We're starting on a new project which utilises a React Frontend and we will be building out a number of API endpoints grouped as Microservices.
We'll be looking at using Laravel8 as the platform to build the SPA onto but are currently undecided between using Lumen or Laravel for the API endpoints.
I've looked at https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/lumen/lumen-2 and can see that there are performance gains using Lumen but would like to ask if anyone can advise what we would be missing if we go this route?
The ones for me currently are the console and migrations functionality of Laravel.
Is it best to go full Laravel and strip out bits or start with Lumen and upgrade to Laravel if we need the extra features?
@automica As someone who spent more than two years working on a Lumen-based API in my last role, I’d always recommend Laravel.
Laravel just has so much more functionality that makes even building an API-only project: form requests, Eloquent API resource classes, first-party support for things like Passport (OAuth) and Sanctum that don‘t require third-party packages to “enable” or support.
One of my last projects before leaving that role was converting the codebase from Lumen to Laravel because we wanted to take advantage of these features instead of back-porting them or finding third-party packages to add them.
@martinbean Having not used Lumen in anger, I'm siding towards Laravel over Lumen too, especially as we'll be using Laravel for the SPA.
Currently the service we're upgrading is on an older Laravel 6 instance so we'll see performance improvements anyway, and the argument for keeping consistency across the services is a compelling case for Laravel too.
Client had planned on Laravel so I will undecide on using Lumen :P
@martinbean performance wise, do you think Lumens better than Laravel?
If the project just API Microservices, do you think using Laravel over Lumens can affect performance (apps and the server itself) drastically bad?
@ericknyoto By the time you’ve dumped your business logic in the codebase and comparing something other than “Hello world” response times, no. The response time is negligible.
PHP’s performance has improved massively since Lumen was released that now the difference between a Lumen app and a Laravel app is negligible.
