Laravel vs OctoberCMS

Hi. If you just building a website to manage content like just a normal website, obviously go for OctoberCMS. Or the website able to fit in what OctoberCMS provide, just go for it. Example, a restaurant website showing menu to public.

If you are going to build something which will keep adding more feature like a system, have many customise feature, go for laravel. Example, a restaurant ordering system.

That what I think. Make sense?

It comes down to your ability. Cms has huge constraints that make extending it not so easy (think plugins). I have seen people go Wordpress to get up and running quickly then pay for a developer to make a plugin. At the end of the day time and money the customer could have.

Keep in mind also as open source cms are inherently more in secure as people dig to find loop holes and exploit them on known sites.

At the end of the day you know your needs and what will fit the bill to get to the end.

You mentioned an app . . . more than likely you're going to want to develop your app stand alone in Laravel. If you need a blog/articles you can use OctCMS stand alone for that part of your app/site. It's pretty straight forward adding articles/posts (Create, Edit, View) to your Laravel app if that is needed. Building an app on top of a CMS usually becomes way more difficult than building it from scratch as you'll always be running up against limitations and building to match the CMS instead of the developing in the direction you want to take your app.

Interesting question you have asked here. We all knew all features and usabilities of Laravel framework. So that I am gonna give you some details about OctoberCMS. It is the Laravel oriented platform and getting more focus from developers nowadays. I hope, in the future, it will become one of the main CMS among the popular CMSs like WordPress. I've come across comparative article between OctoberCMS and WordPress. You can check this out - http://bit.ly/29g7CIq - how this OctoberCMS is performing over WordPress. This CMS will give us light weighted websites so that speed of the website will be decreased in huge numbers. Some of the major features of October CMS are ... Lightweight and Static file system, Simple components, Graceful UI, Built-in AJAX module and etc., You can get more elaborate details here. http://bit.ly/29Lf16I

Zombie warning!

Go with laravel or laravel spark.

October might have some of the features you but it's a CMS for building websites. For example how would you handle monthly subscriptions and teams if you build with October? Those items are built into the Laravel Spark core so if I was in your shoes I would go with a framework over a CMS.

However if you want to get up and running quickly you can build the MVP with October and assess the initial feedback. I would recommend October over Wordpress and you can see the reasons in this October vs Wordpress comparison

Biased opinion here (core developer of OctoberCMS); but if you have need of some of October's features then I would highly recommend giving it a try first.

It doesn't get in your way like a typical CMS would, it's more of a Content Management Framework than your average CMS. In some ways it's even more extensible than Laravel considering it's based right on top of Laravel and includes advanced features (Behaviors, dynamic class extension) to make extending anything and everything even easier than in Laravel.

The only thing right now is if you need to use a package that is heavily tied into Laravel's auth system you'll need to be aware that October's auth system - while similar - has key differences in how it's implemented that will make it more difficult to integrate those packages specifically.

@luketowers thanks for taking the time to reply. It's really helpful to have an authoritative opinion on this.

I have some things to add to this conversation but would like more of your input.

I come from an advanced WP Theme & Plugin dev background for the past 10 years. i developed full blown web apps from WordPress when people said it wasn't possible. But I found WP's modularity to pose no limits.

But I began to discover inherent security weaknesses and speed blockades in the form of outdated classes functions, poorly named classes and functions, inconsistent naming and file structure conventions, and, worst-of-all leadership that was okay ignoring majority + verifiable evidence / proof of bad code and rejecting patches.

Now I see the light. What makes Laravel so fantastic. So I'm in the middle of beginner Laracasts and OctoberCMS videos.

But in my case I have a website that I also used as my CRM, Invoicing, Proposals, etc... Because I built WordPress Plugins to do those things. But because it's slow, inconsistent UI, and generally difficult to extend compared to laravel I've begun to switch.

At the same time I don't want to re-invent the wheel. Which is where I wonder if OctoberCMS is solid. It seems like there are very few things you do differently than core Laravel, so really you're just a Laravel package like any other (I mean that as a compliment to not imposing boundaries.) so why wouldn't I? It has an admin panel, installable Plugins, community around those Plugins, certain GUI features non-developer-clients need, etc...

But I have 3 Laravel developers on my team saying "Don't use OctoberCMS. We don't know how to use it and build apps without it all the time."

What say ye!? Thanks! :D

@s3w47m88 I've been using Laravel for years, and also was resistant to CMS. But now, I'm enjoying October because I can use Builder, add a table, define my columns and migrate, and define a form and list, takes about 5 minutes.

Before, every time I add a model, I have to create a migration, code it out, build my model file, migrate. Create a controller file. Add all the usual suspects (show, create, edit...). Create all those pages, code all the forms, add all the validation, add all the routes, etc.

In the end, I might have the same product, but this is all "the same thing" over and over and takes hours of development time that could have been finished in minutes.

Plus, I can get out of the backend website and edit my code directly so I feel (as a developer) that I'm still in control and not at the mercy of the system. But I can also have a non-developer admin go in and update the look of the page or add a column.

Now I'm just unsure if I want an API with a Vue frontend if this is the best way, or use Lumen to keep the backend as small as possible, but again, Lumen takes more coding time. It's lightweight because there isn't much there and I have to code out all the things that Laravel has out of the box, and then October automates a lot of that on top of Laravel. So I guess it becomes a time/effort vs. size/resource decision?

Sorry, I just saw this. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I am currently developing an ecommerce site with Laraship, after deciding against OctoberCMS due to the learning curve. But I do intend to revisit it personally to educate myself and reconsider it - specifically how to limit the learning curve for my staff.

I would lean between October CMS and Laravel. Peer-to-peer selling shouldn't be too hard to set up using October CMS. But if you don't find most of your requirements being met, you might want to go with Laravel. I know there are extensions and themes for October CMS that would help you achieve most of your requirements, so I would suggest doing some research there first.