Before telling you the difference between these frameworks, first I want to tell you what is framework. A framework is a structure that eases the development process. CMS (Content Management System) is little bit different from framework in the sense that it is a development structure that you can use. But to use framework you have to start making the project for your needs from the beginning. There are other frameworks too like symfony and zend but they have hard learning curve. On the other hand codeigniter, yii and cakephp is little bit easier to start. So let me discuss the difference between these three frameworks.
Codeigniter:
Here are features of codeigniter:-
- Simple
- Light weight
- Not good for big sites with many features
- Does not have authorization and authentication at its core
- Very easy documentation to follow
- No model, view and controller generators
- No ajax helper
- Not supports ORM
- Project can be developed without using model
- Caching method is available for view
- Uploading file is easily done in codeigniter
- REST is used as web services
- Easy to learn
- Forums are not very active
Cakephp
Cakephp has following features:-
- Strict naming conventions
- Better validation then codeigniter
- Has not good manual as compared to codeigniter
- Code generation is quicker but harder to understand
- Have authentication in its core
- Supports ORM
- Bake tool for creating models, views and controllers
- Validation occurs in model i.e. before and during saving etc.
- XML-RPC is used as web service
- Looks similar to ruby on rails
- Harder to learn for newbie as compared to codeigniter
- Forums are active and you will get quicker response
Yii
Yii has following things:-
- Best for speed
- Performance become good if use APC cache
- More security than codeigniter
- Good access rules and control filters
- Gii is used for creating module, crud, model, view and controller
- Used for creating scalable applications
- Active community
- Good search feature
- Good support for HTML5
- Best tabular input
- Multi-uploader, pdf support for HTML5 and flash
- DAO and active record feature
- Widgets support
- Theming
- I18 and LION
As you have seen there are many differences between each framework and each framework has its own features. So the question arise that which framework to choose. I suggest you to get started with codeigniter if you are new then go for cakephp and then yii.