<p>In my company we work with Craft and Laravel only, so this question comes up quite often and is a moving target as time passes and both platforms evolve.</p>

<p>Since Craft is built on Yii you can do almost everything what you can do with Laravel. You have basically 3 options here: Craft-only, Nova-only or a hybrid. I would ask myself at least the following questions to make a decision:</p>

<ul>
<li>Do you need to write a lot of tests for the business logic? -> even though Craft caught up on testing, still +1 for Nova and Laravel</li>
<li>Is the editorial part of the application really trivial? Like, can you avoid having complexity in the editorial <em>and</em> business logic part of the application? -> +1 for the hybrid</li>
<li>Do both parts of the application really <em>have</em> to communicate with each other? Can you avoid a shared user authentication? (should generally considered as last option IMO) -> +1 for the hybrid</li>
<li>What about integrations, are there plugins/packages available that you can use right away? -> depends on the research</li>
<li>Is there any show stopper for the business logic part regarding Craft? (Arbitrary example: You need a multi-tenancy architecture, don't take Craft-only.)</li>
</ul>

<p>So in the end the good news is, there is not necessarily a right or a wrong answer here. The bad news is, either way you go you'll always feel like: "What if I had..."</p>

<p>You see, personally I lean more towards Laravel for custom application development, just because I am more comfortable with it than with Yii. I would definitely consider to take the advantages of both platforms in exchange for a bigger code base and maintenance effort. But only if one application part can be dumb and the other complex.</p>

<p>Maybe now you are even more uncertain than before :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-05T15:15:12.163Z
2020-06-05T15:15:12.163Z
Johannes
<p>My question is more conceptual than technical;</p>

<p>I have a website who have two big topics, on is purely editorial (pages, articles, faq, ...), the other is basically a comparator based on user input with account, sending contracts by mail and by post, reminders, signatures, etc etc. The business logic is quite complex.</p>

<p>I started doing everything in laravel + nova admin but I quickly felt frustrated for the cms part, as I'm used to Craft, and everything where Craft is good at is a pain and takes time to recreate in nova (the tool is an admin that has some cms capabilities, but is really far form Craft).
So I ended up with two applications, Craft for content editing, and Laravel + nova for the custom part.</p>

<p>Is it a good idea ? Or should I put custom parts in custom craft plugins ? Can I do <em>eveything</em>, I guess like yii apps ?</p>

<p>In my current situation, I fear that I will end up with more complexity, making the two applications communicate seamlessly will take time, maybe mix authentifications,...
In the other hand, I have the impression to really own the codebase and database with a barebone laravel app, than putting everything into Craft, as good as he is. But it's maybe a noob assumption.</p>

<p>What in your experience is the best way to go ?</p>

<p>Thanks for your inputs !</p>

<plugin-development>
Craft plugin or external application
# Craft plugin or external application

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-05)

My question is more conceptual than technical;

I have a website who have two big topics, on is purely editorial (pages, articles, faq, ...), the other is basically a comparator based on user input with account, sending contracts by mail and by post, reminders, signatures, etc etc. The business logic is quite complex.

I started doing everything in laravel + nova admin but I quickly felt frustrated for the cms part, as I'm used to Craft, and everything where Craft is good at is a pain and takes time to recreate in nova (the tool is an admin that has some cms capabilities, but is really far form Craft).
So I ended up with two applications, Craft for content editing, and Laravel + nova for the custom part.

Is it a good idea ? Or should I put custom parts in custom craft plugins ? Can I do *eveything*, I guess like yii apps ?

In my current situation, I fear that I will end up with more complexity, making the two applications communicate seamlessly will take time, maybe mix authentifications,...
In the other hand, I have the impression to really own the codebase and database with a barebone laravel app, than putting everything into Craft, as good as he is. But it's maybe a noob assumption.

What in your experience is the best way to go ?

Thanks for your inputs !

**Tags:** plugin-development

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-06-05. Score: 2

In my company we work with Craft and Laravel only, so this question comes up quite often and is a moving target as time passes and both platforms evolve.

Since Craft is built on Yii you can do almost everything what you can do with Laravel. You have basically 3 options here: Craft-only, Nova-only or a hybrid. I would ask myself at least the following questions to make a decision:

* Do you need to write a lot of tests for the business logic? -> even though Craft caught up on testing, still +1 for Nova and Laravel
* Is the editorial part of the application really trivial? Like, can you avoid having complexity in the editorial *and* business logic part of the application? -> +1 for the hybrid
* Do both parts of the application really *have* to communicate with each other? Can you avoid a shared user authentication? (should generally considered as last option IMO) -> +1 for the hybrid
* What about integrations, are there plugins/packages available that you can use right away? -> depends on the research
* Is there any show stopper for the business logic part regarding Craft? (Arbitrary example: You need a multi-tenancy architecture, don't take Craft-only.)

So in the end the good news is, there is not necessarily a right or a wrong answer here. The bad news is, either way you go you'll always feel like: "What if I had..."

You see, personally I lean more towards Laravel for custom application development, just because I am more comfortable with it than with Yii. I would definitely consider to take the advantages of both platforms in exchange for a bigger code base and maintenance effort. But only if one application part can be dumb and the other complex.

Maybe now you are even more uncertain than before :)


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