What is Laravel?

Released in June 2011, Laravel is an open-source platform used to create web applications using its wide array of syntaxes. It offers a robust architecture and includes an extensive collection of tools to ease the development process. The latest version of Laravel includes new features like localization, views, routing, authentication, models, and sessions, along with the Blade template engine and inversion of control. Then there are updated features like integrated database management system support, packaging mechanism known as bundles, command line interface called artisan, and support for managing events.

Laravel development companies can help you create websites and web applications with excellent speed, performance, and security. 

Now that you know what Laravel and WordPress are, let’s first see the similarities between the two. 

Comparison Table of WordPress vs Laravel

WordPress is a good choice for building simple and straightforward websites, while Laravel is best-suitable for building complex and custom web applications. Let’s have a look at a quick comparison between WordPress vs Laravel.

Similarities Between WordPress and Laravel

WordPress and Laravel are both popular tools used for building and managing websites, and they share some similarities in terms of their features and capabilities. Some of the main similarities between WordPress and Laravel include:

• Create flexible websites efficiently.
• They are both based on the Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) scripting language.
• Both feature online support systems.
• Both are based on the PHP scripting language.
• Both are free and open-source. 
• Both have object-oriented structures. 

Although Laravel and WordPress are similar in several aspects, they are still quite further apart on various fronts. So don’t make your choice before checking out the differences between the two. 

WordPress vs Laravel

Usage Statistics

WordPress

More than 43% or 835 million websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. Moreover, of all the websites that use content management systems, WordPress is used by over 63% of websites, making it the most popular CMS. In fact, WordPress usage has increased by roughly 12% every year for the past ten years or so. More than 1.1 million new domains are registered on WordPress every 6 months.

Laravel

Although more than 1.6 million websites have used Laravel, there are currently around 752K live websites using Laravel. Laravel has a total of 96,243 unique domains. USA uses Laravel the most across the globe around 14,299 websites are made with its help of it.

Our Opinion on Usage Statistics

Looking at the statistics, it’s clear that WordPress is the winner. 

The other differences between Laravel and WordPress include the following:

• Unlike Laravel, you don’t need any prior programming skills or training to develop a website through WordPress. 
• WordPress is more user-friendly as compared to Laravel. 
• The plugins in WordPress can help the web pages load faster, while Laravel has an automated framework that improves the load speed of the websites. 

So if you are trying to decide between WordPress and Laravel for your website development, go through these differences and choose carefully. Now, we’ll see the best uses of WordPress and Laravel.

Speed

WordPress

As you already know, WordPress is a content management system that is widely used for building websites of all sizes and types. The complex codebase makes WordPress a little heavier and slower. WordPress is a little bit slower in comparison to Laravel, it can be optimized for speed and performance through the use of plugins, caching, and other performance-enhancing techniques.

Laravel

Laravel is known for being a highly performant and scalable framework, thanks to its optimized codebase and advanced caching mechanisms. This makes it well-suited for large and complex web applications that require fast response times and the ability to handle a high volume of traffic. It even has built-in caching that can improve your website performance. 

Our Opinion on Speed

Laravel may be faster by default, but plugins like Jetpack and WP Rocket can increase the speed and performance of your WordPress website. In short, both Laravel and WordPress can be fast, but the specific speed and performance of a website built with either platform will depend on how it is configured and deployed.

Security

WordPress

WordPress is generally considered to be a secure platform, with regular updates and security patches to address any potential vulnerabilities. However, WordPress can be vulnerable to security threats if it is not properly configured or maintained. For example, using outdated plugins or themes, or failing to regularly update the WordPress core, can leave your site open to security risks.

Laravel

Laravel is also a secure platform, with a focus on providing robust tools and features for protecting web applications. Laravel includes built-in support for preventing common security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). Additionally, Laravel makes it easy to implement secure authentication and authorization mechanisms, which can help protect your site from unauthorized access.

Our Opinion on Security

Overall, both WordPress and Laravel can be secure platforms if they are properly configured and maintained. However, WordPress may be more vulnerable to security threats if it is not updated regularly, while Laravel has built-in features and tools that can help prevent common security vulnerabilities. By default, Laravel takes an edge over WordPress. Even so, plugins like Wordfence and Sucuri can help make your WordPress website incredibly secure. 

CMS

WordPress

One of the main differences between WordPress and Laravel is their level of complexity and the technical expertise required to use them. WordPress is known for being user-friendly and easy to use, even for people with no programming experience. It has a large selection of plugins and themes that can be easily installed and customized to create a wide range of websites and online stores without knowledge of programming.

Laravel

Laravel is a more powerful and flexible platform that offers a wide range of tools and features for building complex web applications. It is a good choice for businesses that need a custom-made, feature-rich website or web application with advanced functionalities. However, Laravel can be more difficult to learn and use than WordPress, and it may require more time and technical expertise to set up and manage a website or web application with Laravel.

Our Opinion on CMS

Overall, the choice between WordPress and Laravel as CMS will depend on the specific needs and goals of your project. If you want a simple and easy-to-use platform for creating a website or blog, WordPress may be the better option. But if you need a more powerful and customizable platform for building a complex web application, Laravel could be the better choice.

Search Engine Optimization

WordPress

WordPress is known for being user-friendly and having a large selection of plugins and tools for improving SEO. There are many WordPress plugins that can help you optimize your site for search engines, such as Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and Rank Math. These plugins can provide features such as keyword optimization, meta tags, sitemaps, and more.

Laravel 

Laravel, on the other hand, does not have as many built-in tools for SEO as WordPress does. However, Laravel is a powerful and flexible platform that allows developers to create custom solutions for improving a site’s SEO. This means that with the right technical expertise, it is possible to build an SEO-friendly website with Laravel. However, this may require more time and effort compared to WordPress. 

Our Opinion on Search Engine Optimization

If you want an easy-to-use platform with a wide range of SEO tools and plugins, WordPress is the better option compared to Laravel.

eCommerce

WordPress

WordPress is generally easier to use and has a large selection of eCommerce plugins, making it a good option for small- to medium-sized businesses that want to quickly set up an online store. Furthermore, its user-friendly simplifies the development process. Plus, when you add plugins like WooCommerce, one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, you can create the best online store on the internet. However, WordPress can be less flexible and scalable than Laravel, which makes it less suitable for larger, more complex eCommerce projects.

Laravel

Laravel is a more powerful and versatile platform that offers a wide range of tools and features for building eCommerce applications. It is a good choice for businesses that need a custom-made, feature-rich online store with advanced functionalities. However, Laravel can be more difficult to learn and require more time and technical expertise to set up and manage an eCommerce site.

Our Opinion on eCommerce

Overall, the choice between WordPress and Laravel for eCommerce will depend on the specific needs and goals of your business. If you want a simple and easy-to-use solution for setting up an online store, WordPress may be the better option. But if you need a more powerful and customizable platform for building an eCommerce site, Laravel could be the better choice.

Plugins & Extensions

WordPress

Both Laravel and WordPress use plugins and extensions to improve the website’s features and functionality, along with its appearance. WordPress plugins are essentially pieces of software that you can install on your WordPress website to add new features and functionality. For example, there are WordPress plugins for creating contact forms, adding a shopping cart to an online store, and optimizing images for the web.

Laravel 

Although Laravel has an extensive library of themes and templates, it doesn’t include as many extensions as WordPress. Instead, Laravel uses packages, which are essentially collections of code that you can include in your Laravel application to add new features and functionality. For example, there are Laravel packages for working with dates and times, interacting with databases, and generating PDF documents.

Our Opinion on Plugins & Extensions

In the WordPress plugin library, you can find a plugin or theme to improve your website in almost every way. So WordPress takes the cake in the case of plugins and extensions. 

Pros and Cons of WordPress and Laravel

Pros of WordPress

• User-Friendliness: WordPress is easy to use and has a user-friendly interface, which makes it a good option for people who are not familiar with website design and development.
• Plugin Library: WordPress has an extensive repository containing more than 60,000 plugins and 30,000 themes to improve almost every aspect of the website. 
• Excellent eCommerce Website Development: WooCommerce is one of the best plugins in the WordPress library, and it can help create excellent eCommerce websites to evolve any business quite effectively. 
• Social Media Integration: WordPress lets you integrate social media into your website quite easily, and it can help increase the web traffic on your site and improve sales and revenue.
• Flexibility: WordPress is highly customizable, which means that users can easily modify their websites to meet their specific needs and requirements.
• Large Community: WordPress has a large and active community of users, which means that there is a wealth of online resources, tutorials, and support available to help users get started and troubleshoot any issues they may encounter.
• Multilingual Support: WordPress allows users to easily create multilingual websites, which can be useful for businesses and organizations that want to reach a global audience.

Cons of WordPress

• Expensive Customization: If you want extensive customization on your website, you may need premium plugins that can be quite expensive. 
• No Dedicated Support: WordPress is open-source, which means although you can consult with millions of contributors through forums, the lack of dedicated support means you won’t have immediate help from the internal team in case of bugs and errors.
• Limited Control: Because WordPress is a hosted platform, users do not have complete control over their websites. This means that users may be limited in their ability to customize their websites and may not be able to access certain features and functions.
• Performance Issues: WordPress websites can sometimes be slow and resource-intensive, which can impact the user experience and make it difficult for users to access the site.
• Vulnerability to Hacking: Despite regular updates, WordPress websites are still vulnerable to hacking and other security threats. This means that users may need to take additional steps to protect their websites from these threats.
• Compatibility Issues: WordPress may not be compatible with all plugins and themes, which can limit the functionality of a website.

Though there are some cons to using WordPress for your website, when you look at the big picture, your website will benefit from this CMS. That’s why it is the most popular choice for websites around the world.

Pros of Laravel

• Scalability: Website and application projects may differ in size based on the business they are for. So your platform must be able to scale up. Fortunately, you can use and scale up Laravel to develop projects according to the client’s requirements. 
• Data Migration: Laravel ensures an easy data migration, cutting down the project development time quite significantly.
• Easy-To-Code: Coding is an essential part of the web development process. Fortunately, thanks to the extensive collection of pre-designed and programmed functionalities, the coding process is quite easy in Laravel. 
• Secure: Laravel includes a number of security features, such as encryption and authentication, which can help protect web applications from hacking and other security threats.
• Easy-To-Learn: Laravel is based on PHP language, and there is ample documentation to ensure an easy learning curve for an inexperienced developer.
• Flexible: Laravel offers a wide range of features and tools that allow developers to easily build and customize web applications to meet their specific needs and requirements.
• Scalable: Laravel is built to be scalable, which means that it can handle the increased traffic and data processing demands of growing web applications.
• Large Community: Laravel has a large and active community of users and developers, which means that there is a wealth of online resources, tutorials, and support available to help developers get started and troubleshoot any issues they may encounter.
• Robust Ecosystem: Laravel is part of a larger ecosystem of tools and frameworks that can be used together to build and maintain web applications, which can save developers time and effort.

Cons of Laravel

• Steep Learning Curve: Because Laravel is a complex framework with a lot of features, it can be challenging for beginners to learn. New developers may need to invest a significant amount of time and effort to get up to speed with Laravel.
• Slow: Laravel applications can be slower than some other frameworks, especially when dealing with large amounts of data. This can be a problem for websites and applications that need to be highly responsive and handle a lot of traffic.
• Security Vulnerabilities: Like any software, Laravel is not immune to security vulnerabilities. Developers using Laravel need to be vigilant about keeping their applications up-to-date and secure to protect against potential exploits.
• Proper Hosting Environment: Laravel is a resource-intensive framework, so it requires a good hosting environment to run smoothly. This can be more expensive than hosting a simpler website or application.

There are pros and cons to both WordPress and Laravel. But you can’t really make a suitable choice just based on them. That’s why we have also listed the usage statistics, use cases, and a comprehensive comparison between the two platforms. 

Where to Use WordPress & Laravel?

WordPress and Laravel are both excellent for designing and developing websites. Both have their pros and cons. But your choice should primarily depend on your requirements and expectations from the website. 

So let’s see the most common uses of WordPress:

• Online portfolio to be integrated with social networking platforms.
• News portals, blogs, and heavy content platforms. 
• SEO-focused websites.
• Personal or professional presentational website. 
• A simple online store or a mid-sized eCommerce website. 

Now, here are the common uses of Laravel:

• Dynamic websites with flexible back-end systems.
• Large-scale online store websites with more than 10,000 product listings. 
• Complicated web application.
• Platforms with membership plans need high information processing.

In general, WordPress is a good choice for users who want an easy-to-use and user-friendly platform for creating and managing a website, while Laravel is a good option for developers who want to build custom web applications that require more advanced features and functionality. Both WordPress and Laravel can be used together to create powerful and flexible websites that combine the content management capabilities of WordPress with the custom development capabilities of Laravel.

Is it Possible to Combine WordPress and Laravel?

Simply put, yes, you can use WordPress in conjunction with Laravel. You can easily split your developmental process by using the WordPress administration panel for the back end and Laravel for the front end. 

You can go about this hybrid combination through Corcel, a collection of PHP classes. An open-sourced collection can be created alongside the Laravel Eloquent method to help the developers get the data directly from the WordPress database. 

If you are someone who uses Laravel but wants to use WordPress for more tricky projects, the WordPress-Laravel hybrid would be the day to go. 

Conclusion

WordPress is a content management system, and Laravel is a web framework. Both are quite distinct from each other and have their own pros and cons. WordPress is arguably the most popular content management platform and is used for creating more straightforward informative and eCommerce websites, while Laravel opts for sophisticated web applications. 

Although Laravel is quite fast with a simpler structure and less code, WordPress can help create even faster websites through various plugins.

If you are looking to create complicated websites with excellent speed and performance, WordPress is a great CMS. You can either create your website through premade themes and extensions, or you can hire WordPress developers from a reputed WordPress development company. Check out our other blogs on WordPress vs Drupal, Node.Js vs PHP, and Laravel vs Symfony.