Whether you are a startup or an enterprise, your website is your business’s window to the world. So, as a business owner, choosing a prominent web development framework that can help make your tasks efficient and easier is vital.
In this regard, PHP has been used for developing websites and web applications for many years. Also, several PHP frameworks have emerged, making website development faster and more efficient. Such frameworks provide developers required set of tools and libraries that simplify the web development process.
One of the popular names is CodeIgniter. This lightweight and flexible PHP framework stands out from the crowd due to its features like ease of use, powerful MVC architecture, and comprehensive documentation. It has gained a high reputation for being a popular choice among PHP developers.
By investing in CodeIgniter development services, a business owner can leverage the full potential of this PHP framework. It will help in providing a dynamic and interactive web solution to website visitors.
To make an informed decision, it is better to understand why CodeIgniter development is the best for 2024.
This blog post will provide you with the top 7 reasons that tell why CodeIgniter is the best PHP framework.
Let’s start this first by understanding the importance of choosing the right framework.
Why is it Important to Choose the Right Framework?
Just like a carpenter does not use a hammer to cut wood, similarly, a developer will undoubtedly not use the wrong framework for their software development. The right framework will make the development smoother and more efficient, whereas the wrong one will result in frustrating roadblocks.
So, whether you are developing a small website or a complex web application, choosing the right tool can make all the difference.
Let’s examine the multiple advantages of selecting the right web development tool.
Speed Up the Development Process
A good framework offers the best possible functionalities. This lets developers focus on building a web application that results in the quick launching of the website. Frameworks provide a pre-built set of components that can be easily customized and integrated.
This is helpful in reducing the time required to develop components from scratch. Also, a framework offers code reusability that also saves efforts in the long run.
Standards and Best Practices
Frameworks typically follow the best industry standards and web development practices. This ensures that code is written in a consistent and organized manner, making it easier to read, maintain, and scale.
Security
Popular frameworks are usually reviewed and tested by security experts, making them secure against common web vulnerabilities. It will help prevent security breaches and ensure the site is developed by keeping security in mind from scratch.
Optimization and Performance
A web development framework often comes with in-built optimization features like caching and compression. This will help improve the website’s speed and performance.
Community Support
Popular frameworks come with large and active community support from developers who share tips and code snippets. Leveraging community support will help write maintainable and standard-specific code.
Testing and Debugging
Using a framework facilitates developers to test and debug the web solution. This makes it easier to identify and fix code issues. It leads to delivering an error-free website or web app.
Future and Maintenance
A well-established framework makes the website easier to maintain in the future.
So, these are some benefits one will get after choosing the best web development framework. Overall, it helps improve quality, scalability, and website maintainability.
Now, let’s understand the top 7 reasons for considering CodeIgniter development.
Top 7 Reasons that Make Investing in CodeIgniter Website Development Beneficial
Also Read: Top Reasons To Choose PHP For Website Development
CodeIgniter is developed for those requiring a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured websites and web apps.
Lightweight and Fast
CodeIgniter is a lightweight web development framework. It can be quickly deployed and does not require a lot of server resources. This makes it an ideal choice for making fast and lightweight web solutions.
It will even be beneficial for developing web applications that need to perform well under heavy loads or with limited resources.
CodeIgniter also uses lazy loading, in which the framework loads only necessary libraries and components when required. This helps reduce memory usage and speed up the web application’s performance.
Additionally, unlike many PHP-based web applications, CodeIgniter comes with the Cache library to develop fast-loading web solutions.
Simple and Easy to Use
CodeIgniter is easy to learn and use, even for novice developers. It comes with a simple and intuitive syntax. Its clear documentation and many resources make starting with CodeIgniter easier.
Therefore, Developers who want to quickly build web applications without dealing with complex frameworks or steep learning curves will find CodeIgniter suitable.
MVC Architecture
CodeIgniter is based on MVC (model view controller) architecture. The model and controller connect the front-end and back-end. The MVC in CodeIgniter helps in separating the view from the back-end part. This separation makes the code more readable and easy to understand.
Overall, CodeIgniter facilitates developers in developing flexible, robust, and secure web solutions for businesses.
Furthermore, the framework is equipped with feature-rich resources and inbuilt libraries helpful in encompassing pre-written codes. This enables a cost-effective, secure, reliable, and quick website development process.
Flexibility
CodeIgniter offers great flexibility to developers to use their preferred coding style and development approach. This PHP framework does not force the use of any specific coding conventions, making it easy to write code that fits developer preferences.
It also offers various configuration options for customizing the web solution. It enables a PHP development company to develop web applications meeting specific requirements and performing optimally.
This PHP framework can be adapted to suit various web development requirements. Also, its lightweight structure and modular design make it well-suited to develop web apps of any size and complexity.
Documentation and Community Support
CodeIgniter’s clear documentation makes it easy to start with the framework. This user guide contains an introduction tutorial, various “how to” guides, and reference documentation of the components that make up the framework.
Also, there might be times when you won’t find a solution in the provided documentation. In such cases, you may post your query in the forums, so other users can help you resolve that. The CodeIgniter community contributes to the development of the framework. Also, the community releases updates and patches to fix bugs and improve the framework’s performance.
Overall, CodeIgniter provides you with comprehensive documentation and active community support. A CodeIgniter development service provider can use such resources to develop efficient and robust websites or web apps.
Security
Security is a vital aspect of any web app. CodeIgniter provides several security features that help developers to build secure websites and web apps.
Some security features that CodeIgniter offers are –
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Protection – CodeIgniter comes with XSS filtering features. It helps in protecting websites and web apps from XSS attacks. This filter prevents any malicious code from hijacking cookies and performing other malicious activities.
- SQL Injection Prevention – SQL injection attack performs on database queries. CodeIgniter provides inbuilt functions and libraries to prevent it. You can apply Escaping Queries, Query Binding, and Active Record Class to prevent SQL injection in CodeIgniter.
- Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Prevention – CodeIgniter provides CSRF protection to prevent malicious requests from being sent to the server. It generates a unique token for each user and validates it with every request to ensure whether it is genuine or not.
- Password Hashing – There are in-built functions for password hashing in CodeIgniter that use secure hashing algorithms like Argon2 and Bcrypt. It helps to protect user passwords from being compromised.
Overall, CodeIgniter provides robust security features that can help developers to build secure websites and web apps.
However, using these features correctly and following best practices is essential to make your web app less vulnerable. You can even hire a CodeIgniter development company for best practices like implementing the best coding techniques.
Compatibility and Upgrades
It is important to check the framework’s compatibility and upgrades to ensure the website or web app developed on it will be up-to-date and secure.
CodeIgniter is compatible with PHP versions from 5.6 to 7.4. If you are using an old PHP version, you will have to upgrade it to the supported version.
Also, a PHP developer must ensure that the third-party libraries and plugins must also compatible with CodeIgniter’s supported version. Keeping your plugins and third-party libraries up-to-date is a good practice, as they can be vulnerable to various security attacks otherwise.
In Conclusion,
CodeIgniter comes with a load of advantages, such as no restrictive coding rules, compatibility, and others. It is increasingly becoming an exciting choice for PHP beginners. Among its notable features, CodeIgniter’s debugging ability is helpful in detecting bugs and errors instantly.
It is advisable to hire a CodeIgniter development company to develop robust and error-free web solutions with CodeIgniter. Their team can build websites and web apps using the framework with their best skills and experience.
So, good luck with your CodeIgniter website development.
