Frameworks is some kind of future application basics. It is a set of qualitative code for those tasks solving which are the most often to appear during site developer’s work. Basing on frameworks you can not only develop separate web application but even your own CMS. Abilities of such instrument are high so there is nothing difficult in work above enough volume project.

What is Yii

Yii is a high-performance PHP framework which can realize huge projects such as forums, portals and different CMS.
The basis of this framework is the similar to the majority – MVC pattern. It’s main specific is a simple and strict code.
Yii is a full-stack framework which allows a line of tested and ready to use solutions such as:

One more important advantage of Yii is that you can work with it in third party developers environments. It allows merging it with other frameworks.
Also support in working with Yii could be found in the big community of it’s users. Any problem could be easily solved by putting new discussion on specialized. Answer from experienced users would come fast and help you just in time.

Laravel

It is a special framework for web-applications with elegant syntax. It allows simplify solution of main tasks such as authentication, routing, sessions and cashing. Laravel is a try to unite all best what other PHP frameworks’ have. Also there is included some ideas of ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails and Sinatra.
It is an accessible but enough powerful framework. The best sides of it are:

Generally, Laravel is a right and academic language. There are plenty of abstraction layers and patterns. Some tasks realized very easily but difficult in debugging due to the big amount of levels.

Comparison

Let’s compare both frameworks step-by-step in different specificities.

1. Extensions. Both of them has plenty of extensions, which allow easier and faster work. Sometimes only one-two extensions can solve existing disadvantaged.
2. Migrations. Both systems have comfortable instruments for migrations. It is important to notice that Laravel also has an ability to add siders for initial data input.
3. Security. Both frameworks have instruments for working with passwords, authorization data and protection against different malware.
4. Form validation. Despite there is a validation in each system, there are differences in realization. In Yii it is tied to form class or model. It gives an opportunity to set rules directly in it and after that just check them in ActiveRecord. It is an important method until the time when you would need to use your own validations methods. In other case, Laravel can help you. Its validator exists like a separate helping class which. In order to achieve more comfort and community you can extend Eloquent class on your own.

Generally, those two frameworks are very similar. Mostly difference is in their structure. Some programmers prefer Laravel, some Yii. It is possible to define which one would be best for you only by trying of write code on each of them.
Also do not forget and Yii can work only on PHP 5.4 and higher. That is why in weak cases it is better to work with Laravel.