Himanshu PatelLaravel, Node JS and Ruby on Rails (ROR) are among the most well-known full stack web application frameworks that are used by developers globally. All these frameworks have some wonderful features that developers love but they also have some limitations as per the perceptions of individual developers. This article takes a closer look at the respective features of Laravel, Node JS and ROR to help you appreciate their functionalities better.
Laravel
Laravel is an open-source PHP framework that uses MVC architecture and is free to use. It offers a number of tools and resources with which you can build PHP applications. Many developers today choose Laravel because it offers a well-structured process of development and an ecosystem that offers very good built-in features.
You can access a number of compatible packages and extensions, to make use of the framework and how it functions as a development process. Laravel’s model-view-controller design pattern is easier to understand wherein it uses multiple frameworks that help you create an application. On Laravel you can find an excellent set of functionalities that offers the basic features of PHP frameworks such as CodeIgniter, Yii and Ruby on Rails (ROR).
There are some clear advantages offered by Laravel
It helps you to create an authorization and authentication system and it integrates smoothly with the tools. Laravel makes it easier to manage handling exceptions and errors in configuration and enables smooth mail service integration. If you want to test your automation work, you will find Laravel an excellent framework on which to do it. When you have to separate business logic code from presentation code or when you have to fix some common technical issues, Laravel is an excellent framework to work on. It also allows very smooth configuration and management of tasks.
Build robust authorization and authentication systems
Laravel allows you to prevent unauthorized users from accessing secured and paid resources by applying a simple method of authentication. Laravel also offers an easy way of implementing the authorization logic and help you control access to resources.
Get a choice of multiple tools to work with
Laravel comes packed with multiple tools that help in creating much faster applications. When you build an application you need to make sure that you are not just creating an app but one that is much faster and integrates easily with the back end cache. The performance of your application improves because of such methods that Laravel offers. It has well-known back end cache such as Redis, and Memcached.
Well-integrated with mail service
The mail service integration that Laravel offers is very handy for sending out notifications to a user’s email. Get access to a simple API that allows you to send emails fast through a local or cloud-based service that you prefer.
Manage exception and configuration errors easily
Management of error and exception is configured in Laravel and that makes it a highly effective option for such functionality. This is a major feature of the usability of an app especially since the way in which it manages the errors can have a major impact on user experience and usability.
Ideally suited for automation testing
Testing a product is very important to make sure that an application or software should ideally be free of any errors, bugs, or crashes. Laravel is a good option for automation testing, since users prefer automation testing over manual testing.
Follows Model-view-Controller (MVC) architecture
Laravel supports Model-view-Controller (MVC) architecture which automatically takes care of separation between business logic and presentation code. This makes it easy for HTML layout designers to change the look without interacting with the developers. Similarly, developers can add new features and any bug that can be fixed faster by investing minimum time.
Secure framework against all security vulnerabilities
While developing web applications, SQL injection, cross-site request forgery and cross-site scripting are some of the most important security vulnerabilities that a developer needs to consider and fix before delivering them. Laravel is a secure framework because it protects the web application against all the security vulnerabilities
Task scheduling mechanism
In order to perform the tasks on time, such as when to send mails to the subscribers, when to clean up data base at the end of the day etc., Ecommerce app development require a task scheduling mechanism. For scheduling the tasks, developer needs to create a CRON entry for each task but Laravel has in-built “command scheduler” which allows developer to pre-define command schedule that will be executed at a particular time or triggered in case of specific events. The command schedule requires a single CRON entry on the server and ensures a reduction in hosting costs.
Laravel framework is scalable and helps in software delivery in a fast and cost-effective manner. In designing the web application considerable time is saved because Laravel reuses the components from other frameworks such as namespaces and interfaces so it helps to organize and manage resources.
Laravel queue services helps in emailing a large number of users simultaneously and helps in completing tasks in an easier manner without waiting for the previous task to be completed first.
Due to such features of Laravel, extensive community support is provided for its users, which make it understandable and approachable by its users and it is easy to find developers to work on this framework.
Node JS
Node.js is an open source, cross-platform run time environment that can run on windows, Linux, Unix, and much more. Node.js is extensively used for server side programming and making it possible for a developer to use Javascript for client-side and server-side script. It is run on the Javascript Engine and executes Javascript code outside web browser.
Node.js is continuously growing and gaining popularity for web app development. It is single-threaded and manages a large number of connection requests at once and that’s why it is commonly used for enterprise applications. It is a great platform for real time application development, comes with immense advantages and offers a variety of benefits for backend development.
Reliable performance
Node JS web ecommerce development company engine helps to compile the code into machine code directly, making it easier and faster to write server-side code. It is a perfect choice for backend development.
Being single-threaded, Node JS is capable of handling a large number of connections simultaneously with high throughput. It performs even faster and more efficiently because of speed-non-blocking thread execution.
Code reusability
Node JS offers another important feature of code reusability. In software development, code reusability is very important since reusing code is protected, secure and dependable. It increases the value of web application. Because of the fewer lines of code, an application is bound to be reasonable and straightforward. Node JS is more modest and hence it has less possibility of issues arising.
Flexibility
Flexibility, is another advantage that Node JS offers. When you roll out an improvement in this framework, it requires nothing except a change to the code. However, other run-time structure or conditions may be expected to make changes right back to the core programming.
Moreover, the best part is that when you consolidate JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) with Node JS, you can undoubtedly interchange data between client servers and the web server.
Building cross-platform applications
There is not much time spent on writing separate programs on different desktop versions. Node JS allows for development across platform of electron and NW.js for creating interactive web applications on any platform. A developer can create desktop application without having experience with objective-C C#. A Node JS developer can easily use chrome developer tools for building, debugging and writing code without any restriction.
Easy to Learn and Adapt
Node JS is very easy to learn. Codes on Node JS require less effort to write and can be written quickly and easily without having any programming experience. Even if the developer is a beginner or a junior doing it for the first time, there is no need for more time to learn Node JS.
Helps to improve app response time and performance
There are dozens of simultaneous requests that affect the response rate in any application. Application and its performance is a negative factor if there is no adequate technology to handle the load of requests. Node JS helps to improve app response time and boost its performance by offering non-blocking asynchronous architecture and employing lesser resources.
Reducing load time
Caching module in Node JS helps in reducing the overall loading time. A caching module helps the web app get a request easily and transfer it to in-app memory. This means the user can get results on the web page in a few microseconds without waiting for a long time. A developer is therefore able to execute the code without any hassle.
Cost effective with full-stack JS
Node JS allows a developer to write server-side code using Javascript, and s/he can write code for the front end as well as for back end quite easily. Node JS has the ability to eliminate remuneration requirements by allowing two teams to work together and reduce overall time and costs. As we know, Linked In has gained high performance after deploying ROR in Node JS.
Allows custom requirements by offering extensibility
Node JS can help quick and efficient expansion of existing businesses into new industries. Its underlying framework allows an integrated way of developing web-based server-side applications using HTTP/DNS services and JSON format for easy communication of data between web based clients.
Efficient data handling tool
Node JS framework is a perfect choice for efficient data-handling tools as it is a backend development language and runtime environment and is capable of processing thousands of requests simultaneously. Many back end development platforms use synchronous processing for handling requests where each process waits to process another process. Node JS does not follow asynchronous structure for upcoming requests to process together with the first one.
Offers control flow feature
Whenever a function is executed, a code sends a callback automatically. As the number of functions is increasing, so does the number of call backs which is known as callback hell.
The control flow features of Node JS allow a way to solve the problem of callback hell. Using web app Node JS framework helps to map functions and sort through callbacks. It helps to integrate similar functions together automatically and find new features by search or in a folder.
All the advantages of Node JS contribute towards making it a likely choice for the developer for developing web based application or projects.
Ruby-on-Rail (ROR)
ROR is also known as Rails, is a server-side web application development framework. It is written in the Ruby language by David Heinemeier Hansson under the MIT License. It carries all the tools needed to build web apps on both the front and backend. It supports Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework and provides a default structure for web pages, a database and a web service. ROR also uses web standards like JSON or XML for transfer data and HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the user interface. In essence, ruby on rails is a full-stack framework for web development.
It emphasizes the use of two major soft engineering guidelines and paradigms like:
Don’t repeat yourself (DRY): DRY is a principle of software development, on which every piece of code must be unique, authoritative and unambiguous.
Convention over Configuration (CoC): It provides the best way to do many things in a web application by offering different opinions.
There are many advantages of ROR:
Cost effectiveness
ROR is an open source framework, is 100% free and runs on Linux. From the developer perspective it is easy to work with ROR. There are many readymade plug-ins available, so it saves plenty of web developer time and efforts.
Without spending more money for website a developer can ensure greater quality, performance and scalability for a web site.
Safe and secure
Safety and security are the major concerns for any online business. By default, there are many security measures that are built within the ROR framework. It also supports both behavior-driven development and test-driven development.
The ROR community continuously works on the framework to spot any susceptibility, so the framework is well-documented both officially and unofficially.
Performance
With lot of computations and data handling in any web application, ROR could slow down the performance. There are shared experiences that go along with the ROR community that have a fresh set of eyes to take a glance at code optimization and support a team addressing the performance issue. This helps to improve the performance outcomes.
Easy to maintain
There are many components that comes along with this technology which allow the development companies to enhance the coding style, overall test codes and remove the bugs on a very short period of time. These benefits make ROR easy to maintain and manage development. Hence it is all about reliability and effective coding style.
Enhance Productivity
ROR is a concise language, it is short and expressive. When the company that developed ROR combined it with third-part libraries, it helped developers to build features much faster. Hence it is one of the most productive and easy programming languages around.
All these libraries or applications are released in the form of a gem and can be installed with a tool know as Ruby Gems.
Consistency
Consistency is one of the biggest features of ROR. Since developers follow standard programming conventions and file storage that saves lot of time, to keep the project structured and readable.
Automatic testing
Before implementation, testing the process is one of the major steps that a developer needs to follow. ROR can keep on testing and has a test automation process and so the developer doesn’t need to get involved in the testing process after development. ROR development companies test the entire code before implementation. Not just this, there is no need for any third-party testing tool to test the ROR code.
Suitable for all industries
ROR is a full-stack framework that is appropriate for all types of industry verticals, whether in the oil and gas, logistics or healthcare industries among others.
Huge community
ROR is a very popular language on social coding site GitHub. The community is full of developers and if you have any issue or need any functionality guidance then you just need to ask on the community forum. It is quite likely that someone else has built a similar functionality so s/he can help you fix any issue or even offer you that functionality.
This way, developers constantly improve the codes and keep on helping others’ projects.
Support MVC architecture
MVC pattern of a software application separates an application into three interconnected layers for handling data, business logic and presentation or View.
The model house code that works on the application data is one that centralizes the business logic and rules to manipulate the data. The data to the users include PDF, XML, RSS, HTML and much more. The controller communicates with models and views and receives a request from the browser and works with model hose code to process it. It then instructs the view on how to display the result on the presentation layer correctly.
Scalability
There is always a scope of enhancement and modification in any web site so the scalability is one of the most important factors which ROR offer to the developer. It is easy to modify existing code and add new features to the existing web site.
Due to scalability, stability and predictability, ROR is the most effective for long term projects.
Better choice
Web frameworks are essentially full stack software packages that ease the web development complexities. In order to save development time, easy maintenance and much more, they comply with many built-in features, plug-ins that are standard in any web development and resulting in a smooth transition from the development phase to the production phase.
Round up of Laravel, Node JS and ROR
Laravel, Node JS and ROR are the three most advanced full-stack web development frameworks and all three have their own set of unique features as per the requirement to solve a particular set of problems. So you can say easily find that Laravel, Node JS and ROR all offer a good choice as per the specific requirement of the user.
| Parameters | Laravel | NodeJS | ROR |
| Programming Language | PHP | JavaScript | Ruby programming language |
| Community size | Large | Large | Large |
| Learning curve | Basic PHP knowledge | Easy to learn with in-depth JavaScript knowledge | Easy to learn. Ideal for beginners. |
| Scalability | Mid-range | Mid range | High |
| Performance | Mid-range | High | High |
| Security | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Rapid development | Not recommended | Recommended | Recommended |
| Companies that use the framework | 9GAG, Pfizer, BBC, Ration, Pedidos Ya, About You | Netflix, Uber, PayPal, NASA, LinkedIn | Airbnb, GitHub, Shopify, Fivrr |
Although you can choose any of the three frameworks, there are distinctions for those who are interested. For instance, Laravel provides powerful tools that are needed for large and robust applications and it is easily accessible. It has superb inversion of control container, expressive migration system that is a tightly integrated unit for testing support. It is suitable for education, business and shopping sector applications.
Node JS is a server side programming framework and was originally designed with real-time push-based architectures in mind. It is a full-stack platform built on Chrome’s Javascript runtime for fast and scalable network applications. It uses event-driven, non-blocking I/O model which makes it lightweight and more efficient. It is perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. Node JS is suitable for arts, entertainment and automobile sectors.
ROR is an excellent framework for quick application development and absorbs changes easily. Its automatic testing further promotes rapid development and better quality of the product. With ROR, website development and maintenance becomes cost effective. It is primarily used for creating high performance web platforms and is suitable for programming a wide range of tasks for web development.
ROR uses a concise amount of code and so it is easier for the developer to detect and rectify any bugs. It is used for all types of industries like marketing websites, CMSs, ecommerce websites and customized web applications. It is a good choice for startups with small team size since it offers ease of use for quick development.
