Answers.Body: <p>In my company we work with Craft and Laravel only, so this question comes up quite often and is a moving target as time passes and both platforms evolve.</p>
  
  <p>Since Craft is built on Yii you can do almost everything what you can do with Laravel. You have basically 3 options here: Craft-only, Nova-only or a hybrid. I would ask myself at least the following questions to make a decision:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Do you need to write a lot of tests for the business logic? -> even though Craft caught up on testing, still +1 for Nova and Laravel</li>
  <li>Is the editorial part of the application really trivial? Like, can you avoid having complexity in the editorial <em>and</em> business logic part of the application? -> +1 for the hybrid</li>
  <li>Do both parts of the application really <em>have</em> to communicate with each other? Can you avoid a shared user authentication? (should generally considered as last option IMO) -> +1 for the hybrid</li>
  <li>What about integrations, are there plugins/packages available that you can use right away? -> depends on the research</li>
  <li>Is there any show stopper for the business logic part regarding Craft? (Arbitrary example: You need a multi-tenancy architecture, don't take Craft-only.)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>So in the end the good news is, there is not necessarily a right or a wrong answer here. The bad news is, either way you go you'll always feel like: "What if I had..."</p>
  
  <p>You see, personally I lean more towards Laravel for custom application development, just because I am more comfortable with it than with Yii. I would definitely consider to take the advantages of both platforms in exchange for a bigger code base and maintenance effort. But only if one application part can be dumb and the other complex.</p>
  
  <p>Maybe now you are even more uncertain than before :)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-06-05T15:15:12.163Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-06-05T15:15:12.163Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Johannes
Body: <p>My question is more conceptual than technical;</p>
  
  <p>I have a website who have two big topics, on is purely editorial (pages, articles, faq, ...), the other is basically a comparator based on user input with account, sending contracts by mail and by post, reminders, signatures, etc etc. The business logic is quite complex.</p>
  
  <p>I started doing everything in laravel + nova admin but I quickly felt frustrated for the cms part, as I'm used to Craft, and everything where Craft is good at is a pain and takes time to recreate in nova (the tool is an admin that has some cms capabilities, but is really far form Craft).
  So I ended up with two applications, Craft for content editing, and Laravel + nova for the custom part.</p>
  
  <p>Is it a good idea ? Or should I put custom parts in custom craft plugins ? Can I do <em>eveything</em>, I guess like yii apps ?</p>
  
  <p>In my current situation, I fear that I will end up with more complexity, making the two applications communicate seamlessly will take time, maybe mix authentifications,...
  In the other hand, I have the impression to really own the codebase and database with a barebone laravel app, than putting everything into Craft, as good as he is. But it's maybe a noob assumption.</p>
  
  <p>What in your experience is the best way to go ?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for your inputs !</p>
  
Tags: <plugin-development>
Title: Craft plugin or external application
ThreadText: # Craft plugin or external application
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-05)
  
  My question is more conceptual than technical;
  
  I have a website who have two big topics, on is purely editorial (pages, articles, faq, ...), the other is basically a comparator based on user input with account, sending contracts by mail and by post, reminders, signatures, etc etc. The business logic is quite complex.
  
  I started doing everything in laravel + nova admin but I quickly felt frustrated for the cms part, as I'm used to Craft, and everything where Craft is good at is a pain and takes time to recreate in nova (the tool is an admin that has some cms capabilities, but is really far form Craft).
  So I ended up with two applications, Craft for content editing, and Laravel + nova for the custom part.
  
  Is it a good idea ? Or should I put custom parts in custom craft plugins ? Can I do *eveything*, I guess like yii apps ?
  
  In my current situation, I fear that I will end up with more complexity, making the two applications communicate seamlessly will take time, maybe mix authentifications,...
  In the other hand, I have the impression to really own the codebase and database with a barebone laravel app, than putting everything into Craft, as good as he is. But it's maybe a noob assumption.
  
  What in your experience is the best way to go ?
  
  Thanks for your inputs !
  
  **Tags:** plugin-development
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2020-06-05. Score: 2
  
  In my company we work with Craft and Laravel only, so this question comes up quite often and is a moving target as time passes and both platforms evolve.
  
  Since Craft is built on Yii you can do almost everything what you can do with Laravel. You have basically 3 options here: Craft-only, Nova-only or a hybrid. I would ask myself at least the following questions to make a decision:
  
  * Do you need to write a lot of tests for the business logic? -> even though Craft caught up on testing, still +1 for Nova and Laravel
  * Is the editorial part of the application really trivial? Like, can you avoid having complexity in the editorial *and* business logic part of the application? -> +1 for the hybrid
  * Do both parts of the application really *have* to communicate with each other? Can you avoid a shared user authentication? (should generally considered as last option IMO) -> +1 for the hybrid
  * What about integrations, are there plugins/packages available that you can use right away? -> depends on the research
  * Is there any show stopper for the business logic part regarding Craft? (Arbitrary example: You need a multi-tenancy architecture, don't take Craft-only.)
  
  So in the end the good news is, there is not necessarily a right or a wrong answer here. The bad news is, either way you go you'll always feel like: "What if I had..."
  
  You see, personally I lean more towards Laravel for custom application development, just because I am more comfortable with it than with Yii. I would definitely consider to take the advantages of both platforms in exchange for a bigger code base and maintenance effort. But only if one application part can be dumb and the other complex.
  
  Maybe now you are even more uncertain than before :)
  
  
  ---
  
  