Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Copier VS API Platform

Compare Copier VS API Platform and see what are their differences

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Copier logo Copier

Copier is a CLI app and a library for rendering project templates.

API Platform logo API Platform

REST and GraphQL framework to build modern API-driven projects
  • Copier Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-24
  • API Platform Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-15

Copier features and specs

  • Template Flexibility
    Copier allows for advanced templating capabilities, supporting Jinja2 templates that provide a flexible and powerful way to manage files and directories during project creation.
  • Ease of Use
    The command-line tool is straightforward to use, making it simple for new users to generate projects from templates without a steep learning curve.
  • Version Control
    Copier supports project updates based on template changes, allowing projects to be synchronized with new template versions without losing custom project modifications.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Copier provides comprehensive documentation, which helps users understand how to utilize its features effectively for various use cases.
  • Interactive Prompting
    The tool provides interactive prompts for user input, making it easier to gather necessary configuration data during project initialization.

Possible disadvantages of Copier

  • Complexity of Advanced Features
    While Copier offers many advanced features, leveraging them effectively may require a deep understanding of both the tool and Jinja2 templating.
  • Dependency on Python
    As Copier is a Python-based tool, it requires a Python environment to be set up, which might be a dependency concern for users not familiar with Python.
  • Limited Community Support
    Although the project is open-source, it doesn't have the same level of community support or number of contributors as larger projects, which could affect issue resolution and community-driven enhancements.
  • Initial Setup Time
    Setting up a custom template for the first time can take a considerable amount of time and effort, particularly when defining complex project structures.
  • Potential for Overhead
    For simpler projects, the overhead of learning and using a templating system like Copier might be unnecessary compared to more lightweight solutions.

API Platform features and specs

  • Rich Feature Set
    API Platform offers a comprehensive set of tools and features for building APIs, including schema generation, documentation, testing, and more, which can accelerate the development process.
  • GraphQL Support
    It provides built-in support for GraphQL, allowing developers to create flexible and efficient queries, which can improve client performance and reduce over-fetching of data.
  • Automatic CRUD Operations
    API Platform simplifies backend development by automatically generating CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations from the model schema, reducing boilerplate code.
  • Integration with Symfony
    Built on top of Symfony, API Platform leverages Symfony's robustness, community support, and vast amount of plugins and bundles, which can enhance the API’s flexibility and extensibility.
  • API-First Design
    It supports designing APIs first with a specification-based approach, encouraging developers to define data models and interfaces before implementation, leading to clearer and more maintainable code.

Possible disadvantages of API Platform

  • Complexity for Simple APIs
    For simple or small-scale APIs, API Platform's extensive features can introduce unnecessary complexity, making it less suitable for straightforward projects where a simpler solution would suffice.
  • Learning Curve
    The comprehensive feature set can lead to a steeper learning curve for newcomers, especially those unfamiliar with Symfony or the API Platform’s methodologies.
  • Symfony Dependency
    Since API Platform is deeply integrated with Symfony, it might not be the ideal choice for projects using different frameworks, as it would require adopting Symfony’s ecosystem.
  • Limited Community Compared to Larger Frameworks
    While it has a supportive community, API Platform is more niche compared to larger frameworks like Express or Django, which might result in fewer community resources or third-party tutorials.
  • Overhead on Performance
    The abstraction and features provided by API Platform may introduce some overhead, potentially impacting performance compared to more lightweight solutions optimized for specific use cases.

Copier videos

HP Officejet 3830 Review - Wireless All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax

More videos:

  • Review - HP ENVY 4500 Printer Review | E-All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier, Photo Printer
  • Review - Kou Lee FREE Trade Copier Review 🚨POTENTIAL SCAM WARNING🚨

API Platform videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Copier and API Platform)
JS Build Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100
Web Application Bundler
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, API Platform seems to be a lot more popular than Copier. While we know about 39 links to API Platform, we've tracked only 1 mention of Copier. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Copier mentions (1)

  • What is a tool your company built that saved a ton of time for all developers?
    We're using git repositories for the templates and using commits to enable updates (i.e essentially rebasing) similar to how Copier and Hygen do it. Any conflicts where the team has modified templated files can be resolved using git diff/merge. Source: over 3 years ago

API Platform mentions (39)

  • Symfony 7 vs. .NET Core 8 - Controllers
    Another difference is that in .NET Core, we can integrate with OpenAPI out of the box (it is part of the framework), while in Symfony, an API-based application with OpenAPI features is only available using a third-party tool—the API Platform. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Consistent validation with API Platform 3
    API Platform is a great tool for rapid API development, but it has a lot of not-so-well-documented features which can sometimes lead to confusion. Playing around with a new project of mine I've stumbled into one: tests were failing for my validation assertions of endpoints' responses! - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Lucky like a 7 — Seven SymfonyCasts Courses to Master Symfony 7
    Technically API Platform is not part of Symfony. Although, they are both French. 😉. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Shot in the dark
    Probably API-platform. The website is down at the moment, but: https://github.com/api-platform/api-platform It's Symfony based (and plays nice in that ecosystem), also allows you to describe entities via Schema org vocab, has a client generator, and comes with docker-compose and helm charts. I've used it extensively to build various headless services. It's really easy to expose annotated Doctrine entities. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • API Platform up and running in 5 minutes 🚀
    API Platform is a framework for API-first projects, built on top of Symfony components. Let's see how to create a minimal and lightweight starter project in just 5 minutes! - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Copier and API Platform, you can also consider the following products

Cookiecutter - A command-line utility that creates projects from cookiecutters (project templates), e.g.

Adonis JS - AdonisJs is a Node.js web framework with breath of fresh air and drizzle of elegant syntax on top of it

Yeoman - To do so, we provide a generator ecosystem. A generator is basically a plugin that can be run with the `yo` command to scaffold complete projects or useful parts. Through our official Generators, we promote the "Yeoman workflow".

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Mockuper - Instant Mockup Generator

Play Framework - An open source web framework which follows the model-view-controller architecture. It is light-weight, web-friendly, and stateless. It provides minimal overhead for highly-scalable applications.