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PHP

Laravel CMS – Research

Hello!

We are starting some new projects and I lost hope in Kohana… no one seems to care enough, community is almost lost, not compatible with PHP7 and honestly I do not have the time to maintain it… was a tough decision after many years, but from now on I will not start any new project using Kohana. I will of course maintain many projects that do use Kohana and I want to thank anyone who has contributed, was a great framework, but is time to move on.


Why Laravel?

I’ve been checking other really popular frameworks, like Symfony, Yii, Zend and phalconphp. Checking the code I felt more familiar with Laravel, also seems community is really good and laracasts are super good… So good framework (which uses many SF components), good docs, good community, loads of “modules/plugins/packages” and here. Decision made xD


Why a CMS / platform?

I honestly do not want to start from 0, so I want like a boilerplate that covers the basics things that almost any app / web sill need, such as auth, admin panel, content management, API, captcha, payment methods, etc..

So something like wordpress but modern and better done. This is basically an economic decision, based on not to spend time/money when someone has already done it, and probably better than me… I love to develop but I love more to deliver on time and to worry less about other parts of the app 😉

I found a super useful list in Symfony CMS, which lists CMS that uses any SF component…therefore more chances is based on laravel, and also good to see what others have to offer.

CMS / Platforms based on Laravel

  • October CMS – Plugins, themes, great community, docs… but there’s no API, the plugin builder is awesome, nice backend design, installation system… really good job.
  • Pyrocms – Now uses laravel, but docs are missing I can not find plugins nor themes… so we will need to wait to see how it develops in near future.
  • Laravel Spark – Looks good and there’s even laracasts , not FOSS and starts from $99 for a project $300 unlimited. I could not tested before.. so not sure what to expect I saw the videos and has many interesting features such native API, subscriptions.., documentation looks good and its backed by the creator of laravel. I think is the best for what I want.
  • Laravel 5 Boilerplate – Seems a great option full of features (admin, crud, etc..), I am still unable to install it xD
  • AsgardCMS – They really need to work on the design of their home site…doesnt look professional. Not huge community but seems active, docs are ok, and has some screencasts. Modular, multilingual and nice admin interface, no demo to test.
  • LaravelPanel – Doesn’t look really active, is more like a CRUD admin but for a starting point should be more than valid 😉
  • BootstrapCMS – Has a lot of starts and forks but development seems a bit stopped. I think a bit outdated.
  • lavalite – decent community , theres no docs, but it has many nice things! forums, blog, FAQs, tasks, galleries… all of them are packages :O awesome.
  • Vuedo – Vuedo is blog platform, built with Laravel and Vue.js, not huge community, I see lack of plugins and themes, doesn’t even have a “homepage” a pity. Looks great.
  • Wardrobe, Blogging platform, seems not updated since 2014 :(, looks good and simple, Laravel 4.4.1, so not an option.
  • Statamic, static files no need of DB. Looks good, although without DB, I don’t think will work for what I need. Also its not FOSS and you need to pay $200 of license.

Worth mention not Laravel

  • bolt.cm – not built with laravel, but looks good… docs, community, extensions, themes.. design seems old and difficult to use.
  • pagekit – Another one built with SF, great design, easy to use, good community, but I see a lack of extensions and themes. docs seems fine. Really nice 😉
  • jarves – nice design and seems perfect for what I need, but seems thers not a really big community…and I do not want to make the same mistake again 🙁
  • sulu.io – doesn’t seem to have abig community, nor themes nor plugins.
  • Postleaf – Really new CMS specialized in blogging. Based in Slim framework, the interface is super nice, but still really early to tell since plugins are not working and some other minor issues, but worth to keep an eye on them.

 

Best candidates

October CMS

Pros

Cons

  • There’s no API 🙁 but many people is asking for this so seems something will come pretty soon.
  • The folder structure is not the same as in Laravel.
  • Complicated to create a theme, I do not fully understand why using a theme does not work out of the box
  • Not sure I like the DB structure, many tables many fields…

Pagekit

I know its based on Symfony…but that doesn’t matter 😉

Pros

  • Great design
  • Easy installation
  • Themes and plugins
  • Good table structure

Cons

  • Too new
  • Not huge community yet
  • Another layer of development

And what’s your experience? please share! any help welcome!

Update: Same but info from laravel news.