Kohana or CakePHP?

Question

Being a web development over the years, I have good experiences on php, xhtml, css, javascript, ajax, etc. I also work with some old php libraries like Smarty, PEAR, etc. Recently I decided to use a PHP framework, and I started to learn/use CakePHP. It's not really simple for an ancient philosopher like me, but I think it's a valuable experience.

Now I'm planning to select a good framework, because I haven't enough time to learn many new things like the past years. Searching on StackOverflow I found the Kohana framework and it seems to be a good framework. Would anyone please let me know if it's a good idea to switch to Kohana when I'm (a little) familiar with CakePHP. Witch on is better and let lazy developers like me be aware from switching to another framework in the future?

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

CakePHP is good. but has a bit of a learning curve. thought the cookbook is vast. cant really find all that we need.

i found codeignitor good too.

Answer 2

Between Kohana and CakePHP, I'd strongly suggest Kohana (also because it's a php5 fork of CodeIgniter, the lightest framework of them all).

Because people tell me I'm a CakePHP hater, let me show you its weaknesses:

• slow
• uses php4 OOP, where "your children can play with your privates" :)
• did I mention slow?

On the other hand, I'd strongly recommend a nice and powerful PHP library: Zend Framework. It doesn't have the really steep learning curve like it had a few years ago, because now you find many tutorials and screencasts (see ZendCasts). Users of framework like CodeIgniter put all the Zend Framework library into CI and such and use them independently (which, from my point of view is another +1 for ZF)

Later edit: You can see actually how slow CakePHP is compared to the lightning fast CodeIgniter and the Zend Framework here. From the speed tests you can see that Zend Framework is somewhere from 2 to 3 time fast than Cake and Code Igniter somewhere from 2 to 3 times faste than Zend Framework. That means CodeIgniter can be as 6times as fast than Cake (which from my point of view is humiliating for Cake)

Answer 3

As I said here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3060699/php-framework-benefits-downfalls/3088015#3088015 The bottom line differences between frameworks are marginal. Choose one, stick with it and get on with your work.

It's how well you know the framework not the framework you know.

Answer 4

I strongly recommend CakePHP. It might have a learning curve for some. However with one of the largest online communities there is always someone around that can help you out. I don't find CakePHP slow at all.

Answer 5

CakePHP is a headache to work with. I have always likened CakePHP to PHP, and Kohana to Python. Cake is full for surprising shocks and conventions, in Kohana what you get is what you guessed. CakePHP fights you to help you. Kohana gives you the sharpest and the most powerful tools you need accomplish your goal.

I ditched CakePHP four years ago for CodeIgniter. Then I choose to go with Kohana when it was created from CodeIgniter because Kohana takes the best parts of CodeIgniter and fixes the bad parts.

In my humble opinion, Kohana is THE best PHP framework in the world! And I recommend Kohana to everyone I know; most of them are very surprised that a PHP framework could be so easy and intuitive to work with. Needless to say, they are very very happy and productive with Kohana.

Go for Kohana!

Answer 6

If your question is about the broad decision of selecting a new framework to learn I would suggest YII framework. You can checkout a comparison between the three here http://daniel.carrera.bz/2009/01/comparison-of-php-frameworks-part-i/

And if you want to have a choice between cake and Kohana. I would prefer to stick to the framework that I have experience(cake for you).