Is there anything that PHP with CodeIgniter can do, which Ruby on Rails 3 can't do?

Question

I and my partner are trying to develop a website, and we are arguing which language to use to build a website. We both have some experienced with PHP with Codeigniter 1.6++ as well as RoR, although my partner used rails when it was in RoR1, which now is RoR3.

He wants to use PHP with CodeIgniter because he knows whats going around more explicitly, while RoR does not seem to satisfy him.

I want to use RoR 3, because it takes less time, and there are many gems which I can use (devise for example).

He is kind of worrying that Ruby on Rails won't be easy to change some configuration in db or codes once the websites gets bigger and bigger.

I just hate to think about writing lines and lines of codes from the scratch with Codeigniter within 2 months.. although I think it was not easy to manage db tables, once things got settled in rails..

So, I have been wondering.. is there any big advantage one from the other?

Answer 1

As an avid user of both I would not say that this is a question of which framework is better or worse as they are apples and oranges.

CodeIgniter has not changed all that much since 1.6.x both of your experience is still valid and you will be able to code right from the get-go.

Rails 3 is wonderful but quite a lot has changed since Rails 1 (not that I was using it back then). I think your partner would have too much time scratching his head unless you are going to be there for him to constantly answer the WTF's that will inevitably come up.

To explain, I am a CodeIgniter man and have been for years. There is not much to it, no conventions and what code is there is simple, easy to extend and easy to ignore if you don't like it.

Recently starting working with Rails has been a great series of highs and lows but it's not always quicker. I spent 2 hours implementing a fully functional user system with fb, twitter, etc and had most of my controllers built, but since then I have spent hours trying to get various date formats to play nicely with the ActiveRecord, or trying to override create_at, manually set id's and all the other stuff that nobody ever mentions you are not allowed to do.

If you need to pump out some code fast then Rails might be an option. If you want fine grained control over everything and have a really lightweight base to build your application on then CodeIgniter really would be a better choice.

Or, look at FuelPHP which is a framework me and a few others are working on to combine the two into one Configuration over Convention framework with a command line utility to bring in some of Rails best features. Saves a fair bit of code and you'll feel right at home.

Answer 2

You can make most languages do most things at the end of the day, just a matter of how long it'll take you.

Hopefully you know your project well enough to know what the major stumbling blocks are liable to be and then match them against your combined knowledge to solve them within both languages. Which ever you both feel more comfortable with overall should win. You will be able to do it in either, just a matter of familiarity and confidence with the language (as well as availability of libraries for complex tasks).

Incidentally, this question would be better on https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/

Answer 3

From a management perspective, I can tell you that if you plan on growing in the future, you will pay twice as much and have to look twice as long for RoR programmers. PHP programmers on the other hand are easy to find and hire since the language is ubiquitous. I have known of companies that were bought and their product completely folded just to recruit the Ruby talent because it is so hard to find.