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Ask HN: MVP uses PHP, needs a rewrite. Should we use Laravel, or Ruby on Rails?

1 points by TechSpectator ↗ HN
I'm working on a project and am considering a full rewrite in order to clean up bad code, improve security, and most importantly: make it easier to add new features going forward.

I'm knowledgable in PHP, and new to Ruby on Rails. I could reuse existing code with Laravel [0], but it needs much more than a simple refactoring, and it'd be nice to rewrite everything with PHP5+ conventions (classes and inheritance, etc).

Switching to Ruby on Rails will force a full rewrite, and I wouldn't mind using this project as a means to dive into ruby.

One concern is that it might take longer to learn ruby on rails than to rewrite the PHP version, but if ruby makes adding new features easier in the future, it would have been well worth it.

In the end, both approaches are basically a full rewrite. Any suggestions? Has anyone encountered a similar scenario?

[0] http://laravel.com/

4 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 23.1 ms ] thread
tomschlick
Use what you know. Laravel would be the best choice here in my opinion. RoR & Laravel have very similar feature sets, community etc so going with RoR wouldn't be any greater benefit than Laravel.
mcarrano
In this case since you have more experience with PHP, go with Laravel.

Sure it is nice to learn a new language/framework while you work on an idea but it is also the easiest way to get discouraged from finishing as it will take longer to complete.

jalateras
In terms of short term economics it's probably easier to stick with what you know. Without knowing the scope of the project it's hard to comment on whether other technologies would be more beneficial in the longer term
raghavb
I would say depends on what your goals are. Is this a personal project and do you want to make money with it or is this something that you are doing for learning as part of your career.

If you want to make money on the project and want to get it out as fast as possible Go with laravel. You already know the stack and will be productive in it. You might also be able to reuse parts of the code thats already written or put it in the right place.

On the other hand if you want to learn another programming language or want to go outside of your comfort zone then give Ruby on Rails a shot. Not sure about Laravel but for a small to medium website, ruby does make adding a lot of features much faster via its gems.