Goodies from Maravel Micro-Framework vs Lumen - Must Read

Maravel-Micro-Framework

1. The Laravel\Lumen\Application class does not implement the Illuminate\Contracts\Foundation\Application interface, which can cause compatibility issues with certain Laravel libraries that expect this contract to be fulfilled. The Maravel Micro-Framework’s Application class implements Illuminate\Contracts\Foundation\Application interface.
2. Maravel includes features like registerExplicitBindingsMap and core container aliases, supporting advanced service container optimizations and boot-time improvements. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-frameworks-got-new-speed-and-control-improvements-10-57-0-5430afaee690 for mode details.
3. Lumen does not offer config:cache and route:cache but Maravel (template / micro-framework) does. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-lumen-config-cache-and-route-cache-fee101f8b1bd for more details.
4. Lumen does not support Observers but both Lumen and Maravel can handle them if they are registered manually. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-framework-10-56-0-improves-boot-time-for-events-and-observers-a71437f76bea for more details.
5. Routes by domain can be used both in Lumen and Maravel. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/lumen-routes-by-domain-2bc3a43ac991 for more details.
6. Development commands from Laravel that were not present in Lumen can now be experimentally used via https://github.com/macropay-solutions/maravel-framework-dev package in both Lumen and Maravel. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-framework-10-55-0-lost-10-8k-rows-of-overhead-improving-speed-and-security-54d058fc3d9a for more details.
7. Maravel puts the power in your hands so you can choose what modules to load. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-microframework-just-got-lighter-and-faster-than-ever-5fb15d248331 for more details.
8. Maravel empowers you to replace most of the Macroable classes by resolving them from DI. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-a-php-framework-oriented-towards-dependency-injection-8151bb0d5406 for more details.
9. Maravel contains security fixes that Laravel/Lumen considers corner cases. Example: https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/51825
10. Maravel contains a fix for validation that does not validate sometimes empty strings. See https://github.com/macropay-solutions/maravel-framework/releases/tag/10.50.10 for more details. Laravel considers this a feature.
11. Maravel uses forwardDecoratedCallTo instead of forwardCallTo in \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder::__call to avoid situations when you expect int and you get Builder on response.
12. Maravel has improved casts while Laravel/Lumen did not. See https://github.com/macropay-solutions/maravel-framework/pull/21/files for more details.
13. The cast optimization lead to another feature. Prevent model updates. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/frozen-model-read-only-dto-with-laravel-crud-wizard-free-6bf274e341fa for more details.
14. Maravel does not fire saved event when the model is not dirty and was not updated with a query in DB. Lumen/Laravel does. See https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/56254 for more details.
15. Maravel contains the Request macros from laravel-crud-wizard-free, alowing you to get filtered data from request. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/avoid-fatal-errors-when-filtering-data-from-request-with-laravel-crud-wizard-free-b970c26af5e6 for more details.

For more retroactive bug fixes and useful features check the wiki section and my other articles.

At the time of writing this article, there are 4 new PRs for the Maravel-Framework Kernel that will be included in Maravel:

• Implement cache lock refresh
• POC Block calls from Model to Eloquent Builder from__call but allow from __callStatic
• Fix escaped dot parameters in validator addRules and sometimes
• POC Handle memory overflow in jobs by failing them https://github.com…

UPDATE 2026.01.07
16 Maravel has 38 development commands from Maravelith/Laravel that can be used also in Lumen. See https://marius-ciclistu.medium.com/maravel-framework-dev-1-1-0-adds-38-dev-commands-to-maravel-lumen-09b2b15cccf3 for more details.