Hacker News Reader

Comment by Alifatisk | Hacker News Reader

I've tried Laravel, it's a beautiful framework. But I see no reason to switch from Rails, it's a beast.

Hi!

I'm looking for advice on how Rails vs Laravel compare (as I'll have to pick one of them soon for a project). Assuming the same knowledge and familiarity on both of them, why would you prefer Rails over Laravel? Thanks!

Ruby is a beautifully-designed, concise language. PHP is the opposite. If you like Java-style verbosity you may like PHP. I don't.

Yea, I think what makes me enjoy Ruby a lot is the ability to meta-program a lot. I can mold the language to what I want to express.

Of course, this can be a double edged sword if you aren't comfortable in the language yet.

The reason why I stuck with Rails is because I am already a Ruby user. I like PHP and all but I am way more comfortable with Ruby.

I don’t think there is anything Rails can do that Laravel cannot and wise versa.

It’s about taste.

I think Rails + hotwire hit the sweetspot for me!

In general I think there’s something to be said for sticking with languages that match your model of approaching a problem. DHH gave a good, albeit a bit rambly, keynote on this topic once. He compared some of the tools selection conversations to the equivalent of people comparing gaming consoles purely by specs when in reality, picking a console mostly boiled down to what you subjectively enjoyed more. I like that idea as a rule of thumb and encourage people to start there and go with what feels right for them before making deeper choices. (Lots of nuance here, don’t want to delve too deep so please view from that context :) )

Thanks!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com