Why you should build your own framework but you shouldn’t use it
Tags: programming, webdev, discuss
Published: 2023-05-14 20:24:55

Building your own web framework can be a rewarding experience for any developer. Not only do you gain a deeper understanding of how web development works, but you also have the potential to create a tool that can be used in your own projects.

However, the question remains: should you use the framework you just built in your production projects? While it might be tempting to do so, I believe there are compelling reasons why you shouldn't.

I want to share with you my experience of building my own framework, the challenges I faced, and why I ultimately decided not to use it for my production projects. By the end of this article, you'll have a better understanding of why building your own framework is a valuable learning experience, but why you should stick to using established frameworks for your production work.

When I started learning Laravel, I decided to create my own framework from scratch. I wanted to understand how Laravel worked under the hood, and I thought it would be a good way to learn. I spent countless hours researching and coding, and eventually, I had my own custom framework up and running.

At first, I was excited to start using my new framework for all my projects. But as I began to use it more and more, I realized that it had a lot of flaws. There were bugs I hadn't noticed, features that didn't work as intended, and performance issues that slowed down my applications.

I tried to fix these issues, but it quickly became apparent that maintaining my own framework was a full-time job. I was spending more time fixing my framework than actually building applications. And every time I fixed one issue, another one seemed to pop up.

That's when I realized that building your own framework is a great way to learn, but it's not necessarily the best way to build software. Frameworks like Laravel and Symfony are widely used and well-tested, and they have a large community of developers contributing to their development. By using one of these established frameworks, you can focus on building your application rather than maintaining your framework.

Building your own web framework can be a fun and challenging project, but when it comes to production work, stability is key. Your clients rely on you to deliver a stable and reliable system that meets their needs. By using established frameworks like Laravel or Symfony, you can leverage the years of development and testing that have gone into these projects to create a more stable system.

Of course, that's not to say that building your own framework is a waste of time. On the contrary, building your own framework can be an incredibly rewarding experience that teaches you a lot about web development. Just don't expect to use it for production applications. Instead, use it as a learning tool to gain a deeper understanding of how frameworks work.

In conclusion, building your own framework can be a valuable learning experience, but it's not the best way to build software. Instead, use an established framework like Laravel or Symfony for your production applications. By doing so, you can focus on building great applications without getting bogged down by framework maintenance.