Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Strapi VS CakePHP

Compare Strapi VS CakePHP and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Strapi logo Strapi

Manage any content. Anywhere. The leading open-source headless CMS. 100% JavaScript / TypeScript and fully customizable.

CakePHP logo CakePHP

The Rapid Development Framework for PHP
  • Strapi
    Image date //
    2024-06-07
  • CakePHP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

Strapi features and specs

  • Open Source
    Strapi is an open-source platform, meaning it's free to use and has an active community contributing to its improvement. This can lead to rapid innovation and a wealth of community-driven resources.
  • Customization
    Strapi offers high levels of customization, allowing developers to tailor the content management system to their specific needs. This is beneficial for unique projects with specific requirements.
  • Headless CMS
    As a headless CMS, Strapi decouples the backend from the frontend, enabling developers to use any frontend technology they prefer, which increases flexibility and scalability.
  • RESTful and GraphQL APIs
    Strapi automatically generates RESTful APIs and also supports GraphQL out of the box. This makes it easier to integrate with various types of applications.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Strapi provides a user-friendly admin panel that is powerful yet easy to use, making content management less of a chore for non-technical users.
  • Plugin Ecosystem
    Strapi has a growing ecosystem of plugins that can extend its functionality, allowing users to add features without extensive custom development.

Possible disadvantages of Strapi

  • Learning Curve
    Although Strapi is highly customizable, it can have a steep learning curve for new users, especially those who are not familiar with JavaScript and modern web development practices.
  • Performance Issues
    In some cases, users have reported performance issues, particularly when handling large amounts of data or complex queries, which may require optimization.
  • Community Support Variability
    While Strapi has an active community, the level of support and available third-party resources can vary, especially when compared to more mature CMS platforms.
  • Limited Built-in Features
    Out of the box, Strapi might lack some features that come built-in with other CMS platforms, requiring users to implement or configure these features themselves.
  • Self-Hosting Requirement
    Strapi requires self-hosting, which means you need to manage your own servers and infrastructure. This can be a downside for those looking for a fully managed solution.
  • Frequent Updates
    Frequent updates can sometimes introduce breaking changes, requiring developers to continuously adapt their codebase to stay current.

CakePHP features and specs

  • Structured MVC Framework
    CakePHP follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which provides a clear separation of concerns, making the application more organized and maintainable.
  • Built-in ORM
    CakePHP includes a powerful Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system which simplifies database interactions and promotes the use of PHP objects instead of writing raw SQL queries.
  • Convention Over Configuration
    CakePHP follows the 'convention over configuration' philosophy, which reduces the need for extensive configuration and allows developers to quickly set up new projects.
  • Security Features
    The framework comes with built-in security features like input validation, SQL injection prevention, and CSRF protection, which help in building safer applications.
  • Active Community
    CakePHP has an active and supportive community, which provides a wealth of plugins, tutorials, and help through forums and other online resources.

Possible disadvantages of CakePHP

  • Learning Curve
    For developers who are new to MVC frameworks or the conventions used by CakePHP, there can be a steep learning curve initially.
  • Performance Overhead
    Due to its extensive features and abstractions, CakePHP can sometimes have a higher performance overhead compared to lightweight frameworks, especially in high-traffic applications.
  • Limited Flexibility
    While conventions can be beneficial, they may also limit flexibility for developers who prefer to structure their projects differently or need to implement custom solutions.
  • Updates and Compatibility
    Major updates to the framework might introduce breaking changes, requiring existing projects to undergo significant modifications to stay up-to-date.

Analysis of Strapi

Overall verdict

  • Strapi is generally considered a good choice for developers looking for an open-source headless CMS.

Why this product is good

  • Strapi offers the advantage of being open-source and highly customizable, which allows developers to tailor it to specific project requirements. It supports GraphQL and RESTful APIs, making it versatile for various use cases. Its user-friendly admin panel simplifies content management, while the extensive plugin architecture allows for enhanced functionality.

Recommended for

    Strapi is recommended for developers and development teams looking for a flexible and customizable CMS solution, particularly those who need a headless CMS that integrates easily with modern frontend frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular. It's also suitable for organizations that prefer an open-source solution they can modify according to their needs.

Strapi videos

Let's Checkout... #Strapi CMS

More videos:

  • Review - Quick Strapi Review
  • Review - Learn Strapi in 12 minutes 🚀

CakePHP videos

CakePHP 3.7 Standards and MySQL Database Review

More videos:

  • Tutorial - CakePHP 3 Tutorial - part 1: Introduction & Installation

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Strapi and CakePHP)
CMS
100 100%
0% 0
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100
Blogging
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
55 55%
45% 45

User comments

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Reviews

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

Strapi Reviews

21 Headless CMS Platforms That You Should Check Out
Strapi is one of the most used headless CMS platforms. Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that is customizable and easy to use. Companies such as Walmart, eBay, Toyota, IBM use this platform.
Source: popupsmart.com
Best Headless CMS in 2022
Strapi is an open-source Node.js headless content management system, which means that the entire codebase is available on GitHub and thrives on contributors. Strapi generates a working RESTful API or uses GraphQL for developers in minutes after installation. Data is made available through a customizable API. It’s important to note that Strapi is a self-hosted, not a SaaS...
Source: flatlogic.com
Best Node.js CMS platforms for 2022
Strapi is a popular, flexible, and open-source headless CMS that enables us to create rich digital experiences. Strapi provides REST and GraphQL APIs developers can use to access the content stored in its repository.
Best Headless CMS for 2020
Valid argument. But what is the alternative? Strapi on a server with a Database? What about doing backups? Isn't it even more complicated? In a git-based CMS you can at least undo all changes, which isn't that easy with a database.
Source: dev.to
11 Headless CMS to Consider for Modern Application
Strapi is an opensource CMS intended to be transparent and striving to be a perfect balance between a CMS, framework, and an automation tool to speed-up back-end development and management.
Source: geekflare.com

CakePHP Reviews

CakePHP vs CodeIgniter: Which PHP Framework is Best for Development?
CakePHP: CakePHP was released in April 2005 by Larry Masters. It is influenced by the concepts of Ruby on Rails and emphasizes convention over configuration, aiming to make web development fast and easy. CakePHP has undergone significant evolution, with the latest versions providing advanced features while maintaining backward compatibility.
Top 5 Laravel Alternatives
CakePHP is less complicated to work with than Laravel. CakePHP’s stated goal is to streamline the processes of developing, deploying, and maintaining Web Apps. The clean MVC layout makes it easy to pick up and use.
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
CakePHP offers multiple features like code generation and app scaffolding that accelerates production speeds and saves development costs.
The Most Popular PHP Frameworks to Use in 2021
For example, the CakePHP framework has the Bake command-line tool which can quickly create any skeleton code that you need in your application.
Source: kinsta.com
Top 9 PHP Frameworks For Web Development In 2021
CakePHP is an open-source web development PHP framework. It’s ranked 6th in PHP Benchmarks, just above the Laravel web development framework. The newly released v4.0 comes with a renovated skeleton design and provides APIs to enable developers for rapid application development. On GitHub, it has 8.3k+ stars and 555 contributors. For commercial support, you have cakeDC....

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Strapi seems to be a lot more popular than CakePHP. While we know about 337 links to Strapi, we've tracked only 10 mentions of CakePHP. 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.

Strapi mentions (337)

  • Strapi Email and Password Authentication with Next.js 15: Part 1
    Strapi offers multiple authentication methods to secure your application:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Build a Strapi 5 Plugin with Medium & Dev.to APIs — Part 1
    One of the features of the Strapi CMS is the ability it gives you to unlock the full potential of content management, thus allowing you to build custom features for yourself and the community. Victor Coisne, the VP of marketing at Strapi, explained this in his article “Building Communities That Drive Growth”. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Mastering Next.js 15 Caching: dynamicIO and the 'use cache'
    We'll be using Strapi for our backend API layer. Strapi is a headless, decoupled, API-driven content management system that lets you manage and serve content directly from an admin panel—in just a few minutes. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Building a Customer Support Portal with Strapi, GPT, and Next.js (Part 1)
    In this 3-part series, I will walk you through building a robust customer support portal using Strapi, GPT, and Next.js. You will learn how to set up the backend, integrate AI-driven support using GPT, and implement user authentication to manage customer queries effectively, ensuring a seamless experience that fosters trust and loyalty. For the first part of this series, you will learn how to set up Strapi for the... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • A Guide to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in Strapi
    Familiarity with Strapi CMS(Content Management System). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

CakePHP mentions (10)

  • How to Use ServBay to Create and Run a CakePHP Project
    CakePHP is an open-source PHP web framework designed to help developers build web applications quickly. It is based on the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture and provides a powerful toolkit to simplify common development tasks such as database interactions, form handling, authentication, and session management. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Top 12 PHP Frameworks For Web Development in 2024
    CakePHP is an open-source PHP framework for web development with 8.7k stars and 3.5k forks on GitHub. It offers APIs that enable developers to develop applications quickly. It allows you to create highly secure and scalable web applications, including social networks, eCommerce, and online collaboration platforms. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Any suggestions for lighter frameworks than Laravel?
    Give https://cakephp.org/ a try. It also is one of the oldest ones out there, so quite mature and stable while being rather lightweight. Serving JSON API seems like a good fit. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Which PHP Framework Should You Use in 2023?
    You can download it and review the documentation here: https://cakephp.org/. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • My Workflow
    As the name of the service says it will work best with Laravel but it is not a problem to modify code from other frameworks to make it work the same way. I have several applications created this way in CakePHP. I have this set to manual after clicking the deploy button, but if you want you can turn on quick deploy and then it will publish the application after a push to the main branch (or another one, depending... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Strapi and CakePHP, you can also consider the following products

Contentful - You don't need another CMS. You need a better way to manage content — unified, structured, and ready to deploy to any digital channel.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

CodeIgniter - A Fully Baked PHP Framework

Sanity.io - Sanity.io a platform for structured content that comes with an open-source editor that you can customize with React.js.

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines