StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Frameworks
  5. CodeIgniter vs Lumen

CodeIgniter vs Lumen

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter
Stacks3.2K
Followers1.5K
Votes466
Lumen
Lumen
Stacks429
Followers673
Votes161
GitHub Stars7.6K
Forks992

CodeIgniter vs Lumen: What are the differences?

Introduction: CodeIgniter and Lumen are both popular PHP frameworks used for web development, each with its unique set of features and advantages. Understanding the key differences between these two frameworks can help developers choose the right tool for their specific project requirements.

  1. Performance: Lumen is known for its lightweight structure and fast performance, making it ideal for building APIs and microservices that require high speed and efficiency. On the other hand, CodeIgniter, while still a lightweight framework, may not offer the same level of performance optimization as Lumen due to its broader range of features and functionalities.

  2. Complexity: Lumen is designed for smaller applications and projects that require minimal setup and configuration, making it a great choice for developers looking to build simple, streamlined applications quickly. CodeIgniter, on the other hand, is more suitable for larger, more complex projects that require a wider array of features and capabilities, making it a versatile option for a variety of web development needs.

  3. Documentation: CodeIgniter is known for its extensive documentation and active community support, providing developers with a wealth of resources and tutorials to help them get started and troubleshoot issues along the way. Lumen, while still well-documented, may not offer the same level of comprehensive resources and community support as CodeIgniter, making it slightly more challenging for beginners to pick up and master.

  4. Database Support: CodeIgniter comes with built-in support for a variety of popular databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite, allowing developers to work seamlessly with different database systems based on their project requirements. In comparison, Lumen focuses primarily on supporting the use of the lightweight MySQL database, which may limit its versatility for projects that require compatibility with other database systems.

  5. Customization: Lumen provides a more minimalist and opinionated framework structure, offering developers fewer options for customization but streamlining the development process for smaller, straightforward projects. On the other hand, CodeIgniter offers a more flexible and customizable framework architecture, allowing developers to tailor the framework to their specific project needs and preferences, making it a preferred choice for developers seeking more control over their development environment.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between CodeIgniter and Lumen in terms of performance, complexity, documentation, database support, and customization can help developers make an informed decision when choosing the right PHP framework for their web development projects.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on CodeIgniter, Lumen

Ajeet
Ajeet

Dec 16, 2019

Needs advice

Hi, We are thinking to rebuild a website and need your suggestion on which platform to choose from NodeJs, Laravel & CodeIgnitor. Since it's an education base website and there will be multiple functionalities like the use of graphics, video, animation and off-course forms for lead generation. Please advise us which tool to use to build the website considering load-time, server security, code vulnerability, etc.

216k views216k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

CodeIgniter
CodeIgniter
Lumen
Lumen

CodeIgniter is a proven, agile & open PHP web application framework with a small footprint. It is powering the next generation of web apps.

Laravel Lumen is a stunningly fast PHP micro-framework for building web applications with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Lumen attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as routing, database abstraction, queueing, and caching.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
7.6K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
992
Stacks
3.2K
Stacks
429
Followers
1.5K
Followers
673
Votes
466
Votes
161
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 88
    Mvc
  • 76
    Easy setup
  • 70
    Open source
  • 62
    Well documented
  • 36
    Community support
Cons
  • 6
    No ORM
  • 1
    No CLI
Pros
  • 38
    API
  • 28
    Microframework
  • 19
    MVC
  • 16
    PHP
  • 12
    Open source
Cons
  • 3
    Not fast
  • 2
    PHP
  • 1
    Not fast with MongoDB
Integrations
PHP
PHP
PHP
PHP

What are some alternatives to CodeIgniter, Lumen?

Node.js

Node.js

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Rails

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Laravel

Laravel

It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

.NET

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

ExpressJS

ExpressJS

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

Symfony

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase