10 Benefits of Yii Framework for Small Businesses in 2024
The demand for faster application development is increasing with every passing day; consequently, web developers are exploring new web application platforms to come up with applications quickly. Of all the available web development frameworks, Yii is emerging as a popular choice. The high performance, built-in widgets, and component-based structure make this PHP framework a preferred choice for web developers.
More importantly, if you are running a small business or just launching a startup, getting Yii-based web, portal, and mobile application solutions can help you a lot. You can hire the services of a Yii framework development firm, for instance, Kijero, to meet your specific industry, niche, or domain needs. But why should you invest in Yii rather than other PHP-based web frameworks? This is an important question and deserves our in-depth analysis.
In this blog, we will be discussing how crucial it is for your small business to go for Yii. Besides this, you must also know the comparison between Yii and the popular eCommerce platform Magento. Therefore, in the end, we will briefly touch on this topic so that you can better make a decision when it comes to a suitable eCommerce platform and the best-serving PHP-based web framework.
Are you ready to join this exciting journey? Let’s dive in!
To start with, we will understand what the Yii framework is and what features make it one of the most popular PHP web application frameworks.
What is the Yii Framework?
Yii is a highly in-demand PHP framework. Yii stands for “Yes, it is.” In the Chinese language, Yii means simple and evolutionary. Like the meaning of its name, Yii is known for offering a web development framework that helps web developers create object-oriented MVC-based applications.
Yii web application framework is lightweight and capable of building web applications, portals, and mobile applications that have to handle the huge influx of traffic.
What are the Possible Uses of Yii?
Like other PHP frameworks such as Laravel, CodeIgniter, and more, Yii can also be used for various ends. It is generally deployed for building the following applications:
- Web Applications
- eCommerce
- CMS
- Social Network Sites
- Logistics and Deliver
- Other ends
As a thumb rule, the Yii framework is preferred for developing those applications that are set to perform repetitive tasks.
What Makes Yii Framework Development Special Platform:
Many unique features of Yii make it a great choice for many web developers to deliver cutting-edge web and mobile applications. Here are some worth mentioning capabilities:
Easy Code Generation:
The code generation feature is a very useful tool for small businesses. You don’t need to hire highly skilled IT professionals to write code from scratch. Yii can help professionals generate code automatically and with convenience. You can generate codes for controllers, viewers, modules, models, forms, and more.
Restful API Development:
This PHP framework offers built-in capabilities for developing Restful API development. You can thus easily expose your application functionalities, allowing you to integrate your applications with other third-party providers.
Authentication:
It has very robust and built-in support for authentication and authorization. You can use this capability to implement user authentication and access control mechanisms for effective data security.
Reliable Error Handling:
This PHP framework comes with a robust and reliable error-handling mechanism. Web developers use its error-handling features for various ends, such as logging messages, maintaining applications, facilitating debugging, troubleshooting, and more.
Having dwelt upon some salient features, it is now time to highlight some manifest benefits that your small business can accrue by investing in Yii framework development.
Benefits of Using Yii as a PHP Framework:
Here are some low-hanging dividends of having Yii-based web solutions, portals, or mobile applications:.
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Reduced Test Time:
Yii comes with various extensions and tools that can reduce testing time considerably. This makes this framework unique from other open-source PHP frameworks.
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Cost-Efficient:
Naturally, for every small business and startup, cost is a major constraint. Many factors make this framework extremely cost-effective. For instance:
- It is an open-source PHP framework that makes it free to use. Moreover, you don’t have to pay for a license fee in case you for go for Yii framework development option.
- PHP developers are easy to find. There are plenty of options out there in the eCommerce development world. You can easily find a PHP developer firm for has Yii-based mobile and web solutions.
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Robust Security Features:
Any security mishap can wreak havoc on your startup business. You must be extremely careful about that. Concerning this, migrating to the Yii platform is one of the best options you can have.
It comes with cutting-edge and built-in advanced security features, allowing you to execute web development projects with hacker-proof web and app development tools.
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Convenient Development:
For any small business, a steep learning curve can be a very costly affair. If there are very complex web development tools, it becomes necessary to invest in the skill development of the web development team. Yii is a perfect answer for those small businesses that are desperate to find a PHP framework that has comparatively less lead time.
The testing provided by this framework is also a major factor responsible for simplifying development procedures. It offers an automated autocorrection tool, Codereception, that greatly helps in identifying errors. With this tool, you can save both time and effort.
Secondly, integrating third-party libraries and components is very easy. You can use Yii for various ends, such as the promotion of code reuse and maintainability. Furthermore, Yii also extends support to modular applications as well.
All these factors come very handy for smaller businesses, and they can execute web development projects in a simplified manner.
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Community Support:
The community that is active, vibrant, and innovative is a great blessing. You can rely upon them for free troubleshooting, free guidance for overcoming various technical hurdles, and learn how to make your development skills more effective.
Fortunately, Yii has very active community support. You can access an experienced pool of expertise and experience to make your Yii solutions competitive without investing much. On top of that, the community supports the sustainability of Yii technology, avoiding largely the risks of obsolete technology, and thus waste of scarce resources.
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Short Development Time:
Needless to say, the less development time, the less resources IT firms have to spend to come up with web products and solutions. The longer development time causes a considerable increase in costs, therefore, businesses, in particular small businesses, prefer to find the shortest possible time.
Yii framework, in this regard, is a great help. The ease of configuration autocorrection and testing tools means that IT firms are capable of accelerating the development procedure. In this way, they can save both resources and time in web application development.
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Caching:
The Yii platform has support for caching. Web developers know very well how important caching is to improve the speed and performance of websites. With the help of this PHP framework, you can easily integrate caching components.
Some easily available cache components are cMemCache, cDummyCache, eFileCache, and more.
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Easy Installation:
Easy installation is another factor that makes this framework popular among small businesses. You can easily download the Yii framework from the website. All you need is to specify the configuration of a database, and you are ready to rule the web application development world.
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Readily Available Features:
It is a full-stack PHP framework platform. You can use its readily and ready-to-use powerful features to come up with web applications, mobile apps, and portals. Features such as active records and query builders are a great help in reducing the development period. Your small business, struggling to establish itself in a market flooded by well-entrenched players, would be able to market its services and products quickly.
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Customizability:
Every business needs customized eCommerce solutions and web applications to stand out in the market. Yii comes in very handy in this regard. Web developers can easily deliver web application products that align perfectly with your needs. You can thus enjoy a competitive edge with solutions, reflecting your brand messaging, visions, and business values.
More importantly, you can achieve this highly sought-after edge without breaking the bank, because Yii enables building cost-effective web application solutions.
Having discussed some benefits that small businesses can get from migrating to Yii for web application development, we will now compare Yii with Magento, which is a popular PHP-based open-source platform.
Yii Vs Magento: Which One is Better and Why:
Both Yii and Magento are PHP-based frameworks that can be deployed for developing web solutions, web applications, and mobile applications. Both of these platforms can have advantages and disadvantages, as we have discussed below. (If you want to know more about Magento, click here).
Purposes:
Yii framework Platform is a general-purpose platform known for offering features such as MVC architecture, database access, authentication, authorization, caching, and more.
Magento, on the other hand, is a specific eCommerce platform that features specialized resources and tools for online store management. For instance, Magento supports shopping carts, marketing, shipping, and more.
Customizability:
Generally, Yii is considered more customizable than Magento. Yii developers have full control over design and code; therefore, they can create any kind of web or mobile application.
Magento is less customizable, but it is more user-friendly, featuring multiple built-in capabilities and functionalities to deliver feature-rich online stores.
Suitability:
Yii is preferred when the development of small and medium-sized web applications requires MVC architecture.
eCommerce web developers prefer to use the Magento eCommerce platform for building feature-packed online stores that can provide a competitive edge to online entrepreneurs.
This is a brief comparison; now we will look at the possible disadvantages of both of these PHP-based frameworks that web developers must know. Here you go!
Disadvantages of the Yii Framework Development Process:
You must be mindful of these shortcomings of the Yii web development platform.
- It does demand understanding, knowledge, and expertise in PHP programming languages. It is sometimes hard for beginner programmers to fully exploit the potential of this framework.
- This framework does not offer support for AR queries or developing multiple relations and connections.
- Finally, the fact that Ajax features are not well-drafted, you may end up using JavaScript sometimes.
These are some shortcomings that you must take care of, now we will look at some drawbacks of Magento as well.
Limitations of Magento-based eCommerce Development:
You know every bean has its black, the same is the case with Magento. Like every eCommerce platform, Magento also suffers from drawbacks. Here are some of them you need to take into consideration.
- The first major hurdle in way of implementing a Magento solution is the high cost of development. It is more expensive than other SaaS-based platforms such as Shopify or eCommerce.
- Second, Magento is a complex platform. You may end up struggling to make sense of more than 20,000 files and 200 database tables, making it challenging to execute a Magento-based eCommerce project. You may need a professional Magento development firm ( click here for more details).
- Third, development time with Magento is lengthy. It is a layered software, making it hard to come out with eCommerce products quickly.
Conclusion:
In this age of digital-first business environment, demands for innovative and scalable eCommerce solutions are almost unsatiable. Web developers are always in search of eCommerce web application tools that help them remain ahead of the curve. Yii is one PHP framework platform that has gained huge traction among web developers.
Businesses, particularly smaller ones, prefer to develop Yii-based web and mobile applications. It is cost-effective, easy to configure, and provides customization. But at the same time, it also has some drawbacks as well. To further facilitate you, we have compared Yii with Magento so that you can make a better choice.
We do hope that you will find this piece of writing informative and helpful. Thanks for reading. We are looking forward to receiving your feedback.