Stability over time. Laravel is well tested by so many people, it is the most popular framework right now
Well documented & clear upgrade process. This one is the definitive strength of laravel. You can even get a service that upgrades framework automatically for you.
Grows with my needs over time.
Doesn't break backward compatibility on a whim. Not sure what you mean by backward compatibility, but laravel definitely scales very well, especially now we have laravel zero.
Ok to have one option for small stuff and one for big projects. Laravel is just a mvc framework, but if you think using it is too heavy for a small project, you can do it with lumen
Thanks for your comment. Though to be honest, Laravel's instability is the root cause of my dilemma, or I would have jumped on Laravel without hesitation. I recently learned Laravel and created a college course on it - so I'd choose it if I could. But I get the impression that backward breaking changes are a frequent part of Laravel's updates. And things are changed and removed on a whim.
I hear that v6 is going to start using SemVer. Which is nice... but Taylor has expressed that this won't slow down the pace or style of updates for Laravel - so I suspect the major version number will jump up frequently which doesn't really solve the problem.
I think it's great that Laravel is going through this rapid evolution. I'm sure this is leading Laravel quickly to a really awesome state (it's already awesome), and if I had only one giant project to focus on I'd choose Laravel in a heartbeat. But since will potentially have many, many projects on the framework I choose, I can't be going through BC breaking updates so frequently.
Personally I use laravel (4.2 + 5.5) and never had problems with backwards incompatibility.
Upgrade paths are clearly documented, and there are also free and payed upgrade tools available.
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I would recommend laravel :
Thanks for your comment. Though to be honest, Laravel's instability is the root cause of my dilemma, or I would have jumped on Laravel without hesitation. I recently learned Laravel and created a college course on it - so I'd choose it if I could. But I get the impression that backward breaking changes are a frequent part of Laravel's updates. And things are changed and removed on a whim.
I hear that v6 is going to start using SemVer. Which is nice... but Taylor has expressed that this won't slow down the pace or style of updates for Laravel - so I suspect the major version number will jump up frequently which doesn't really solve the problem.
I think it's great that Laravel is going through this rapid evolution. I'm sure this is leading Laravel quickly to a really awesome state (it's already awesome), and if I had only one giant project to focus on I'd choose Laravel in a heartbeat. But since will potentially have many, many projects on the framework I choose, I can't be going through BC breaking updates so frequently.
If backward compatibility is that important, go for laravel LTS, which is either 5.5 or 6.0... That should settle your mind a bit...
LTS versions for laravel are supported for 2-3 years (bugs-security)
Symfony has 3-4 years of updates on their LTS versions
symfony.com/roadmap
Personally I use laravel (4.2 + 5.5) and never had problems with backwards incompatibility.
Upgrade paths are clearly documented, and there are also free and payed upgrade tools available.