Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Symfony VS Laravel Spark

Compare Symfony VS Laravel Spark and see what are their differences

Symfony logo Symfony

A PHP full-stack web framework

Laravel Spark logo Laravel Spark

Spark provides the perfect starting point for your next big idea.
  • Symfony Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21
  • Laravel Spark Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-01

Symfony features and specs

  • Robust Framework
    Symfony is a comprehensive and robust PHP framework that provides a wide range of tools and features for web application development, making it suitable for projects of all sizes.
  • Modular Architecture
    Symfony's component-based architecture allows developers to use only the components they need, providing flexibility and reducing overhead.
  • Community Support
    With a large and active community, Symfony offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and third-party libraries, making it easier for developers to find help and resources.
  • Scalability
    Symphony is designed to scale easily, enabling developers to build large, complex applications that can handle high traffic and user loads.
  • Performance Optimization
    Optimized for performance, Symfony includes advanced features such as caching, Lazy Loading, and HTTP cache proxies to enhance application speed and efficiency.
  • Standardization
    Symfony adheres to PHP and web development standards, ensuring that the codebase is clean, maintainable, and compatible with other standards-compliant tools.

Possible disadvantages of Symfony

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, Symfony can be challenging to learn due to its extensive features and complexity, requiring a significant time investment to master.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although Symfony is optimized for performance, its rich feature set can create overhead, potentially impacting performance if not managed correctly.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up a Symfony project can be daunting, especially for developers who are new to the framework, due to the amount of configuration and dependencies needed.
  • Documentation Overload
    While extensive documentation is beneficial, the sheer volume can be overwhelming for new developers trying to find specific information quickly.
  • Dependency Management
    Symfony requires careful management of dependencies, and keeping track of updates and compatibility can be burdensome, especially in large projects.
  • Cost
    Though Symfony itself is free, developing with Symfony can incur costs if advanced features and commercial bundles are required, adding financial overhead to the project.

Laravel Spark features and specs

  • Integrated Billing
    Laravel Spark offers integrated billing solutions, allowing developers to implement subscription-based billing easily.
  • Customization
    It provides options for customizing the templates and branding, enabling developers to tailor the platform to specific needs.
  • Security
    Spark ensures high security standards with features like password recovery, two-factor authentication, and encryption.
  • User Management
    Includes user management out-of-the-box, simplifying the process of managing user profiles, teams, and permissions.
  • Laravel Ecosystem
    As a product of Laravel, it easily integrates with other Laravel packages and takes advantage of the entire Laravel ecosystem.
  • Time-Saving
    Accelerates development time by providing pre-built functionalities for user and subscription management.

Possible disadvantages of Laravel Spark

  • Cost
    Laravel Spark comes with a pricing model that could be expensive for small startups or individual developers.
  • Complexity
    May introduce additional complexity for projects that require heavy customization beyond what Spark offers.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers new to Laravel or Spark might face a learning curve due to the various features and configurations available.
  • Limited Scope
    Designed specifically for SaaS applications, hence not suitable for projects that fall outside this scope.
  • Dependency on Laravel
    Being tied closely to Laravel, it might not be the best choice for projects considering a different backend framework.

Symfony videos

Symfony IOL Video Review

More videos:

  • Review - Symfony vs Panoptix. Which is the BEST Lens for Cataract and Laser Lens Replacement Surgery?
  • Tutorial - [1/9] - Beginners Symfony 4 Tutorial - Getting Started With Symfony 4

Laravel Spark videos

Experiencing Laravel Spark

More videos:

  • Review - Laracon 2015 - Keynote (Laravel Spark)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Symfony and Laravel Spark)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
SaaS
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

Symfony Reviews

Laravel vs. Symfony: A Comprehensive Comparison of PHP Frameworks
Symfony, introduced by Fabien Potencier in 2005, is a mature and highly configurable PHP framework that is also based on the MVC pattern. Symfony emphasizes reusability and flexibility, offering a set of decoupled and reusable PHP components that can be used independently or together as part of a full-stack framework. It’s designed to be highly scalable and is favored for...
Top 5 Laravel Alternatives
Due to its C-based framework extension, Phalcon is among the most efficient and rapid PHP frameworks available. However, Laravel is a slower framework since it relies heavily on PHP and Symfony. The performance and speed of Phalcon are superior to those of Laravel Alternatives.
10 Ruby on Rails Alternatives For Web Development in 2022
Unlike Laravel, Symfony provides developers with full control over the configuration. With Symfony, programmers have to customize everything from the directory structure to the foreign libraries by themselves. For MVP projects a necessity to set up everything from the scratch is a disadvantage; for the enterprise application, absolute control is a benefit. Extra time spent...
The Most Popular PHP Frameworks to Use in 2021
The best way to interact with your databases is via the Doctrine ORM. Symfony uses data mappers to map objects to the database. This keeps your object model and the database schema separate, meaning that if you change a database column you don’t need to make many changes in your codebase.
Source: kinsta.com
Top 9 PHP Frameworks For Web Development In 2021
PHP Benchmarks rank Symfony at number 3 in the list of PHP frameworks for web development. With 24.5k+ GitHub stars, Symfony is not just a PHP web development framework but also provides a set of 50 stand-alone reusable PHP components for faster web app development. Using Symfony, you can develop web applications, microservices, and APIs too. With commercial support from...

Laravel Spark Reviews

We have no reviews of Laravel Spark yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Laravel Spark seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 23 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.

Symfony mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Symfony yet. Tracking of Symfony recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Laravel Spark mentions (23)

  • Laravel Ecosystem in 2024
    Laravel Spark: Laravel Spark offers a pre-built SaaS (Software as a Service) application template. It includes features like billing, subscription management, and team management, allowing developers to focus on building their application instead of re-creating these common features. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Best reputable resources on starting a lifestyle business?
    Also PHP has Laravel Spark[0]. They basically bootstrapped a SaaS but for a price. Not sure if it's worth it, but it's from the guys who made Laravel, and everyone only has good things to say about that so... [0] https://spark.laravel.com. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Show HN: Build your startup or side project faster with these SaaS templates
    I think Laravel Spark would fit in well with this list: https://spark.laravel.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Launchpad to quickly start a SaaS business?
    You can try with Laravel, Jetstream and Spark. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Is there any SaaS bootstrap service with landing page,plans, client dashboard, stripe ?
    What you are looking for is usually called a 'saas boilerplate' or 'saas starter kit', in the Laravel world (my primary tech stack) we have Laravel Spark, you can probably find equivilants in most popular frameworks, just google 'node js saas starter kit' or 'ruby on rail saas starter kit' etc. Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

Nodewood - Save weeks or months of development time and start writing code now with Nodewood, a Vue.js/Node.js Javascript SaaS starter kit focused on setting you up for success.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

UseGravity.App - Build a Node.js & React app at warp speed with a SaaS boilerplate

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

Bullet Train - The Ruby on Rails SaaS-in-a-Box.