I came from Codeigniter aswell and I absolutely love Laravel now!

In the beginning I was pretty skeptic about Laravel, but after using it for a while I like it really much!

For me the migration wasn't really hard, everything I used and will use is here. Especially the authentication part which is awesome in Laravel.

The only thing that I did not find out yet is multiple languages, so if you find a solution for that I would love to know!

Giovanni

We get this question a lot - and really, you just have to try Laravel out and see. You're naturally going to get positive answers here because, well, we use and like the framework...

It has been a long time since I've used CI - I came to Laravel from CakePHP, and it's light years ahead in my opinion.

A basic auth system is included (see the docs) and there are plenty of packages out there that add more power - groups, roles etc. Packalyst is a decent source of Laravel packages: http://packalyst.com/

There is a localisation feature (http://laravel.com/docs/localization) and probably other packages that build on that, it's not something I've worked with yet.

As for community, well - this whole site (Laravel.io) is our new community site, constructed by several community members, our old forum has been archived but was very active indeed, and no doubt this one will now ramp up too. There is also a good IRC channel which is almost always active. Laravel.io is quite new, and I believe an Articles module is coming up next, quite soon.

A good start is of course the official docs, but also check out the API and the code itself, it's generally well commented for anything not covered in the docs. There are tutorials galore online, and arguably Jeffrey Way's on Nettuts (and now http://laracasts.com [note: paid subscription]) are some of the best. You should also pick up a copy of Dayle's excellent "Code Bright" book: https://leanpub.com/codebright

comparing laravel to codeigniter - after the transition you get the same feeling if you're watching top gear after fifth gear :D

laravel is not hard to learn at all. just with codeigniter background it may seem at the beginning, but it will change quickly.

for multilingual support check this: https://github.com/mcamara/laravel-localization very easy to use, if the functionality suits you.

My advice is to write a small app like a blog. If you're from a Php MVC background, this is going to super simple for you. Use the assets provided above and get it done.

Seriously, the best way to know is to do. You're going to shock yourself as we all did.

Hmm, I must look really rude - I never replied! I actually just thought now one had replied because I never got any email alerts? In fact I can even see where I can manage this, or any profile settings for the forum? ...I'm feeling very stupid right now!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm just firing up my first little project to see how it goes. A final question, I'd like to use a single sign on/auth for an older codeigniter app and a new laravel app? Ideally I'd like to use laravel for the auth, and have codeigniter call it in. Any idea as to if this is possible?

Having read everyone elses comments I thought I would add my own.

I came from CodeIgniter to Laravel & have never looked back since, Laravel provides easy to use code base and speed wise from coding in the framework to sites and applications you make are 10 times faster I would say. Not only does Laravel ship with an Auth feature which saves about 2 hours coding time, there a lots of packages available from billing to PDF generation which again makes development time more speedy.

At first glance looking at the Laravel docs and if your like me didn't use Terminal/Command Line that much it can be slightly dorwnting, but once you start digging in and getting to grips with it all, all I can say it's AWESOME! by far the best framework out there and I can see it lasting for many, many years to come. More and More people are jumping on the band wagon because of it's simplicity and ease of use.

So my advice to you would be dig in, subscribe to laracasts.com and build something beautiful!

like you, i came from CI. i wanted a framework that was similar to CI but had more built in features as well as support for the new PHP versions. laravel did that for me. it's only been a month since i started to switch to laravel. coming from CI, the concept is the same, MVC. be careful as many examples you'll find on the internet may not follow the MVC convention - because they are meant to show how to do certain things, in a fast way. for instance, i found many tutorials/examples using the routes file to display output instead of controller to view. confused me at first thinking, is this the way to do it in laravel? but it's not, just a quick way for the author to provide an example and result.

i guess one of the biggest hurdle for me during the transition is syntax... "this is how i did it with CI, but how do i it in laravel"? as for getting support, this forum has helped a bit. there's also help in the chat room. i also subscribed to laracasts.com.

eloquent and auth libraries have been a huge time saver. migration is a big help specially in a multi-dev environment and during updates. seeding helps when i'm converting from an old app to laravel. as many have suggested, just build something to help you learn. i'm currently converting a CI project to laravel to help me transition. i'll have to do it anyway once i'm more comfortable with it.

Thanks guys,

Sounds really good. Glad to here people find the transition from CI not to difficult -- Looking forward to jumping in.

I came from a MVC php5.2 background. I spent a lot hurting to catch up :)

From what I've seen here on both forums is that if you're from a framework like CI or have a pretty good grasp of design patterns you'll be rocking!

Recently, the tutorials that use the routes file to show test code have finally died down. That was thing I could never understand in the beginning and learning how to read the docs with my back ground was another.

I almost chose Yii but the 2.o version seemed like vapor ware and L4.0 was just hitting the stands. I'm glad I chose laravel and hope that many other people feel the same :)

But like anything, it's still a preference ;)

I guess laravel it is :)

I have seen all the forums all are discussed about this question that is which is best php framework? But people doesn't know about all the frameworks are best.but they fight with each other. Any way i have answer for you. laravel vs codeigniter and laravel vs yii. You can read these. i hope you will get some solution. http://laraveldevelopment.blogspot.in/2015/10/laravel-vs-codeigniter-which-is-better.html

http://agriyaservices.blogspot.in/2015/07/which-is-best-php-framework-laravel-vs.html