Comparisons
StrataPHP vs Laravel
Laravel is the monolith king. StrataPHP is the modular alternative. Here's when to pick each.
Quick Comparison
| Philosophy | Pay for what you use | Batteries included |
| Boot Time | ~3ms | ~45ms |
| Core Size | ~450kb | ~40MB |
| ORM | Bring your own | Eloquent |
| Magic | None | Heavy reflection |
What’s the Same
Moving from Laravel? You won’t lose these:
- PHP 8.3+ — Modern PHP, typed properties, attributes
- Composer — Same dependency management
- MVC pattern — Controllers, models, views
- Routing — Route groups, parameters, middleware
- Migrations — Database versioning via CLI
- Blade-style templating — Use Plates, Twig, or bring Blade
- CLI tools — `bin/console` equivalent commands
- Testing — PHPUnit/Pest work exactly the same
- Environment files — `.env` support built-in
- Queues & Caching — Add via modules, PSR-16/PSR-6
Choose StrataPHP if you want...
- Sub-10ms API responses without Octane
- PSR-7/11/15 with no facade layer
- To understand every line of your stack
- Explicit dependency injection, no magic
Choose Laravel if you want...
- Auth, mail, queues, broadcasting today
- Blade + Eloquent + massive ecosystem
- Convention over configuration
- Hire junior devs who already know it
Migration Path
Coming from Laravel? Read the migration guide. Many Laravel packages work in StrataPHP via PSR bridges. You can run StrataPHP modules inside Laravel via PSR-15 middleware.
What's The Same?
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