Laravel Key Differences between Laravel vs Lumen

July 14, 2021 . 5 MIN READ

Laravel vs Lumen

Difference between Laravel and Lumen

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework for web development. It is free and was created by Taylor Otwell. It was based on MVC (Model View Controller) architectural pattern. It is primarily used for the development of web applications. Laravel is easy to understand and robust MVC framework for web application development in PHP. Lumen is a micro framework that means smaller, simpler, leaner, and faster; Lumen is primarily used to build for microservices with loosely coupled components that reduce complexity and enhance the improvements easily.

Laravel

Laravel is easy to understand and robust MVC framework for web application development in PHP. It was licensed under MIT. It was initially released in the year June 2011. It was completely written in the PHP programming language. Laravel provides a rich set of functionalities for development with the latest features. The security features on Laravel are very good in the case of web security, where web attacks are prevalent.

Lumen

Lumen is a micro framework that was created by the creator of Laravel, i.e. Taylor Otwell. Lumen means the smaller, simpler, leaner and faster version of the complete web application framework. Lumen framework has a foundation level that is at the same level as Laravel, with most of the similar components. Lumen has less configuration and different routing parameters in configuring the web applications and helps in the fast development with speed.

Head To Head Comparisons Between Laravel and Lumen (Infographics)

Below is the top 9 difference between Laravel vs Lumen:

Laravel vs Lumen Infographics

Key Differences between Laravel vs Lumen

Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference:

Laravel is a full-stack web application framework that packages or supports a lot of third-party tools and frameworks, whereas Lumen is a micro-framework that is used to develop microservices and API development with the intent of providing speed and high response time.
Laravel requires different kinds of configuration for the server, and other tools to be used along with the application, whereas Lumen micro framework is a light form of Laravel version that provides specialized features such as API development, cookies, templating, caching, logging, routing, HTTP sessions etc.
Laravel has features of clean architecture, open-source, growing community, a dependency injection only available framework for PHP, whereas Lumen is a micro framework, API feature, restful support, eloquent and easy to use.
Laravel can be integrated with a different more number of tools than Lumen, whereas Lumen has fewer integration facilities with other tools.
Laravel performance will be good in the case of SQL queries and tuning the database from the application level, whereas Lumen’s performance declines in the case of SQL queries and fewer features compared to Laravel.
Laravel has different specifications in the case of ORM framework, which is eloquent, and Blade is the default template engine which was written in PHP entirely, whereas Lumen has no specifications which were directly derived from Laravel.
Laravel has its own command-line interface, which is built-in along with the framework, whereas Lumen is a feature-rich micro-framework.
Laravel has an excellent built-in object-relational mapping framework, whereas Lumen is easily upgradable.
Laravel is good for building RESTful APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), whereas Lumen is one of the highest performing micro-framework API for building microservices.
Laravel has good documentation to work on and initialize the project kick-off, whereas Lumen has no clear documentation but is easy to use.
Laravel is easier to integrate authentication with the application, whereas Lumen has no inbuilt or easily integrated third part tool.
Laravel handles the event queuing easily, whereas Lumen has no inbuilt feature.
Laravel has a powerful template system, whereas Lumen has no such feature.
Laravel has a steep learning curve to master the framework, whereas Lumen less learning curve and easy to implement.
Laravel has poor performance and speed compared to Lumen, whereas Lumen has good performance.
Laravel has a Symfony framework that can be used to create Symfony Components where as Lumen does not have these features.

Laravel vs Lumen Comparison Table

Here are some of the Comparison between Laravel vs Lumen:

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The basis Of Comparison	Laravel	Lumen
Definition	It is an MVC based full-stack web application framework.	It is a micro-framework for the web application that creates micro-services.
Usage	It is PHP based on a full-stack web framework.	It is a light version of the Laravel framework.
Integration	It supports integration and usage along with the PHP programming language.	It supports integration by adding third-party packages or tools to enable new features.
Platform	It supports any operating systems or platforms.	It also supports as it was derived from Laravel.
Requests	It handles less requests per second compared to Lumen.	It handles more number of requests per second.
Community	It has a smaller community compared to Angular.	It has a larger community and many individual contributors.
License	It was licensed under MIT license.	It was also licensed under MIT and was derived from Laravel features.
Response Time	Response time is high for Laravel compared to Lumen.	Response time is less compared to Laravel.
Speed	Laravel works less speeder compared to Lumen.	Lumen is all about performance and speed.

Conclusion

Lumen vs Laravel both are PHP based web application frameworks for modern mobile, web and desktop applications, and they support different third-party tools or application integration and Lumen has poor community support but high performance enabling features, whereas Laravel has a large user base and great community support with high individual contributors. The choice should be Laravel in the case of community support and standard features, and many third-party tools multiple integration tools.

Laravel is more stable and requires more learning compared to Lumen and is recommended in the case of smaller applications that do not need performance and requires security of the application, whereas Lumen can be preferred in the case of the application performance irrespective of the features and integration facilities which can be improved using different other components and efficient techniques. The choice of selecting the framework depends on the parameters required for the application and the organization using the application, security features, community support, and easier or faster technical resolutions in the cases of glitches or failures in the application functionalities or components.