cakephp or ruby on rails

Question

Hi there

I've put some of my free time on reading/learning about cakephp but now I'm wondering if will not be better to switch completely to ruby on rails.

Can you give me the good and the bad of those tools, when is about web-development?

many thx

Answer 1

Why switch? Since you've got a head start on CakePHP, take a little break.

Learn some Ruby on Rails for a while, then switch back to CakePHP when the mood strikes you.

That way, in the end, you'll end up knowing two languages/frameworks rather than just one. It's always better to get as much exposure as possible. Each has its benefits and downsides, but why not learn enough to make the decision yourself?

Answer 2

I recently read a good article from a developer with a CakePHP base who just completed a large Ruby on Rails project.

http://www.jimmycuadra.com/blog/10-from-cake-to-rails

He details where Rails is stronger than Cake but also the other way around. Another blog here compares Ruby and PHP.

http://developingwithstyle.com/articles/2009/06/09/10-reasons-why-ruby-is-better-than-php-reason-5.html

Answer 3

Neither is better than the other. While one may be more suited to particular applications than the other, they are certainly both good frameworks.

PHP is said to be faster, Ruby is objectively a better designed language. These probably make more of a difference than the framework itself - you can always modify the libraries or write your own classes to make the framework do what you want it to.

My advice is to stick with what you know if you are happy with it - learning a new framework is a long process. If you have issues with Cake or you're keen to try something different, Rails is definitely worthwhile.

Answer 4

personally i would choose cakephp at this moment. php and mysql are very common on most web hosting packages, even free ones. it is based on php and there is a huge amount of resources to learn and get help from. you can reuse many already written classes. regarding the speed of cakephp, there are ways how to speed up cakephp in the production environment through the ways you code and caching.

Answer 5

I would choose ruby on rails because

1. ruby is fun to write
2. there is a great community
3. there are more high quality resources like www.railscasts.com and teachmetocode.com