Top 10 Reasons Every Web Developer In 2018 Should Be Using CodeIgniter

MVC

This has to be the number 1 reason for using any web framework in general, let alone CodeIgniter. It’s reason enough. We’ve already stressed enough on this part and how CodeIgniter’s MVC framework lets users adapt to the changing needs of their clients/users for which they are developing web applications. It gives a developer the freedom to come up with innovative ways to solve a very basic problem, but in the most efficient and illustrative manner which not only improves the client’s front-end look and feel but reduces the runtime and compile time complexities. With an MVC framework, you get to decide the level of complexity you want for your web application. Also, you can build highly scalable web applications, with a much smaller footprint.

Resourcefulness in Libraries and Helper Functions

CodeIgniter comes with a rich toolbox of inbuilt libraries ready for you to use. These include libraries for database management, session management, email configurations, and data validation. Along with this, the community that is built around CodeIgniter provides a strong repo of third-party libraries as well. CodeIgniter provides libraries for handling and making light of the most complex stuff in the easiest ways possible. There are libraries for assets management which help you minify your JS and CSS code, Image Manipulation libraries and more. Grocery CRUD is a library which helps you create a stable CRUD in just 30 seconds. This strong support acts the base for building rapid web apps in the most effective manner possible. Image_Moo is another third party image manipulation library built on CodeIgniter’s existing image library.

Lightweight

As we’ve already mentioned, one of the major boons of CodeIgniter is its footprint. Just 2.8 MB of disk space! It avoids the unnecessary lines of code and streamlines it to a minimum.

If we were to make a comparison between CodeIgniter and some of the other PHP frameworks in terms of size, here’s how it compares:

Laravel – 26 MB

Zend with Studio – 296 MB

This is just two of the popular PHP frameworks. Others like, Symfony, CakePHP, Phalcon are all nowhere close to CodeIgniter’s 2.8 MB size on disk.

Reliability

CodeIgniter was first released on February 28, 2006. This is indicative of the fact that CI has been in the game for a long time now and has quite the community of developers that swear by it. May it is GitHub or CodeIgniter’s own forum, the CI community is a massive help to developers that need help in solving problems as they arise. You can also access the CI community at www.codeigniter.com/community. They have their own Slack channel as well.

Thorough Documentation and Long Term Support (LTS)

No matter how good a framework is, it’s of no use if users cannot learn and adapt it easily. This is one of the major turning points for most developers when it comes to choosing CodeIgniter Web Development Services. CodeIgniter offers an extremely detailed, well laid-out documentation for users to understand. All the classes, APIs, libraries and more to choose from is documented in a clear and thorough manner which is very easy to understand. This is one of the reasons why a beginner or novice programmer prefers CI.

User-Friendly Interface

CI provides an easy-to-use, friendly yet attractive UI for users to start building web apps. It’s free of unnecessary complexities and bugs that may have troubled CI’s competitors like Laravel. Since the interface is easy to grasp, developers starting afresh can reduce the time they’d otherwise waste in getting used to the interface and spend more time building the web app.

Easy to Configure, Setup and Install

CI does not require any special command line or software installation. You download the package and it’s a simple copy-paste action afterward. Straightaway you start with the index.php file and load the config.php file to access all the CI goodies.

Secure inbuilt security tools

CI comes with its own set of security tools out of the box for protecting web apps against attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting and so on. These are provided as default settings and make life easier for web developers to focus on development, having security taken care of.

Less Coding – Rapid and Hassle Free development

The vast support an ecosystem built around CodeIgniter plays a massive part in allowing users to set up fast, start building and deploying apps in a jiffy. The plethora of libraries that CodeIgniter has to make it possible to build apps in no time, with the least amount of coding and debugging required. CI is well documented, has a user-friendly interface which reduces the overall learning curve and makes it possible to deploy apps in no time.

Bug/Error Handling and Resolution

CI provides detailed error reports at each junction of the development lifecycle. The user-friendly UI also helps with detecting and debugging errors. CI maintains its own error logs which come in handy.

Final Verdict

CI is the best, lightweight PHP web framework in 2018. It’s modular with its MVC architecture, light in its footprint, easy to understand and use has a minimal learning curve and has an excellent community surrounding it to help developers get assistance as fast as possible. This makes CodeIgniter as no-brainer as the go-to Web Development Services framework either for Blogs, Websites or even E-commerce development.