Having worked for a while now on both, I would like to write an article regarding my personal opinion on those two very different ways of creating websites and the different functionalities that they can provide depending on the User’s/Client’s needs.
Up to a point WordPress offers a very quick and organised way of posting
content like media, blogs, magazines and then if extended with the correct
plugins, also offers functionality for digital shops, mailing systems, notifications,
spam detection and SEO. This makes it perfect for many clients as they are relatively quicker to build and offer all the functionality a client needs most of the time. After the website development process, the client can take over the website and manage it any way he wants, posting his content without the assistance of a developer or a digital agency.
After a point, depending on the client’s requirements, the need for an API and a more complicated, website structure might arise. This is when Laravel shows its true capabilities.Laravel is a PHP framework that operates using an MVC (Model-View-Controller) file structure. It can offer a more customisable “Hand made” result. Some of the integrated functionalities are the following:
- Bootstrap for quick consistent views ( Although I am currently testing out Foundation 5, which is very interesting.)
- Mailgun for sending out Notification Mails (External server sends the Email- thus avoiding any chances of your server getting blacklisted by accident for spam)
- Login system, ready to go with very little configuration
- Authorisation levels- Can also be extended with Shinobi to integrate Super Admins, Admins and Users, although it is also possible with just Laravel 5.
Most importantly, it allows the developer to know exactly where each part of the code is located, making it easy to make quick changes, updates and also place Honeypots for security exactly where he needs to.
Generally, it allows to create a system that would cover all the needs of
most clients for now.
I would like to keep this short, but before I go I would like to mention a more future-proof approach, that I have been very keen on trying after I finish a bit more of the documentation. Node.js seems to be used more and more and having read a bit about what it can do, I believe that for the next years it will provide developers with even more interesting and amazing tools to work with.