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Javalin VS Laravel

Compare Javalin VS Laravel and see what are their differences

Javalin logo Javalin

Simple REST APIs for Java and Kotlin

Laravel logo Laravel

A PHP Framework For Web Artisans
  • Javalin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-26
  • Laravel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

Javalin features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Javalin is a lightweight framework with minimal dependencies, making it easy to integrate into existing projects and reducing overhead.
  • Simplicity
    The framework is simple to use and has a straightforward API, which makes it easier for developers to understand and work with.
  • Kotlin & Java Support
    Javalin natively supports both Kotlin and Java, making it flexible for projects written in either language.
  • WebSocket Support
    It includes built-in support for WebSockets, enabling real-time communication between the client and server without additional dependencies.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Javalin comes with comprehensive documentation and guides, which help developers get up to speed quickly.

Possible disadvantages of Javalin

  • Limited Features
    As a minimalist framework, Javalin may lack some advanced features present in more comprehensive frameworks, requiring additional implementations from developers.
  • Community Support
    While growing, the community around Javalin is not as large as other established frameworks, which may result in fewer resources or third-party libraries.
  • Performance Overhead
    Though lightweight, Javalin may not offer the same level of performance optimization as frameworks specifically designed for high-performance use cases.
  • Limited Middleware
    Compared to other frameworks, the middleware support in Javalin is more limited, potentially requiring additional code for customization.

Laravel features and specs

  • Eloquent ORM
    Laravel includes Eloquent ORM, which provides a beautiful and simple ActiveRecord implementation for working with your database. It allows for easy interaction with your databases, offering an intuitive syntax.
  • Blade Templating Engine
    The Blade templating engine offers a clean and efficient syntax for writing templates. It provides features like template inheritance and sections, which makes template design more manageable and organized.
  • Artisan CLI
    Laravel's Artisan Command Line Interface (CLI) allows developers to perform repetitive tasks and manage their Laravel project more efficiently with built-in commands for database migration, seeding, and building tasks.
  • Strong Community and Ecosystem
    Laravel has a large and active community that provides an abundance of resources, including packages, tutorials, and screencasts on Laracasts. This ecosystem allows for quick problem-solving and an extensive library of reusable components.
  • Robust Security Features
    Laravel provides built-in security features such as salted and hashed passwords, encryption, and protection against common vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site request forgery (CSRF).
  • Efficient Testing
    Laravel comes with PHPUnit integrated, along with convenient helper methods, making writing test cases and performing automated testing more straightforward. This leads to better code reliability and fewer bugs.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Laravel has thorough and well-organized documentation that covers all its features in detail. This makes it easier for new and experienced developers to understand and use the framework effectively.

Possible disadvantages of Laravel

  • Performance Overhead
    Since Laravel is a full-featured framework, it includes many built-in functions and layers that can create performance overhead. For very high-performance applications, fine-tuning may be necessary.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Beginners
    For those new to web development or coming from a different programming paradigm, Laravel can be challenging to grasp initially due to its extensive features and modern PHP practices.
  • Heavy Dependency on Composer
    Laravel heavily relies on Composer for dependency management. While this is beneficial for package management, it can be a downside if you are not familiar with Composer or have issues managing packages.
  • Frequent Updates
    Laravel receives frequent updates and changes in the new versions, which can sometimes lead to compatibility issues with existing projects. Keeping up with the updates can be time-consuming.
  • Hosting Requirements
    Laravel requires specific server configurations and dependencies, which may not be available on all shared hosting services. This can necessitate using a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated server, which might have higher costs.

Analysis of Laravel

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Laravel is considered a good framework for web development.

Why this product is good

  • Features
    Laravel includes a wide variety of built-in features such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching, which accelerate the development process.
  • Community
    It has a large and active community which contributes to a rich ecosystem of packages and resources.
  • Ease of use
    Laravel emphasizes simplicity and elegance, making it relatively easy to use, especially for developers familiar with PHP.
  • Documentation
    It provides comprehensive and well-structured documentation, which is very helpful for beginners and experienced developers alike.
  • Modern tooling
    Laravel offers modern tooling with features like a robust CLI, built-in task scheduling, and an expressive ORM called Eloquent.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to build scalable web applications with PHP.
  • Teams seeking a framework with a strong balance between power and ease of use.
  • Projects that benefit from built-in solutions for common web application requirements like authentication and API support.
  • Developers interested in a framework with out-of-the-box features and an expressive syntax.

Javalin videos

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Laravel videos

Laravel in 100 seconds

More videos:

  • Review - Why Laravel is Still Best in 2018

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Javalin and Laravel)
Web Frameworks
7 7%
93% 93
Developer Tools
5 5%
95% 95
Python Web Framework
10 10%
90% 90
Runtime
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Javalin and Laravel

Javalin Reviews

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Laravel Reviews

Laravel vs. Symfony: A Comprehensive Comparison of PHP Frameworks
Laravel has a vibrant ecosystem with many first-party packages, such as Laravel Horizon for queue management, Laravel Echo for real-time events, and Laravel Sanctum for API authentication, that make it easy to extend functionality without much hassle.
The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
Oh, you bet. When devs talk Symfony, they’re eyeing robustness and a modular vibe that Laravel fans might miss. Its reusable components could tempt even the most loyal Laravel artisans to at least take a peek.
Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
Top 5 Laravel Alternatives
However, there are other excellent choices other than Laravel as well. So, let’s check out some excellent Laravel alternatives before you hire Laravel developers India for your web development project. This post provides you with a thorough understanding of the available web development framework choices and their benefits over Laravel. For that, let’s first discuss the...
Framework review: Laravel vs CodeIgniter
Let's start with CodeIgniter first. It focuses on performance and speed. It offers a simple, easy-to-learn syntax, making it ideal for beginners. CodeIgniter uses its own proprietary Active Record implementation for database operations, which provides a simple and intuitive way to interact with data. Unlike Laravel, CodeIgniter does not enforce a specific architectural...
Source: infinyhost.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Laravel should be more popular than Javalin. It has been mentiond 241 times since March 2021. 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.

Javalin mentions (36)

  • Year After Switching from Java to Go: Our Experiences
    But Javas has so many of these web frameworks?! * Spring (https://spring.io/) * Spring Boot (https://spring.io/projects/spring-boot) * Helidon (https://helidon.io/) * Micronaut (https://micronaut.io/) * Quarkus (https://quarkus.io/) * JHipster (https://www.jhipster.tech/) * Vaadin (https://vaadin.com/) That's just to mention the bigger ones, there's lots of mini frameworks like Javalin (https://javalin.io/) and... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Latudio – a language acquisition app with a listening-oriented approach
    - like Sentences exercise, but you can select your own set of sentences. You can also set goals and view statistics about your progress. None of this would be possible without the great help from hundreds of our contributors [3], who translated, mapped and recorded content. All the content you find in the app was reviewed multiple times by several people and recordings are made by native speakers. No story in the... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Show HN: Donobu – Mac App for Web Automation and Testing
    - Javalin 6 for the web framework (https://javalin.io/). - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Spark – A web micro framework for Java and Kotlin
    I'd recommend Javalin (https://javalin.io/) instead. Same idea, only executed better and it is actively maintained. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Spark – A web micro framework for Java and Kotlin
    SparkJava has an actively developed fork/successor called Javalin[1]. It's straightforward to convert from SparkJava to Javalin. The latter is written in Kotlin, but works fine with ordinary Java. While the rest of the Java world was devolving into annotation hell, AOP and other nightmares, these Java microframeworks showcased what happens when you forego legacy Java and leverage modern Java language features... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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Laravel mentions (241)

  • Build a Command Line TODO App with Goravel Console
    You may have used Laravel (personally, I’ve used it a lot!). I love its developer-friendly experience and straightforward architecture. However, for the Go community, something similar was missing. Enter Goravel—a framework that makes life easier for PHP developers like me who want to work with Go. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • I analyzed how Supabase and Laravel launched. Here's what I learned.
    Laravel is a PHP web framework used by developers around the world. In March 2024, they launched Laravel Cloud with a full lineup of updates. All dropped at once. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Build a Blog with Laravel (& Send Slack Notifications)
    Laravel is a full-stack PHP framework that can be integrated with powerful front-end frameworks such as React or Vue.js. With Laravel, you’ll be creating websites and apps that are scalable and capable of growth. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Everything about AI Function Calling (MCP), the keyword for Agentic AI
    If you're planning to convert a backend server to an AI agent using function calling, avoid languages and frameworks that require developers to manually write JSON schemas, such as PHP Laravel and Java Spring RestDocs. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • A Structured Workflow for "Vibe Coding" Full-Stack Apps
    Using a full-stack framework with batteries-included, such as Wasp for JavaScript (React, Node.js, Prisma) or Laravel for PHP, takes the complexity out of piecing the different parts of the stack together. Since these frameworks are opinionated, they've chosen a set of tools that work well together, and the have the added benefit of doing a lot of work under-the-hood. In the end, the AI can focus on just the... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Javalin and Laravel, you can also consider the following products

Spark Framework - Spark Framework is a simple and lightweight Java web framework built for rapid development.

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

vert.x - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

Micronaut Framework - Build modular easily testable microservice & serverless apps

CodeIgniter - A Fully Baked PHP Framework